Sitting or strolling in the garden and watching children play is easily the most enervating experience that you can have in your life, particularly later in the life. When you are young, you are unlikely to develop gardening as a hobby (Unless you grow with persons having this as a hobby), but in case you have not developed it (yet) you might need some assistance. You might need assistance if

• You are the romantic types who just walks in the garden,
• You are a down to earth person but cannot bend to that level
• You are do things all by yourself but garden is not your area at all

Landscape or lawn service is one of top services with the best growth rate since late 1990s. The service rose to prominence in the aftermath of World War II, when the housing in USA grew into prominence and large acreage of land was subdivided in to small parcels of land almost overnight. The urban area became cluster of houses of 4 to 10 acres of land and people were more attracted to cities but had a large area to tend

During the late 1080s and early 1990s, the land became available and the economic conditions of the city persons grew. The ‘me too’ and ‘better than thou’behavior shifted the tiling of the land from earthworms to experts and the services of the landscape services, landscaping design and maintenance work experts came up by the dozens, some good some not so good. All of them named themselves experts but there was a little to distinguish them. These days however you can know if you are dealing with an expert or otherwise by the following signs in the office

The service provider has a list of reference that you can check on

The service provider can show you the actual photographs of the place he/she maintains and can take you there and show you the work standards

‘Seeing’ is ‘believing’. Do not award the contract unless you see the work yourself.

What You Can Expect From Landscape Services Contractor

A landscape service contractor should be able to give you many things from his/her experience. The contractor will be expected study your house from the following angles and give you the best looking garden

• The area of your garden (and of course the budget you have in mind)
• Location of your house and its surroundings
• The conditions of your lawn as it is now
• The weather conditions in your area over the entire year.
• The plants and trees you would like to grow and whether they are available locally or have to be imported and require special care.

You might require a different service if you are starting from scratch than from one if you want to just maintain the garden and improve on it. If you have a large tract of land available and you would like it to be developed to your taste as your garden, you will need a different service than just maintaining your garden.

In case of a new garden, you will expect the contractor to do the designing of tract of land to your imagination and make it look like the garden of your dreams. You might require the contractor to add hillocks where there are none and make a large pool of water where there is none at present.

The contractor will take your ideas, your dreams and will turn them into reality. In addition, the contractor will give his/her views on the matter and discuss the same with you. If you way off in your dreams (and do not have the money to back it up), the contractor will bring you back to reality by making a cost estimate

Once you approve the cost estimates, the contractor will show you how your dream garden will look like by making a presentation and showing the picture by using computer software. At this stage if you want any changes, you can still make them, it might not cost you the earth, but once you have started the job, later on, any changes will cost you and sometimes you might have to pay through nose

Maintenance Contracts

Once you have built your garden to your taste, you might think of awarding annual maintenance contracts for your garden. This might include the lawn mowing and garden taken together. Alternatively, you can also make provisions for the landscape lawn mowing services and award the garden service to someone else.

The maintenance service contractor is expected to suggest changes to your garden as he/she sees it fit and make your garden more beautiful than it is now. If the changes are minor, the service contractor might make them free of cost as a part of ongoing work or might charge you an additional amount.

Landscape seeding services can also be given separately or along with landscape lawn services. Combining the services has some financial gains but separation of the seeding services and service contracts can make difference in the quality of the work.

Make sure that if you have fruit bearing trees in your garden, the output from this garden is included in the performance indicator of your garden. When this is done, the contractor can be judged by the amount of fruits you have grown in your garden.

Landscape service As A Profession

You too can become a landscape service professional. It will be better with a college degree in engineering (civil engineering is preferred) or an architectural degree. You need to be a good artist and need to have a vision of what a landscape will look like when completed. This coupled with the basic knowledge in engineering; you can start with a great career as a landscape designer.

Just to get the financial stability and get some knowledge and skill of dealing with people (Remember you will be dealing with people all the time), you can start up as a trainee and go ahead full steam with your career after getting experience.

As a trainee, you can expect $45 to $70 per hour and the principals might get over $100 per hour. Licensed persons working with landscaping artists can expect to receive six-figure income in the second or the third year itself. These are not just off the cuff figures. The average salary for the landscape artists was about $44,000 during the first half decade of the twenty-first century.

You have made a nice house for yourself. You have taken care to see that your house is the best in the neighborhood and have chosen everything in the house with care to make it stand out from the rest during the day. To make it distinctive even during the night you will need lighting, the out door landscape lighting.

