Decorate Ideas

How do you take a boring backyard and transform it into something special? Add a water feature. Water features can transform the ordinary into something incredible as well as hide road noise creating a peaceful and tranquil environment. So all you have to decide is what kind of feature you want. Here are some of the options.

Fountains
Garden fountains are one of the easiest water features to add to your yard. Most home improvement stores and garden centers will carry do it yourself kits. Choose from a large variety including stand alone fountains and those that hang on your wall. All you have to do to install it is position the fountain, fill it with water and plug in the fountains pump. If you want to get creative, you could even make your own fountain out of new or old pots, a little bit of plastic tubing and a small water pump.

Ponds
Ponds involve a little more work but are still easy to do in the hands of a competent do it yourselfer. Once again, kits are readily available from your home improvement or garden center. To put in a pond you will have to first dig a hole in a suitable location. Ponds are normally only a few feet deep but it is still a lot of work to dig out all of that soil. Next you will either line the hole with a flexible pond liner or insert a formed hard plastic liner. Then add rocks and a pond filtration system. After treating the water, you can then add plant life and even fish if you so desire.

Waterfalls
If you want more than a basic pond, you could try installing a waterfall. This installation is a little more complicated and you might want to consult a professional landscaper. It does take some experience to plan out the flow of water on a waterfall.

Waterfalls are also an excellent feature to add to an existing swimming pools landscaping. They will make an ordinary pool a sight to behold.
With all of the options, it can be hard to decide what type of water feature to add to your yard. Go over your options and choose the type that best fits your budget and your do it yourself experience level.

For more information on landscaping visit the Lawn Service Directory.

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So you have decided to do some landscaping! It is the end result that counts. You can turn your yard into a very beautiful, comfortable and quiet location or with some disastrous mistakes you can end up with a mess. With the proper planning and some patience, avoiding some common mistakes can make the entire project proceed without many problems and give you the result you have always wanted.

To start, you should come up with a drawing or plan of what you would like your design to look like. This is one of the most important steps of all. Draw up a general idea of what you would like, and ask questions, lots of questions and do your research. Your local garden center would be more that willing to help you with your plans and ideas. Using the internet is another option to most people today.

If you do not have internet access, go to your local library where you can review gardening books or access the internet. Talk to experts who can answer most of your questions before you get started. If you are planning on landscaping a small area, you shouldn’t have any problems doing this small project yourself. But for bigger projects you might want to hire professional landscapers to at least draw out the plans and help you decide how to proceed.

Make sure that you have proper drainage for your landscaping project. Improper drainage can lead to water in your basement, water draining under your driveway, or sitting in pools in your yard. This could lead to even bigger problems with an end result that could cost you thousands of dollars in repairs.

If you need to build a retaining wall to help with drainage, you should first be aware of how your drainage will be affected overall. You will need to know the proper method of installing a retaining wall. And you will need to check with your local municipality to insure you are within the guidelines and laws regarding drainage.

When choosing plants for landscaping make sure you know what planning zone you are in and which plants for that zone are the best for your climate conditions. Some plants will either die from heat or will not be able to survive the harsh cold winters in other zones. Plants can also feed off each other or take away nutrients from each other. Where one hardy plant may grow and flourish, another type plant may be overcome by the more hardy plant.

By the end of summer, beginning of fall, your plants are starting to loose their coloring and are slowly starting to die off for the winter. If you would like to keep some of the color longer it is suggested that you plant some of the following for beautiful fall colors.

- ‘Rudy Haag’ Burning Bush
- Sumac
- Fothergilla
- ‘Tor’ Spirea
- Blackhaw Viburnum
- Bittersweet
- Oakleaf Hydrangea
- Virginia Creeper
- Red Chokeberry
- Viking Black Chokeberry

If you obtain some berry producing plants, you will help feed the birds in the winter time when food is scarce. If you like early blooming flowers and plants in the spring, try to choose plants that can be placed in the fall before the first snow. Try to choose plants that are annuals so they need not be replanted every year.

These are some key points to remember when making important decisions in planning your landscaping ideas. By following the proper guidelines, you landscaping project should be around for a many years. Proper landscaping not only can increase the beauty of your lawn but can increase the value of your property as well.

By following these simply guidelines to you can insure you have few problems during your landscaping projects.

Free landscaping ideas & 2,183 landscaping pictures be sure to visit http://www.landscapingideasonline.com It’s the website landscaping contractors & homeowners use to get landscape design ideas - by Brad Palmer

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Have you ever considered landscaping with rocks? Not only does this add some texture to your garden, but it is also very attractive and doesn’t have to cost the earth. The beauty of using rocks is that you don’t necessarily have to spend a lot on materials, as you might already find you have a wide variety of rocks on your land to begin with.

My wife and I decided to go for landscaping with rocks because we were constantly turning up stones in our garden. The stones came in all manner of shapes and sizes which made it easy to create deep and meaningful displays in simple arrangements.

The first idea we had was to knock up a circle of stones around the four small trees towards the right hand corner or our back yard. Landscaping with rocks around each of the trees really helped to define the space. Each tree had its own little collection of stones circling it, a bit over two feet in diameter.

After that success, we decided to use the flat rocks we kept finding to make a walkway. We found this to be quite different from the tree design, because of the sheer time and effort that was required to uncover the stones and arrange them suitably, particularly because of the bad weather we were experiencing at the time.

Next, We laid a sheet of plastic over the grass and weeds growing by the trees and used the stones we had already laid to weigh it in place. We then put some red mulch over the plastic which gave us a nice, professional look. This high priced look came at very low cost, with the only expenditure being that on the mulch and the plastic sheet.

My wife came up with the idea of digging a small ditch to hammer a spike into numerous parts of the clay earth. This went some way to help the land absorb more water, which was proving to be a problem. We then filled the ditches with gravel and sand, before arranging some stones over the top.

After a great deal of sweat and perseverance, the walkway was completed. This time-consuming task was well worth it in the end and turned out to be quite cheap, apart from the hours of work we put in!

On the whole, landscaping with rocks already in your garden is a cheap way to spruce up your garden and give it a modern feel. The colors and textures of the stones are beautiful and contrasting, and we frequently receive comments from our guests about how nice the garden is looking. We are so happy with our garden now, and especially satisfied that we achieved our goal cheaply and relatively painlessly with resources already on our land.

So why no give it a go yourself. If you’re creative, there are so many things you can achieve when landscaping with rocks. It’ll save you money, and you’ll by happy in yourself, knowing that you’ve really accomplished something that looks so professional off your own back.

For further tips and information about landscaping with rocks and other gardening and lanscaping ideas please visit our website at Landscaping and Gardening

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