GOOD GARDENING

 During his 40-year career as a garden writer and photographer, Derek Fell has designed numerous garden spaces, many involving his wife Carolyn. The best example of their work can be seen at their home, historic Cedaridge Farm, in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. There, they have designed more than twenty theme areas, including shade gardens, sunny perennial borders, tapestry gardens involving trees and shrubs, a cottage garden, herb garden, cutting garden and an ambitious water garden.   Derek worked as a consultant on garden design to the White House during the Gerald Ford Administration. Derek designed Ford's 'Win' garden, following his 'Win Speech', advising the nation ten ways to fight inflation. Many garden designs by Derek Fell have been implemented without inspecting the site. The great late architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed beautiful homes for his clients, entirely from photographs without the need for a site inspection. Fell's garden spaces have been fe...

Each gardener has his or her own set of gardening guidelines that correspond to certain predetermined gardening styles. If you know your gardening style and if you can apply that style to creating an organic garden, then you have pretty much captured an edge over other gardening enthusiasts. But, if you do not have a gardening style that you can apply to organic vegetable growing, then you could be at a strong disadvantage. What are the different styles of gardening that actually apply to successful organic vegetable harvesting? Here are some of the types that you could consider:   Residential Gardening This is the most common of all gardening techniques. It is often referred to as "backyard gardening". If you are just a novice and not seasonally experienced in vegetable gardening, then residential gardening is your best approach. The primary purpose of the residential garden is to feed a family. A steady supply of home grown vegetables can not only feed your family now, if y...

 Statues and images of the Buddha have been placed in the grounds of temples and gardens since ancient times and gardening has strong associations with Buddhism: It is believed that; The Soil of the garden represents the fertile ground of Buddha's Mind. A Sangha (Pali for Buddhist community) is the same as community of plants in the garden. Dhamma (teachings of the Buddha) is the expression of wisdom that is in the Temple - Garden.   If a garden can be regarded as a mind then: Paths represent the ways to enlightenment. The soil represents the state of our own internal Karma. It's planting represents fertile and blossoming ideas. The changing seasons represent of the changing moods of the mind. Eastern tradition also suggests that the Buddha should not face south, as this is associated with Yama, a Hindu god and judge of the dead. North is the preferred direction when placing Buddha statues in the garden. Buddhist gardens Pure Land Buddhism The making of Buddhist gardens in Jap...

 Things to keep in mind for a beautiful garden Main principles on the garden's design Bring the Japanese feeling into your garden with these basic steps. First of all, embrace the ideal of nature. That means, keep things in your garden as natural as possible, avoiding to include things that could disrupt this natural appearance.   For example, don't include square ponds in your design as square ponds are nowhere to be found in nature. Also, a waterfall would be something closer to what exists in nature if we compare it to a fountain. So you also have to consider the Japanese concept of sumi or balance. Because one of Japanese gardening design main purposes is to recreate large landscapes even in the smallest place. Be careful when choosing the elements for your garden, because you don't want to end up filling your ten by ten courtyard with huge rocks. As a miniaturized landscape, the rocks in the garden would represent mountains and the ponds would represent lakes. A space ...

Garden design is a very personal thing and is often an expression of your personality. What I like you, you may not and vise versa. Some people like neat and tidy gardens where there are no surprises, others love the thrill of windy paths, lots of different plant material and not knowing what is around the corner. There are three main styles of gardens formal, semi formal and informal. They can then be divided into many types of gardens and that depends on what you would like. Garden design can be intimately tidied to the style of your house as in example of the grand french chateaux where the geometric patterns of the garden mimic the geometric construction of the house or it can have no connection to your house at all.   Some people are lucky and have this innate gift of knowing how to design space, making it a pleasing place to be in. Others don't have this gene and find it very difficult to visualise how the space will work. To create a good design it is important you understan...

 Gardens are not only for lawns and household play fields, but can also be perfect locations for storage sheds wherein one can just basically stock unused household stuffs in the shed. As part of the entire house exterior, it is only but proper that garden sheds will also look presentable and in-relative to the house's design.   In order not to be a total complete eyesore, garden shed designs should be well-planned. Shed plans should be in harmony with the available space in the garden as well as the design befitting the house's style. Furthermore, garden shed designs should serve its purpose to the owners in general. The following are some basic tips on how to build your garden shed: * Space. Before one make his/her own storage building plans, one has already the estimate of the space where the garden shed will be placed. Aside from the space available, decide also which part of the garden it will be located. Make sure that it will not be located somewhere near the main road ...

The 'Garden Capital of the World' is often how Cornwall is thought of throughout the world. Cornwall enjoys the power of the Gulf Stream with its temperate climate of warm summers, mild and wet winters which in turn allows exotic and rare plants to thrive. Where else can you find so many gardens with history dating back to the Iron Age? As long ago as the early 19th century Cornish gardeners were part of the Victorian plant hunters who collected exotic plants and seeds from all around the world. That gives us what we have today: over 60 fabulous gardens to explore with lush vegetation and sub-tropical theatres of colour brimming with exciting, rare and beautiful plants. Cornwall's gardens are found in our magnificent Castles, Manor Houses, grand Farm Estates, Mill Houses, sheltered valleys, high up on blustery moorland and nestled in woodland and seaside gardens which meet the turquoise hues of the water's edge. Cornwall's gardens are so diverse as they vary in size...