Pergolas are a shady, garden structure whose beginnings date back to ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome, and were common features in early Renaissance gardens throughout Europe. Their primary purpose was to provide shade on walkways, terraces, or pools. The earlier versions were often constructed from stone pillars with wooden cross-beams with a lattice roof. It was common to see ivy, grapevines, or other climbing plants winding around the wood, and filling the open spaces between the lattice. Today they are often constructed from pressure-treated wood or cedar. The many varieties of maintenance-free lumber products are also widely used. They give the look of wood, but never need painting, resist rot, peeling, and fading, and are available in a variety of colors.
A pergola makes a striking accent to any landscaping theme; not only are they eye-catching, but functional as well. Depending on their size, pergolas often become an extension of the main home, and may be used for entertaining, dining, or as a getaway or quiet oasis for reading or enjoying morning coffee.
Ideas for Pergolas:
1. The most common version is a simple post construction with wood cross-pieces or lattice for the roof, and used to cover a deck or patio. It can be painted or stained, and accented with lighting, plants, and other accessories.
2. Install your pergola along the entire length of the house, similar to an awning. It can extend out farther at different points to create interest and seating areas underneath.
3. Use it to cover a hot tub.
4. Place in a random area of the yard to create a shady spot to escape from the afternoon sun. Add a nice little bench, and plant climbing roses or other scented vines nearby. Cover it with tin or shingles, to create extra coverage.
5. Create road appeal by placing your pergola over a front porch in place of a standard roof. Paint or stain it the same color as your shutters or house trim. It won’t entirely keep out the rain, but it will provide a certain amount of shelter, and create an impressive entrance.
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Japanese gardening is much different from the Western style garden. Most would say that a Japanese garden is far more soul soothing and inspires meditation. Japanese gardening is a cultural form of gardening that is meant to produce a scene that mimics nature as much as possible. Using trees, shrubs, rocks, sand, artificial hills, ponds, and flowing water the garden becomes an art form. The Zen and Shinto traditions are both a large part of Japanese gardening and, because of this; the gardens have a contemplative and reflective state of mind.
The basic methods of scenery in are a reduced scale, symbolization, and borrowed views. The reduced scale is the art of taking an actual scene from nature, mountains, rivers, trees, and reproducing it on a smaller scale. Symbolization involves generalization and abstraction. An example of this would be using white sand to suggest the ocean. Borrowed views refer to artists that would use something like an ocean or a forest as a background, but it would end up becoming an important part of the scene.
There are two types of Japanese gardening. The tsukiyami garden is a hill garden and mainly composed of hills and ponds. The hiraniwa, which is the exact opposite of the tsukiyami garden, is a flat without any hills or ponds.
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For homeowners around the world, a big part of owning a home is landscaping the yard. Front yard landscaping or backyard landscaping, the work must be done. While the front yard is important because it’s more visible to neighbors and others who drive by, the backyard is no less important. The backyard is where families and friends gather for barbeques and birthday parties and where some families place their swimming pools. Most backyards are landscaped with careful thought and preparation. Special consideration is put into the positioning of every blade of grass, each decorative stone and all of the species of flowers that beautify a backyard.
Flowers, stones and grass are just some of the ways to landscape a backyard. Large shade trees, waterfalls and herbal gardens are some other ways. The theme of your landscape will depend on your hobbies, interests and goals for your backyard. Backyard landscaping can be a lot of fun, especially when you make it personal. Landscape your yard to reflect your personality and your homes personality. If you and your family like to entertain, add a bar to your back patio. Clean up the barbeque grill and don’t forget the citronella candles to keep the bugs away. Maybe you’ll want to build a croquet course, mini golf course, or put in a sand lot for some sand volleyball. Whatever your preference, make backyard landscaping fun for the whole family.
Keep your family in mind too, when it comes time to maintain the backyard landscaping. Large yards will require a lot more maintenance and grooming. Taking care of the yard can be a nice family activity. You can mow the lawn, pull the weeds and get the kids involved in watering the plants. If you have a fruit tree in your backyard, you’ll probably be spending some time picking up the fallen apples or cherries. And of course, you’ll also need to reserve time to tend to your herbal garden. It can be surprisingly rewarding to grow your own herbs and use them in special recipes that you cook when you’re entertaining friends and neighbors.
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Dirt has always been one of the kids’ best toys, so home gardening could just be one fun activity for your children. Excite them by allowing them to pick whichever plant they want to grow. Here are some tips to help you make your little ones become enthusiastic with home gardening.
1. Choose the right plants
Kids will more likely choose plants and flowers with bright colors, so have a load of varieties of plants. Examples of bright flowers are zinnias and cosmos; these will keep your children fascinated. Don’t forget the sunflowers. Anything that is tall and fuzzy will surely overwhelm a kid. Make sure these plants will not cause any allergic reactions from your kid.
2. Starting seeds
Give your children the freedom to help you with the staring seeds. Some seeds might be too small for the tiny fingers, but their digits can be of help in covering them with dirt.
3. Home Gardening Memoir
To last the kids’ enthusiasm until the plants grow, make them create a home gardening journal. This activity will allow them to use their imagination to sketch on what the plants will be like and write down when they placed in the ground the seeds and when they first witnessed a sprout pushing up.
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06 May 2011
