Perfect landscaping is not an easy task. There are many plants to choose from, and yet each plant has its own special character that makes it an excellent find for your place. You can choose the kind of plant that compliments your yard in a unique way, just ensure that the plant which you have chosen can live in the climate of your environment. Not all plants can grow in all climates, so you have got to talk a local plant specialist. Your local nursery will be able to help you in selecting the right kind of plants according to your landscaping needs.

There is a wide choice of landscaping plants to choose from, but among the best plants are those that you wouldn’t think of normally. For example, you can use the sage plants for a gorgeous border. This could be the landscaping plant of your dream home. This plant can be used to do so much more to your home. Apart from adding them for some marvellous borders, you can also make your herb gardens prettier with them.

The thing with herb gardens is that, apart from making your garden beautiful, they can double up as herbs in your cooking. All the landscaping herbs in your garden are suitable for cooking .It also happens to be a superb bonus to be able to cook the herbs apart from having them as beautiful landscaping plants.
Depending on what time of the year it is, happens to be a consideration in looking for the appropriate landscaping plant. Usually, it is not possible to see a summer bloom in the middle of winter at a gardening store. You will have to do at least a bit of seasonal shopping. Some of your landscaping plants may have to be purchased seasonally.

You can find perennial plants or annual plants. Annual landscaping plants will have to be bought repeatedly every year, while perennial plants grow back on their own. If left alone, tulips and some other perennial plants can double their numbers every year. When there are too many plants in the same spot, you will just have to dig down and some of them can be split up to be planted elsewhere.

Abhishek Agarwal
http://www.articlesbase.com/landscaping-articles/beauty-of-landscaping-in-search-of-the-right-plants-754036.html

Help with the name of specialists (and others)?
Please help with the answers to these. They all have to end with ist. Sorry i know i’ve posted this already, but i only got one answer.

1.a specialist in gardening and landscaping
2.a person with a gloomy outlook on life
3.a person bright and happy and hopeful outlook
4.an expert in language and languages
5.a specialist on rocks and earth science
6.a specialist in foot aliments
7.one who studies plants
8.a bee-farmer
9.a person who have two wives or husbands
10.a person who writes books for fiction
11.a person who runs a property with sheep or cattle
12.a specialist in the treatment of diseases by physical methods such as massage.
13.a collector of postage stamps
14.one who goes by pedal power
15.a person who indulges in the criminal lighting’s a of fires
16.a specialist in the treatment of teeth
17.a person who writes for newspapers of magazines
18.a person who plays a certain keyboard musical instrument
19.one who draws or paints with great skill
20.a specialist in the pharmaceutical trade

1. Horticulturalist
2. Pessimist
3. Optimist
4. Linguist
5. Geologist
6. Podiatrist
7. Botanist
8. Apiarist
9. Polygamist
10. Fictionist
11. Pastoralist
12. Reflexologist
13. Philatelist
14. Cyclist
15. Arsonist
16. Dentist and Orthodontist
17. Journalist
18. Keyboardist, Pianist, or Organist
19. Artist
20. Pharmacologist

Okay – I have two children who are 3 and 1 and I have been looking into playground equipment. I do a lot of gardening / landscaping and I ran across these new ideas for playgrounds – natural playgrounds – where the landscape is used to structure play instead of buying playground equipment. (See this link if you want more info: http://www.whitehutchinson.com/children/playgroundsetc.shtml ) So, my question is, I have an old washing machine in my garage. I was thinking maybe I could use the frame or the tub to brace a tunnel covered by dirt for the kids to climb into and on top of. Obviously I dont want it to look trashy, I think after grass grew over it that it would look fine. However… I am not sure what else I could do. Does anyone have any suggestions or ideas? I am not trying to pollute by burying trash – just trying to use what I have. I own my home, no ordanances to worry about. Thanks for any suggestions. I dont have many tools to manipulate the material.

you can buy car or tractor tires from used tire shops cheap. paint them pretty colors. kids like climbing on them. you can stack them, cut them in half, make tunnels, make tire swings with heavy rope, etc. if you live near the coast, haul tubs of sand for a sandbox. or you can buy it cheap at landscape stores. tie ropes or bungee cords together to make ladders or a monkey bar that stretches between trees like a clothesline. good luck and have fun!