When You Need OutDoor Lighting

You will need out door lighting when you have a large mansion with a large area and good lawn around it. You are not likely to need outdoor lighting when you have an apartment and no open space around your house.

The need for the out door lighting will be independent of the area available outside of your house. It does not matter if your house has an open space of 1 acre or 15 acres around your house. The area just around your house has to stand out from the rest of the houses so that your house has that distinctive touch even during nighttime when sunlight is not available and the color scheme of your house cannot make it distinctive.

Planning Residential Landscape Lighting

You have put great amount of money in your house and spared no efforts in planning of the house. Are you going to waste these efforts by not planning your landscape lights? Landscape lighting needs planning, just as the lighting effects inside your house, and all the planning should start when the house is yet to be built up.

Planning your landscape lighting after you have built up your house is a difficult (if not impossible) work. Totality in planning has advantages over the piecemeal planning. (This is true of all planning)

Tips On Planning

It does not matter if you are doing planning for the landscape lighting yourself or someone else is doing it for you. You will be more knowledgeable if you read the following tips and profit from it if you discuss them with your consultants for out door lighting.

The idea is to make your house and its immediate surroundings distinctive during the night. The idea is not to have just lighting for the landscape.

Some of the landscapes like the fountains and waterfalls are to be highlighted during the night so your house becomes distinctive. Therefore, decide the portion of the landscape you wish to highlight during the night

Decide the mood for landscape. During night, the landscape should have its own identity. The moon and other natural light should add to the moon light and should not take away anything from it.

Safety of persons should have a prominent say while planning your landscape lighting. It is better to be safe than being sorry. Use of low voltage lighting equipments adds to the safety of lighting.

The function of the place where you are arranging for landscape lighting is to be kept in mind while planning. If you have plans for large parties in the garden, plan the lighting in such a way that if you have a party, you can switch on more lights if you need.

Residential lighting and the landscape lighting should compliment one another and one should not be jarring on the other. The area can have lighting just for accentuating the mood of night. The areas on the sides of your house can be very brightly lit if it has large areas and it can reflect the light on to your garden.

Have separate circuits for the various areas of your garden so that you can switch on or off your areas where you wish to have lighting.

Plan, Plan And Plan

It is said that you if you fail to plan, you are planning for failure. Therefore, Plan, plan and plan is the Mantra. This is also true of the landscape lighting plans.

When you plan, decide the mood of your garden.

• Moods Of Garden: There can be many moods of your garden and the moods can change during the day and night. During the night the mood can be somber, romantic or the party mood.

• Somber Mood: Somber mood can bebest depicted by the lighting the place all over with smaller lights. The lighting effects from such lighting can be good lighting all over the place but none of the spots will be brightly lit.

• Romantic Mood: Romantic mood is best accentuated with moon lighting supported by individual lighting of spots with minimal lighting. None of the lights should be very strong, at the same time all of them should spread light either on ground in the sky. Light on the ground is preferable for making a romantic mood.

• Party Mood: Party mood is best with bright lights in a small area. The party lights make the whole area visible and lively. The arrangements for brining on the party mood should be included in your plan, and the lighting circuit should be separate so you can switch on and off your party mood.

Lighting Specific Areas

Some areas in your garden require more lighting from safety point of view than other areas. The walking paths and promenades are the areas where the lighting needs to be provided for safety. Such areas can be best lit up with Malibu landscape lighting kits. These can be low voltage landscape lighting. The areas can be safely lit with smaller circuits.

Malibu Landscape Lighting Kits

Malibu Lighting kits are best for lighting the walk paths in your garden and making the area well lit at the same time preserving the romantic mood. The Malibu kits direct the light towards the ground and keep the area well lit as well as safe to walk

If you wish to have particular areas in your landscape highlighted by the lighting, you would better use the Kichler landscape lighting kits. These kits direct the light towards your area of interest and other areas are cut off. The appearance of the waterfall or fountain can be increased with Kichler landscape lighting appliances.

Therefore, an imaginative planning and use of lighting can effectively change the mood of your landscape during night. You can switch between various moods just by flicking on some switches if you plan your landscape lighting effectively.

