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Create Stunning Bonsai Trees - With Very Little Work?
There's finally a quick and easy, Step by Step, A to Z guide to creating your very own Bonsai Trees…even if you're new at it and you're not exactly a "green thumb".

An Appreciation of Stone (25)
17 Mar 2007 at 11:32pm
This weeks stone comes from a waterfall I built a couple of years ago in Omaha, Nebraska for a photography studio. The stone is typical Colorado fieldstone.
To give you an idea of scale the falls is very close to 7.0ft high. and that's about 3.0ft across the top. The double falls starts with 2 upflow […]

No Man is an Island . . . But His House Is!
17 Mar 2007 at 1:58am
The philosopher(name escapes me). who is responsible for that famous quote would have to rethink that thought if he were able to see this picture/situation. As for me; all I can say is, wow! That is one stubborn/and or greedy dude.

[Photo and Story courtesy of Ananova]
The copy to go with the story was very […]

Blog Writing, where is the Readers Focus?
15 Mar 2007 at 12:49pm
So you think you have a dynamite lay-out for your Blog or web-page(s)? Pretty happy with the headers, headlines, target stories? Images . . . are your images up to par? Doing what you need them to do?
I bring up these questions because I have come across a study of what people actually;

Look at 1st […]

Dy-nee-mite Connected to Black-eyed Susan?s
13 Mar 2007 at 3:25pm
In what has come to me as a shock, I have discovered a real boomer of a story. This explosive new evidence shows us that the founder of the Nobel Peace Prize, Alfred Nobel is connected to Rudbeckia Hirta, or the beloved . . . (planted almost everywhere I go), Black-eyed Susan.
You have to read […]

I?ll be Speaking at the Royal Botanical Gardens.
12 Mar 2007 at 7:45pm
On October 21st I'll be giving the keynote speech at the 2-day conference for the Royal Botanical Gardens in Hamilton, Ontario, titled "Make a Splash: A Natural Approach to Water Gardens". I was asked to come up with a title and short description for my talk and this is what we have initially come […]

Finally, obtain a great lawn almost instantly.
Give me ONE Day and I'll make
your lawn the most dazzling
spectacle on the block…

Create Stunning Bonsai Trees - With Very Little Work?
There's finally a quick and easy, Step by Step, A to Z guide to creating your very own Bonsai Trees…even if you're new at it and you're not exactly a "green thumb".

Ellis Hollow, a New Blog to Read
10 Mar 2007 at 4:47pm
I've added a new link to my list of interesting Blogs to read. I haven't added one in a while but I think this one is worth reading, it's called Ellis Hollow, and it's about Gardening, politics and some other stuff. Craig's Blog is well written, put together very well, and entertaining/and informative. The March […]

Botanicon, plantarum historiae [Tome 1]
10 Mar 2007 at 12:50am
These illustrations are from Botanicon, plantarum historiae written in 1565 by Adam Lonicerus. Lonicerus (1528-1586) was from Germany and was a respected author, publisher, physician and involved in some government matters. Like most Medieval figures I've studied; who were authors, they were members of several other professions.
These 3 illustrations were taken from […]

Arbor Rendering
8 Mar 2007 at 12:41pm
[A larger image of this, and several similar renderings on this page]
I was cleaning up a old stack of papers and I found this rendering. The above drawing and several others were made to conceptualize several vignettes seen from one main entertaining/gathering area.
This arbor was designed to be seen at the end of […]

When a Child doesn?t meet Nature
7 Mar 2007 at 11:00am
I was looking around the web doing my normal thing when I came across this blurb about a new movement called . . . Leave no Child Inside. Oh brother-I thought, here's another one of these wacky new age movements without any reasoning in practicality. Little did I know.
Because of my profession I am aware […]

$370 Million Dollars
6 Mar 2007 at 11:11pm
That means the take home is around $170 million dollars in tonights MegaMillions drawing. Congratulations you've won! You now have to build a Botanical Garden somewhere in the World. Where would you build it? What kind of Garden would it be? Who would you hire to help build your dream?

[How about a Taj Mahal? […]

Finally, obtain a great lawn almost instantly.
Give me ONE Day and I'll make
your lawn the most dazzling
spectacle on the block…

Spring is the perfect time of year for setting up a new garden space. Everything is alive, growing and happy, so it’s no wonder you’d want your yard to get in on the action.

To set up a basic bed for flowers, all you need to do is remove the sod and plant small plants or seeds in the soil. Getting rid of the sod can be a lot of work. An easy way to get rid of sod, which unfortunately takes a long time, is to cover the area you want to make into a bed with five to seven layers of newspaper. Cover the paper with mulch and allow it to sit undisturbed for at least six months. A year is ideal.

When you remove the mulch, the newspaper and the sod will be gone. Then all you have to do is plant, put the mulch back around the plants, and enjoy.

What Should You Plant

Assuming you already have a flower garden spot prepared, what should you plant? The answer depends on whether your area gets sun, shade, or a mixture, and what part of the country you live in. There are beautiful plants, such as impatiens, hostas, ferns and vinca, that thrive in shade, just as there are a multitude of flowering plants that glory in the sun, including all sorts of wildflowers, coreopsis, lilies and more.

To find the best plants for your yard, go to a local garden center and find the plants designed for the amount of light your garden spot gets. The plants you can buy locally will be well-suited to the environment where you live.

When designing your new garden space, remember that nature loves odd numbers. Buy three, five, seven or more of the same kind of plant or flower, and your garden design will look much more natural. Also, don’t line your plants up in rows. Nature doesn’t subscribe to straight lines. Go for a walk by a stream or in a field of wildflowers to see how nature designs, then go for a similar look in your yard.

Your garden can be formal or informal, stick with one color in all its shades or offer a multitude of bright, pastel or muted colors. The decisions all rely on your personal taste. Once you have picked the [flowers] and planted them according to the directions on the tags, then you can have fun filling the garden with cute accessories.

Using Garden Accessories

When a garden is new it can look a little bare because the plants are small and not fully established. You shouldn’t over plant your garden space if you are using perennial plants (those that come back year after year) because they will grow larger each year and eventually fill in the space provided.

Instead, fill the empty space with cute birdbaths, birdfeeders or birdhouses. Add decorative stepping stones or sculptures, gazing balls, even plant stands that will allow you to add height by placing a potted plant in your garden. If there is a tree in your garden space, you can hang a birdfeeder or wind chime for an extra touch of whimsy.

And when the color fades from your flowers, add a multi-colored fabric pinwheel that will leave a rainbow in your garden all year long.