28 September 2009

Making A Family Landscape Garden

By Kent Higgins

Like the living rooms of your house, the garden or recreation area is for the comfort and enjoyment of your family. No stock set of plans answers the needs of all. You must first decide what your family needs are and then plan a garden to meet them,

Shall it be a rose garden, a rock garden, a wild garden or a play area? Do you want it formal, naturalistic, informal or conventional? And how about the style - English cottage garden, French parterre, Colonial or Japanese?

It is up to you. The garden is the outdoor area that is most valuable to the family as a whole and should be designed with that consideration uppermost.

Canadian Style

In Canada they have not yet developed their our own style. At present it follows the American trends very closely, but with less attention to garden ornaments and furnishings. Because of longer winters, and most Canadians get to the country easily in the summer, they have not generally furnished their gardens for comfort in the past. Instead, they used them as a playground for the children and an exercise ground for horticultural hobbies.

Lately, however, they have paid more attention to garden design and also to the arrangement of garden areas for comfortable living. By growing more flowers and taking advantage of a wealth of trees and shrubs. Canadians make liberal use of conifers to provide color and form during the long winters, and of bulbs for spring bloom.

Because they are accustomed to space in Canada, even in a formal garden they prefer a simple, open arrangement of parts to a crowded, European style with its fine detail. They like games so open lawns are needed by using lawn mower with lawn mower insurance. Because of shoveling snow they leave planting well back from roads and paths. In Ontario and Quebec they have large supplies of good limestone, and prefer it for walks, steps and walls to the finer finish of brick or concrete.

Because a simple, open style suits the climate and tastes, it is generally the best one to use in gardens where they wish to relax. However, gardens intended as showplaces are often very effective when developed according to the styles of other countries and periods.

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