Why install the edges in the garden? The clean edges given by the edges make the garden look more beautiful than it is without edges. The overall effect of the flowerbeds merging into the lawn is accentuated by the clean lines provided by the edging. The color combination can also be changed by use of imaginative edge color. The overall look of the garden changes when you have garden colorful garden edges

Framing Your Garden

The edging material is a bit like the picture frame. It increases the value of the picture and keeps it in good condition for a long time. If the picture frame is colorful, the whole picture looks better and the same can be said about the edging materials in the garden.

The material should have a width comparable to the picture size and should add to the beauty of the picture without riveting the attention on the frame itself. Some of the edging materials discussed on these lines.

Edging Materials for Landscaping

Edge material can be anything from cut out tree stumps to thin metal edges and anything in between. The variety of material available in market can overwhelm you or bewilder you.

Concrete Landscape Edging

Concrete edging is being used since long in the gardens for separating the lawns and flowerbeds. The material is versatile and can be put in shape by even untrained individual with a minimal training.

With color mixes available, edging in any color is possible. If finished properly, the concrete edging looks good and stays in position for a long time without degrading. The long life and the possibility of being repainted with cement color or acrylic colors make it a cost effective solution. picture by madisonblockandstone.com

On the down side, the minimum width of concrete is about 4 inches and therefore it is not very suitable for the small gardens. The concrete edging with curves requires skilled persons to make it look good. The color mixes in the concrete fades with passage of time and requires to be painted again after some time.

Preformed Concrete Bricks

Interlocking preformed concrete bricks is another substitute for concrete edging material. The bricks are made in molds. The bricks are made under pressure and have good tensile stress. The bricks are of uniform shape & size and can be interlocked.

Interlocking capability makes the installation of bricks easier and therefore no skill is required in setting the bricks in position. The bricks can be had in many color and design and therefore your garden will have a different feel if use the bricks.

Since the die used can be made easily, customizing the bricks is easy and you can even select your own design if you give a large order.

On the down side, the custom design makes it difficult for maintenance. Unless you have ordered and kept the custom-made bricks in your stock, you will not be able to change a broken brick or a line of bricks. With weather, the bricks laid in position changes color and even if you have a replacement brick with you, the replaced brick stands out.

Wooden Edging

Wooden fencing has been in vogue for a very long time and it was not surprising that this material was used for edging too. Wooden edging material is used when you wish to have a rustic appearance to your garden and when you wish that the lines between the lawn and the border not very distinct.

The wooden edging consists of smaller stumps of wood, and is best for keeping the decaying vegetative material to where it belongs, that is within the close vicinity of the bigger trees, and not allow it to go on the lawn where it might not look good. The smaller stumps have a height of about 6 to 8 inches above the ground and can be painted if you so desire. Wood can also be purchased in sheet form for use as an edging material. The sheets are thinner in width and can be bent in shape and fixed in ground permanently.

On the downside, the stumps do not look very god compared to other material and since it remains near a source of water, the painting is not a very attractive option. The diameter of the stumps makes it as unsuitable for gardens that are smaller. The painting also becomes a recurring maintenance problems adding to the coast and effort of maintenance.

Steel Landscape Edging Material

The edging can be made long lasting and made colorful if it is made of steel. Steel bands can be used for the edging and are very effective. The steel edging materials are also long lasting and remain colorful for a long time and require very less maintenance.

Steel or other metals edging material can be made out of painted steel or stainless steel strips or other metals, but generally stainless steel is widely used. The painted material lasts as long as the stainless steel and rarely requires painting. Once fitted in ground the possibility of removal is remote and once removed it might need replacement altogether.

Both the painted material and stainless steel material can be made available in thinner sections and can be put in position with help of clips. This ensures that the bands or the strips can be fixed by individuals with little knowledge of working with metals.

Metal landscape edging material is preferred by professional gardeners, as it is best in look and can be fixed up easily. When fixed it can also retain water and not allow it to go other places. Places where the water retention is a major consideration, the edging material is driven deeper into the soil and water seepage avoided.

The downside of metal landscape edging material is the high cost of material but the beauty of steel edging material gives your garden a look that cannot be achieved with other materials. The thinner sections make it as an ideal material for smaller gardens.

Plastic Materials

Plastic materials can replace the steel edging materials at a fraction of cost of the steel materials and can look as good at the start. The look of plastic is not liked by many and it is perhaps preferred only as a low cost alternative. The plastic can age quickly and heat of the sun can make it crack early if the material is not protected against it. Chlorinated PVC is a good material for edging and has resistance to aging action by sun’s rays.