I’d like something fairly fast growing, dense, and easy to care for. Experience in gardening/landscaping is appreciated. I’m looking at the following.
Plum Hedge
Lombardy Poplar
Forsythia
Privet Hedge
Chinese Elm Hedge

I have small children and a dog. The hedge does not necessarily have to be tight enough to serve as a fence, although that would be a nice bonus. Whether or not the hedge is poisonous is another consideration.
I’d like a minimum height of 3 feet.
Does rosemary grow that tall?
Typo above .. make that a minimum height of 4 .. four .. feet, but it could extend much higher, for total privacy.
I’m in the mid-atlantic region and in Zone 6. I haven’t had my soil tested yet, so I’m not sure of its chemistry.

Of your listed choices I would only find 1 acceptable as a privacy hedge. Plum hedges like the purple leaf varieties for example don’t get all that big, and they’re deciduous, worthless in the winter because you see right through them. The same for Forsythia, plus it gets wider than tall and would take over as it spread. You’d need serious pruning yearly because of the fast growth rate and to keep young vigorous growth on the plant for it’s superior flowers.
The Poplar and Elm you mention are trees, again you’ll lose a lot of space eventually unless you elevate the canopy by removing the bottom limbs, then your privacy is gone again.
That leaves the privet, a nice evergreen shrub which also comes in a yellowish color instead of the typical green. It can get to be a monster but shearing every year can keep it under control. Shear wider at the bottom than at the top to allow light penetration to the bottom leaves, this will help prevent leaf drop from the lower branches. Do it once after initial Spring growth spurt then again by mid-Sept at latest. This will keep it under control, and tightly sheared so it looks better.
Another alternative would be "Emerald Green" Arborvitae. They are narrow, just 3 or 4 feet, and grow fairly quickly to their max of 12-15 feet. No shearing for width is necessary, you may want to top them every couple years when they get to desired height. The good things about the arbs are that they are cheap,common, and available just about anywhere, Home Depot, Lowes, etc… in season. Small ones in a one gallon pot shouldn’t cost you more than $5 or $6 max, maybe $12 for a good sized 3 gallon. Only drawback to Arbs is they may get spider mites in bad droughts and stressful summers, and bagworms like them. That’s easily treated though. Ligustrum (Privet) and the Arbs are both pretty tolerant plants, they’ll do fine in Zone 6 and don’t really care much what soil they’re in as long as they are well watered for the first couple of years. Full sun is best for these, but light shade won’t hurt. The more shade the less dense the plant will be.

It’s that time of year again when many of us go out and start cleaning up the yard, mulching the flower beds, getting the garden ready.

My question is this:

How do you deal with dogs and your garden/landscaping/flower beds etc?

Sometimes I don’t think having a nice yard and having idiot labradors is a good mix. I love dogs and I love to dig in the dirt.

So, please share your tips and your ideas. Inquiring minds would like to know!
BTW, the labs aren’t diggers. They are RUN THROUGH THE FLOWERS AND SHRUBS and STOMP EVERYTHING TO MUSH ‘ers. Brat dogs.

I haven’t found the secret to a nice tidy garden and Labs as yet, I have one that’s a digger and the other one that runs like mad through the shrubs, I think they play hide and seek!
We did have a big pond at our old house and when the yellow Lab was a puppy she would hide in the shrubs watching the fish and then jump in, and go fishing. We’d hear a big plop, and there she’d be madly swimming around the pond trying to grab a fish, she was never able to get one, but it didn’t stop her trying.
I was thinking off doing another pond at our new house, but now I’ve got two Labs I think I’II leave it, they egg each other on and with two of them they may be more successful at fishing!