Play Areas For Children
Children love their own play area and will especially enjoy a play house, or even a tree house if they are old enough. It is their part of the garden and the chances are that by keeping most of their rough-and-tumble activity in one place, the rest of the garden will remain looking smart and beautiful.
If you have a large garden you have the potential for a small adventure playground. Climbing frames made from rustic poles blend happily into the garden. Chipped bark spread over the ground to soften any falls and prevent slippery, muddy areas. Always make sure such structures are absolutely stable.
A delightful little crooked house, complete with veranda and a cute chimney, built on stilts with a short stairway leading up to it. It is a dream house for a child with imagination. Always make sure elevated structures are absolutely safe, and take advice from a builder if in doubt.
A play house is a young child’s delight, and it may be possible to accommodate one at the end of the patio so that supervision is possible when required. It doesn’t have to be left in the original wood finish. Painting it an attractive colour may transform it into a desirable garden feature and the children will love it, especially if consulted about the colour.
Children’s needs often have to be accommodated within an existing garden, or designed into a new one in a way that when the facilities have been outgrown, they can be removed without leaving an obstructive space or in need of re-designing.
An area for children reflect their ages, and of course with a growing family there may be a spread of ages to accommodate, all needing different kinds of stimulation.
Gardening Magazines
Various gardening magazines are available in the market. But would you like to know which stands out from the rest? Here are a selection of gardening magazines that anyone in love with his or her garden will appreciate.
COUNTRY GARDENS often showcases the more unusual gardens around the country. It introduces wonderful new ways to enjoy garden sights and scents. It helps the avid gardener to create an eye-pleasing, fragrance - filled country garden.
This magazine has very useful advice on setting up and caring for your garden. Every issue contains profiles of fascinating people and their gardens, inspiration for gardens and detailed garden plans. Best of all, it’s a trusted source of information that’s easy to understand. Every season carries a vast harvest of ideas to delight, motivate and guide any gardener.
How about a gardening magazine for those who want to become a better gardener? FINE GARDENING MAGAZINE from The Taunton Press brings you amazing design ideas, beneficial techniques, and the know-how to get the best results from your gardening endeavors.
In each issue you’ll find eye-opening bits of advice from the experts, detailed information on all types of plants, effective techniques and time-saving tips, straightforward tool reviews from editors and readers and planting suggestions for specific regions.
But for more intensive information on how to maintain a garden packed with style and color, then you’ll want to read GARDEN DESIGN. This gardening magazine brings out eye-popping photos, illustrations and useful recommendations on how to create a picture-perfect garden. It is written and designed for those who are passionate about their homes and gardens. Garden Design is more than just a dig-in-the-dirt gardening magazine; it’s for people who enjoy bringing in more aesthetic value for their homes through their gardens.
Garden Design encourages you to create stylish outdoor living spaces and rare gardens through cultivating rare breeds of plants, with updates on the best tools and techniques. It contains magnificent photographs and articles that capture the imaginations of gardeners everywhere.
For passionate gardeners, HOLTICULTURE MAGAZINE is the ultimate guide to gardening. The authoritative voice of gardeners, Horticulture serves as an essential guide and trusted friend, and is a main resource for serious gardeners from every corner of the country.
These magazines aim to instruct, inform, and inspire serious home gardeners. There are gardening magazines for beginners and expert gardeners. Discover or develop your green thumb with their latest gardening techniques and garden design information.
For Australian readers, there is BURKE’S BACKYARD. Springing form a TV series of the same name, Burke’s Backyard focuses on gardening décor as well as the all-important garden makeovers that have become so popular.
YOUR GARDEN is another beauty, claiming the prestige of being Australia’s gardening magazine, it usually features two or three popular flowers and how best to grow them, with a wealth of tips and information on other plants, tools and products for the garden.
GARDENING AUSTRALIA springs from the ABC’s feature of that name it features many wonderful articles by gardening experts and often holds a free catalogue from one of the larger nurseries.
Types Of Digging
Single Digging
Dig a trench about 2ft wide and one spit deep. Remove the soil to the other end of the plot as this will be used to fill the final trench.
Dig a second trench alongside the first one turning the soil into the first trench. Mix in compost or manure as you go. Continue this way until you reach the end of the plot.
Double Digging
Double digging, also called trenching, involves forking and manuring at double the depth of single digging. First and second spit soil must be returned to its own level.
Dig a trench one spit deep and 3ft wide. Remove the soil to the other end of the plot and use it to fill the final trench.
Dividing the trench in half lengthways, dig out the first half another spit deep. You now have a trench with a stepped bottom.
Fork and manure the bottom of the deeper trench.
Return the second spit to its own depth.
Dig a new trench 1.5 ft wide and one spit deep. Use the soil to fill the first trench to surface level.
Continue in this way across the last trench with the soil taken from the first.
Digging
All digging is properly done with a spade, the blade of which is, on average about 25cm long. This is the length referred to when digging “one spit deep” is recommended.
Digging is done to get air into the soil, to get the lower layers weathered, to help excess rain drain through and to mix in plant foods and materials to improve structure with mostly rotted organic matter such as manure or garden compost.
It is done some months before planting to allow the turned over soil to weather and to allow the additions to be absorbed.
Many plants and most soils will give satisfactory results if “single dug”. This means digging a trench to the depth of one spades length. The soil from the trench is removed to the other end of the site and anothertrench is dug next to the first one, the soil from it being used to fill the first.
Organic matter should be mixed with this soil as it is returned either putting it in the bottom of the trench and then mixing it, spreading it on top of the soil before digging or forking it in from a barrow as the work proceeds.
Planting A Tree
Autumn is the very best time to plant a tree. The soil is still warm but the weather is rainy, so the roots can really get stuck in. If you do not mind keeping it watered in dry weather you can plant ant time you like, even in summer.
1) When you are planting a tree in the lawn, remove the turf from a circle about 4 feet across. Skim it off with a spade to a depth of about 1.5 inches, that way you get rid of the roots too so you wont have a weed problem later.
2) Fork the ground over to loosen it up. If you find any big stones or roots, now is the time to take them out.
3) Dig the planting hole. Before putting the tree in, hammer a shortstake in at an angle of about 45 degrees. The reason for doing this first is that you dont want to drive the stake through the trees roots.
4) Tip plenty of tree planting compost down the hole and mix it into the soil with a fork.
5) Stand the tree in the hole and check that the top of the rootball is level with the surrounding soil. Mix some more tree planting compost with the soil you took out of the hole, shovel it back round the roots and firm gently. Then use a proper tree tie to secure the tree to the stake - not the stake to the tree!!! Years ago they used long stakes for trees and they just fell over as soon as the stake rotted but now the idea is to tie trees low down leaving the top free to bend in the wind so the tree learns to grow a decent root system.
6) The weeping purple osier (salix purpurea “Pendula”) is a lovely tree to plant near water but unlike the usual weeping willow it wont grow too big or be a nuisance in a smaller garden. it will be a couple of years before you can sit under this one.