Kwik-Kerb

Have you heard of kwik-kerb®? This is a unique way to make curbing the way you want and curbing can have many designs and shape. Your curbing work will be complete before you know it and it will change the look of your garden.

There are many competitors for the kwik-kerb and many of them are equally effective, if not more. You can get many styles, shapes, and colors. Borderline Stamp Inc is another name that comes to mind easily and there are many more. You can also find the curbing contractors listed in yellow pages.

You can also have a unique design for you if you insist on making your garden with the stamp of your personality.

Overall Curbing Solutions

Curbing is not the end all of activity. It is best decided with other activities around your house. It is generally the pre-final activity after the roads have been laid and before the garden takes shape. This way the digging in the garden is permissible but large-scale digging after the curbing is laid is not generally accepted.

The concrete curbs are firmly fixed in to the ground and removing the curbstones is not a desired activity. The last activity is gardening and this might require large-scale digging. During this time, there is a possibility of the curbing being discolored and thus you should select the curbing material in such a way that the colors can be restored quickly and easily.

Related: This is the complementary part of the main article entitled landscape curbing ideas

Landscape Curbing As Business Idea

You can also have the landscape curbing developed as a business idea. There are many manufacturers of landscape curbing machines. These manufacturers can train you in the use of their machines, you can have a new business with the least infusion of capital, and good returns from the investment your efforts. If you have ideas, there are immense possibilities. You will be your own boss and make money the way you like it.

When you curb an area, the lines are drawn and the areas are separated and distinctly marked. Curbing is also necessary to ensure that the vehicles do not intrude on the lawns and keep them safe. Read All about the curbing in this article

You have a good house and very good garden around it. You also have promenades in your garden, and you can walk on the garden paths. The garden and the lawn you have developed is one point you wish to talk about almost continuously. However if there is a possibility of a guest’s car treading the lawn by mistake.

If you wish to avoid such malfunctions and add beauty to your garden at the same time, you will welcome such idea with open arms.

Fortunately, such ideas need not remain just a wish. You can have a garden developed on the clean lines. You can separate the motoring area from the walking area and prevent the mix up of the lawns and motoring area.

Curbing An Area

Area separation is the primary reason of putting the curbs. When you do not wish intrusion in an area, you curb it. In fact, the word curb means control and a curb controls the entry into the area.

The curbing can be done with many construction materials like bricks, stones. Even flat products like marble slabs, and other like products can be used. However, the flat products are not very popular for making a curb or kerb as it is spelled sometimes.

Photo by Kwik Kerb

Landscape curbing can really increase the beauty of your house and its surroundings. The curved lines and the overall effect created by the flowing curb lines give you house the unique look.

This is like adding to a frame to the pretty picture your house creates. The following tips would be worth discussing with your contractor before finalizing the design of the curb and overall planning of the garden:

1. Straight lines should be avoided at all times. The flowing and curved lines add beauty to your landscape and straight lines add rigidity to the picture.
2. The width of curbing material should be proportional to the width of road or the walkway. Smaller width roads should have leaner curbs and larger width roads can have broader curbs but it is preferable to have curbs of same size throughout the landscape if this is possible.
3. The landscape curbing color should match the overall color scheme of the surroundings of the house. The curbing should have the same color throughout the area so as not to distract the attention from the landscaping to the curbs. The curbs have to be attractive but the stress should be more on the garden than the curb or the road itself.

Remember it is just a picture frame and not the picture itself. Landscape curbing coloring can be understood if you can get a computer generated picture of the site before the site is dug up for curbing. You can then have a look at the overall look of the site and decide the color scheme of the garden, the roads, and the curbing.

Continue reading in lawnmania about tools and equipment for a successful curbing

This way you can finalize the landscape look even before your machines start working in the area around your house. Remember that the garden can change the look with different plants during a season and plan the look of the curbing. Jarring colors of landscape curbing cannot be changed easily.

1. The areas with flowing water should have a bit higher curb to prevent the water getting into dry areas. This is required as a matter of safety. Make sure ensure that water does not get into areas not intended to have water. This can be effectively done by curbing the area.
2. Avoid intricate design in the curb. With dirt getting inside the intricate designs, the possibility of moss formation is more with intricate designs. This can lead to slippery areas in your garden
3. You can have double boundaries and this can separate the lawn and the plants around the lawns. This eases the process of lawn maintenance.

