Good Design Crucial in Smaller Gardens

Design is important in gardens of any size, but becomes especially important in small gardens. This is because a small garden can be taken in at a glance. First impressions, then, are immediate when to comes to small gardens. For a good impression, you need to have attention to detail go hand-in-hand with simplicity of style.

When planning a garden, work it out on paper first. If it's a dramatic redesign and must be accomplished over several seasons (due to growth cycles and/or financial considerations), you'll need to rely on your blueprint to accomplish your long term goal. Even if you have a fabulous memory, it might help to keep a chronological series of pictures too.

First plan the practical bits, such as hiding any unpleasant or purely functional features (like composts or sheds) and adding trees or tall shrubs as screens for privacy. Once these basic fundamentals are decided on, the rest of your plan can be a "blank slate".

One way to make a small garden appear larger is to draw the eye to a focal point surrounded by well-chosen plants. A small pond with a fountain is a simple feature to add -- but can be stunning visually. The eye can also be led to a prominent bird house or garden ornament or even a small patio with outdoor furniture.

Finally, a variety of plants must be sketched in: the shapes of the shrubs and flowering plants can be as interesting as their colors; while the scents of herbs and other aromatic plants can be as lovely as the blooms themselves. Obviously you'll need to choose where to put shade plants vs sun-loving plants, and you should try to get "activity" for as long as the growing season allows, with staggered blooming seasons.

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Container Gardens with Herbs for Your Patio, Terrace, or Deck

Herbs in pots are nice as accent greenery and because the aroma they give off is lovely. Of course, the added bonus of growing herbs is that you can clip them off to add fresh flavor to your meals!


Parsley, chives and thyme grow well in pots as does rosemary, oregano and sage in all its various shades (golden, purple and variegated). Savory and basil are other popular herbs to add to your container garden.

Herbs are not shade-loving plants and need at least 4 hours (preferably 6) of sunlight per day. If you pinch the ends of the plants off once in a while, it'll help promote growth. Since you'll hopefully be using the herbs in your kitchen, this bit of "pruning" won't be too arduous! Remember too that you can dry the herbs and stick them in the freezer for later use.

Useful and decorative, herbs are also low maintenance plants. They don't require fertilization as a rule and the perennials (like mint, oregano, chives and thyme) will grow back after winter. As with flowers, the amount of water that herbs require varies from plant to plant. However, since outdoor container plants tend to dry out more quickly than those planted in the ground, you'll need to be vigilant with your watering schedule.

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How to Keep Cats Out of Your Garden

Most cats don't like the smell of citrus. If you scatter lemon rinds through your garden (or put out bags of dried orange peels among the plants), the scent can do a lot to keep cats away.

People have used mothballs and cayenne pepper to protect their garden beds from neighborhood cats, but these can cause harm to animals and children, so are not advisable. If the smell of grapefruit peels and the like aren't doing the job, you can also try various oils (including lavender, mustard, and eucalyptus) or even coffee grounds sprinkled among the flowers.

Certain plants can be grown in your garden that are said to help in many cases, rue being at the top of the cat-repellent list with lavender also frequently mentioned. Even the American pennyroyal, which yields an essential oil used as an insect repellent, gives off an odor that cats give a wide berth to, and their purple-blue flowers make a nice color splash.



One gardener said she cut up lengths of hose and placed them around the bushes and plants. She had heard that cats are afraid of snakes and that they'd stay out of her garden if they thought it was full of snakes. No word on whether her "scaresnakes" worked, but it's a good way to recycle old garden hoses.

Of the many commercial cat repellents on the market, one called Shake-Away, sounds promising. The harmless, organic powder is supposed to smell to cats like the urine of predators (fox, coyotes and bobcats). The promise is that you shake the product throughout your garden and no cat will venture in. Another similar product I heard about is called Coyote Urine. With this one, you mix the powder with water and then spray your garden.

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Protecting Your Plants from Frost and Insect or Fungus Damage

There are two main ways to protect your plants in your garden. The protection is against frost and/or insect damage as well as disease. Protective measures are:

1. physical structures; and

2. chemical applications such as insecticides and fungicides.

Covered frames are used not only to protect plants from insects, but also allow heat retention. In this way, you can plant earlier in the season when risk of ground frost might otherwise keep you from planting.

To make a frame, you can use a simple wooden box, with a standard measurement being some eighteen inches to two feet square and about eight inches high. If you don't need the frost protection, then a cover of mosquito netting or mesh should be sufficient for pest protection; while a glass cover or heavy plastic will give you added feature of keeping the plants warm. In fact, many gardeners like to start their vine vegetables like melons and cucumbers, early in the season and they tend to do quite well with this small nursery effect.



If your plants tend to be eaten stem up by cutworms (those notorious garden pests!), try protecting the stems with "collars" made of hard plastic or tin (although the latter can be sharp). If you put a collar around the stems, about an inch into the soil and a few inches high, you should get some pretty good protection for a very low cost.

Before you purchase an insecticide or fungicide, you must determine exactly what the problem is in your garden. Certainly it's best if you don't have to use these chemicals, and can either get rid of the pest or fungus naturally. Remember too that insecticides kill the bugs, while fungicides kill the fungus - neither can actually treat the damaged plants.

If you're not sure what you're dealing with, your local nursery or garden center can often give you expert advice if you bring in a sample of the damaged plant (or the actual insect). For a small garden, you can probably get away with applying the chemical with a hand-held mister (like a typical spray bottle you likely already have in your home). Read the instructions carefully, and make sure you apply the insecticide or fungicide on a calm day with no wind.

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Geraniums - Hardy and Versatile Flowers For Your Garden

The geranium has got to be one of the sturdiest and most versatile plants around.

They are extremely popular in hanging baskets, of course, as well as window boxes, and do quite well in pots (which makes it easy to dress up your patio). Geraniums grow to be quite lush, and so can be the focal point of a garden bed or mixed together with annuals like petunias, vinca vine, lobelia, and verbena. If you ever need an accent or splash of vibrant color in your garden, geraniums will fit the bill.

Although geraniums grow well in part shade, you won't get the prolific flowering that you'll see when they take advantage of full sun exposure. (If you've got no sun to speak of, try coral bells--they're gorgeous and colorful). Geraniums are known to be "heavy feeders", which means they do best if planted in rich soil that is fertilized regularly. Like most plants, too much water can kill geraniums, so let them dry out between waterings.

Some other hardy flowers to remember include the forget-me-nots (which are perfect if your garden tends to be in part shade). Their bright blue blooms are vivid and look very nice when mixed with hardy (not annual) geraniums -- the low mounds that range in color from blue to white and red to pink and purple.

For height in the garden, plant columbines or bleeding hearts. The columbine perennial grow to about three feet tall and their blooms are lovely shades of pink and red. The bleeding hearts (which don't like direct afternoon sun) can grow even taller, and have delicate flowers in several shades.

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Drought-Tolerant Landscaping

Water-conserving or drought-tolerant landscaping, is also known as zeroscaping, and smartscaping, as well as xeriscaping and xerogardening.

Whatever you call it - it's all got to do with gardening with the use of native plants or those that naturally need very little extra water, necessary especially in dry areas, like the western United States. As a matter of fact, apparently the changing climate is making this type of gardening much more popular of late.

You'll see plants like cactus used, of course, but lavender, thyme and juniper are also known to be great xeriscape plants.

Planting the right types of drought-tolerant vegetation is only one part of smartscaping: another is getting out the old rain barrel to collect water. Not only do you conserve water, but you can lower your water bills!

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