The front yard design differs from the back yard in many ways. The first yard is the showpiece that you would like to show to your guests and all others that would visit your house.

• It will also consist of the driveway, porch, and the entrance to your house
• The front will have a very nice view of your garden and the lawns you have developed
• The front lawn should actually look more than it is. This can be done by use of flowing water and using lot of curves. The curved lines and a long driveway enclosing a small garden, will make the garden look as if the garden is bigger than it is.
• The color scheme of the front yard can contribute to the overall look of the yard design.
• The swimming pools are normally not a part of the front portion of your garden. The privacy of persons using the pool is a prime consideration for this. The tennis court and other sports area can be a part front yard. It generally kept on sides and not exactly in the front. Playing area is not enclosed by the driveway.
• Arches and decorative sculptures can be a part of the front yard landscape. Such options add to the beauty of front yard but reduce the available space for the yard and make the yard smaller than it really is.

Back yard Landscape

Back yard design is essentially the utility arrangement and effervescence and the energy of the front yard is missing in the back yard design. The fruit bearing trees and the shady trees dominate the back yard designs.

The swimming pools and the attendant filtering equipments are to be shielded from public view. The tennis courts can be put in the back yard if you do not have enough space on the sides of the house.

Since the back yard designs tend to be more of utility value than showpieces the back yard tend to be more congested than the front yard designs and the limitations of space at the back yard might make it smaller than it actually is.

The back yards can also have the space for moonwalks for the romantically inclined persons. Since the back yard is usually blocked from view of all persons, it is ideal for the entry of all supplies. The back yard usually has a door through which all the supplies to your house may be admitted.

Landscape Designers

The piece of land you have just purchased is just that, a piece of land. Although you love it, the piece of land cannot generate any emotions in your mind since you have not developed any emotional bond with that parcel of land. The dream that connects you with land is the future use that you have with this land.

To bring the dream into reality, you have to seek help from the professionals in this area. The landscape designers can convert your dream in reality. They are trained to do this.

photo by Billy Martin's 'Wigandia'

The Process Of a Landscape Design

The process of landscape design starts with client and landscape design professional coming together in a meeting. In the first meeting, the designers ask for the details of your dram and hence you should tax your imagination and be able to explain your dream in words.

The translator of your dreams in to actual practice will listen to your words and with the help of computer animation, can translate the dreams into pictures that you can see just as you can see them into reality.

In this picture, you will be able to see the hillocks, the water pools, the driveway and the total impact of your dreams translated into reality.

The landscape designers will consider many things before they transform the dream into reality. Some of these factors are

photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/brewbooks/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

1. Your budget: This is the most important part of the decision making process. You on your part should be able to bring in enough money so the drams can be transformed into reality
2. The Location: The location plays an important part in making the dreams in reality. Even the orientation of your house may be an important factor in deciding the way sunlight or moon light filters in your garden.
3. Your property versus that of the neighbor, and your prescription of one-upmanship over that of neighbors
4. Special feature of your piece of land and the height of land over the surrounding If you are situated in a low lying area, you could change the design to accept that fact.
5. The style of your house: Whether it is bungalow, duplex house Tudor or a single storied house
6. Changes to your building in the near future: even changes to the color schemes of your house may become an important factor in the new scheme of things
7. Your hobbies in gardening: The time you wish to spend in garden is also important
8. The allergies that your family has may influence an important decision in your garden. If you have an allergy for a particular fragrance, it could be avoided in the garden
9. The mount of privacy you wish to have in your garden and house

Once all these points are answered by you and the results tabulated, the process of transforming your landscape into your dream starts.

Garden Landscaping

The design of garden whether in the front or in the back yard is expected to give you the peace of mind. The shady trees and the fruit bearing trees generally do not form the front entrance of the buildings. The garden design will also be influenced by the way the sunlight filters in your yard, as the sunlight is necessary for good growth of the flowering trees.

Read more in lawnmania about front or backyard landscape design

Design Ideas

The worst thing you can do while planning your garden is no planning at all and substitution of form for utility. The garden is a showpiece no doubt, but the effective use of the space is more important than the show value. If you give more credence to the show value, you might feel elated at the start but in the end, the utility value of the space will always win in the end. The landscape design ideas should have more of utility value rather than the show value.

photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/brewbooks/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

Therefore bounce your ides about the showpiece value of land against the utility value of your garden and you will get many more ideas coming from within your mind.

However, sadly, so often we lose out on a number of such chances and many such opportunities simply because we do not focus on the right things. You could definitely use foresight and personal indulgence when it comes to addressing garden features. There is a lot to be gained by not rushing with concepts.

Gardening is a laid back hobby; one that gives you ample of time to focus and give full vent to your creativity. You should not do anything in haste, and most importantly, the early planning stages. Staying very calm is the key requirement here and to focus properly on what you are doing.

You need to take into consideration some of the minute aspects which we sometimes do not really bother about. Nor should one be too despondent or get too bothered if the soil is not right or if the site has cold winds blowing around most of the time. Of course these are factors of concern.

If the site is overlooked by some buildings which are very old and other things which do not really make a pleasant sight or you could say other eyesores, putting in a little bit of thought could help in this case. The point is that the  soil can always be improved  for which two things are required; you need to put in a lot of effort to help rejuvenate soil quality and the second essential factor is money. The wind factor can be taken care of by planting the right kind of trees or also by hedging plants intelligently. You should screen plants.

This works wonders where blots or certain things on or around the landscape need to be hidden. You can work upon the degree of privacy when it is not really enough.

One of the best conifers for this kind of job is undoubtedly the attractive Cuprcssocypurix leylzmdii.

It is the fastest growing evergreen known to the world of gardening. To sum up, one should always, in my opinion, give top priority to making the garden suit the site.

Secondly, the garden should meet the requirements of other members of the family, and, thirdly, the garden should be planned in such a way that it needs minimum upkeep.

Above all, plan the garden so that it will give the family pleasure over many years. Photocredit:avlxyz

The garden needs to be planned with special consideration, taking into account certain fixed positions with respect to the house, the entrance gates and side walks. You should also consider the drive, and any trees previously planted that are still present on the site. With regards to trees, it is true that almost always; these are an asset to any garden, new or old. Trees provide the garden with focal points and a look of maturity. The garden acts as a release zone to the family. There are more ways than one to work upon softening the boundaries and beautifying the garden.

It is important to remember that trees in private gardens may have a preservation order on them. This involves getting the required permission from the local authorities prior to any tree in this category can be felled or pruned. Of course, there are some forest trees that can completely dominate a small garden. If this is the case then there is hardly any alternative to having the trees felled. This is the only way by which you will be able to derive any value of the existing garden.

Garden Path Ideas

With the fixed positions marked, the next thing is to decide on the paths. Any part of the garden which requires you to visit a particular patch, demands a permanent path.

It is preferably made of stone, if brick is to be avoided due to the cost aspect, or of asphalt, concrete or ashes. The material needs to be laid on hardcore. The manner in which the garden is planned and the planting is executed plays a very important role in the final design. The line of the boundary and other prominent garden features help to enhance the look of the available garden space and be at your creative best. The gardening ideas need to ripple on to the basics, like soil and manure too.

Some of the taller kinds should be selected to provide height where this is needed. In the case of a flat-looking garden, the selection should be one to enhance the look of the whole garden, while tall trees should be avoided at all costs.

A good gardener always strives to maintain a careful balance between the various types of trees and shrubs-evergreen and deciduous, flowering, berry plants and also those with decorative foliage.

The smaller the garden area, the more care must be taken to make the right choice of trees and shrubs. It is very important to give size, in particular, special consideration. This is because in the case of over-large specimens, the overall proportions and look of the garden are destroyed.

lt is common to see forest trees such as limes, poplars and elms planted even in small town gardens. However, inevitably, these have to be mutilated by severe pruning to keep them within bounds. Most small gardens should consider smaller- growing ornamental plant kinds. There is no shortage of the ornamental plants and shrubs.

Apart from the mutilation referred to, there are two other reasons why it is unwise to plant large trees in confined places. They not only rob an undue proportion of the garden of light, moisture and plant foods, but even the roots have the tendency of damaging the very foundations of the house and the drains.

For small gardens, narrow and columnar trees such as Primus Amzinogawa have special value and offer much respite in place of the missing walk and drive-way.

There are a number of aspects that need to be considered when planning a garden. There should be a perfect balance between all the features incorporated. Right from the choice of plants to the concrete features, the garden should be themed and planned in a way that highlights creativity and not chaos. A well balanced garden highlights the exteriors of the home and adds to property value. Gardening is an art that can be developed in the case of an existent space that does not offer much area for experimentation. A well balanced garden is one in which the home, the garden space and the interiors blend into one another.