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Archive for January, 2008

Desert Landscaping Secrets!

When people think of the desert, they only think of broiling hot days, cacti, and dry heat. In truth, many deserts are located in high terrain and the hottest of days can actually turn into cool nights. Many deserts also experience cold winters that can include snow, and desert landscaping often reflects this.

About Hot And Cold Temperatures

Because the desert can experience such a range of temperature changes, desert landscaping needs to be hardy enough to tolerate heat as well as cold. Evergreen shrubs and trees survive well in high terrain deserts, because they withstand the heat and tolerate cold. Many cactus plants are also cold hardy. This surprises many people, because they think of cactus as hot area plants.

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Buy From Local Nursery

Because they understand understand the complexities of desert weather. Big box garden retailers have their plants ordered by someone in their regional office. They don’t understand the complexities of desert weather and orders plants that might not do well in your yard. Ordering plants from a local nursery or choosing landscaping that is locally grown ensures that you will get plants that will thrive and grow in your desert landscaping.

How to Water Desert Landscape?

The answer is “With Care”. If you stick to plants that are native to the area in which you live, watering your yard shouldn’t be an issue. However, if you want to grow flowers, vegetables, or other plants that don’t normally grow in the desert, you need to make sure that you provide a source of water to your desert landscaping.

What to do before you design your desert yard?

Check with your local authorities to make sure that there are no watering restrictions in your city or county. Once you have established how much water you want to spare on your yard each month, come up with a watering plan.

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Do you want to water by hand?

The easiest way to water your lawn and garden is with a timed sprinkler system. If you plant grass set your timer to go off in the early morning hours, so that the water can seep into your ground before the sun rises and causes it to evaporate.
Choose a drip irrigation system to water your shrubs and ground covers and you will see minimal waste.

To do this, fill your yard with gravel or rocks instead of grass. This low maintenance alternative to grass looks attractive in a desert setting. Note that light colored gravel will reflect the sun’s heat, causing your yard to seem even hotter each afternoon.

Be the first to comment - What do you think?  Posted by Landscaping Guru - January 30, 2008 at 1:14 am

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How Can Landscape Software Can Help You?

If you can visualize anything you can achive greater success. It is true not only in life but also in landscaping. Landscaping software exactly does this. Helps you visualize your project before it is finished. For sure it is one of the most challenging parts of designing your outdoor living space. Let us see the benefits of using this software one by one.

See the finished plan before you dig the first hole!

Knowing the type of plants that will survive in your neck of the woods as well as how to put them together to achieve the desired effect can be time-consuming task and the end result may still be disappointing. However, with many versions of landscape software on the market, seeing the finished plan before digging the first hole can help you in your project’s success.

The cost of landscape software

This can vary from free to several thousands of dollars and each company offers variables that make putting together a landscaping plan suited for your climate as well the design of your home. Some of the free packages of software however, restrict the user to simple house designs making it difficult to achieve a realistic picture of what your home will look like when finished.

For around hundred dollars you can get a few different types of landscape software that are fairly easy to use. Unless you are familiar with computers, almost all landscape software will require some time in learning how to select the plants, annual or perennial as well as how to size them and drop them in your yard. Some are considerably easier than others, but they will all take some time to get to know.

Price of professional software.

The price of landscape software aimed at professionals offers more details and a much better view, but comes with a higher price tag. See below !

Know The Learning Curve

You should know the learning cure involed in using this software. While many offer quick and easy instructions, it could still take a lot of time just figuring out how to select, size and plant ever item on your list. Some of the more complicated pieces of landscape software may actually take longer to learn how to use than it will take to landscape the yard.!

Views

Almost all companies offer landscape software featuring three-dimensional viewing, but the most-expensive as well as complicated, may also allow for the rotation of the view to see how the landscaping will look from different angles, not only from the street.

Overhead View

You get a better feel for how the different colors will go together when you can see the overhead views. If you combine landscape software with construction software for outdoor decks and patios you can also include plans for plumbing and electrical work. They are also important and they may need to be performed for major landscaping projects.

Finally one way to choose the right landscape software is through reading reviews of other people who actually have used the software that you plan to buy. Check for landscape software in google and read the reviews. It should give you a clear idea.

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Be the first to comment - What do you think?  Posted by Landscaping Guru - January 13, 2008 at 5:05 pm

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ALL Subdomain Launch

We are very happy to announce the launch of “ALL”.

Subdomain of Cool Landscaping

http://all.coollandscaping.com

“ALL” stands for all kinds of Landscaping information, News, Videos etc.

It is updated regularly.

Be the first to comment - What do you think?  Posted by Landscaping Guru - January 12, 2008 at 10:28 pm

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Landscaping Plants Pictures

Landscaping Plants Pictures

The weather has become nicer, and after a cold winter all you really want to do is liven up your yard with some landscaping plants. But there are many choices for to choose from. If yu visit your local garden center then you will know how many choices you have. You need some advice when it comes to choosing the right landscaping plants.

What effect that you want the Landscaping Plants to have?

The first thing you need to think about is the effect that you want the landscaping plants to have.

  1. Do you want landscaping plants just for aesthetic purposes
  2. Would you prefer to have landscaping plants that are more for privacy?
  3. Or you want to take picture of your landscape with plants?

Ivy vine – The privacy plant !

If you want landscaping plants that provide privacy, you need look no further than the ivy vine. If you are unfamiliar with the ivy vine, you have probably seen it in movies or in quaint cottage depictions. This vine is quite hardy and requires only a fence or the side of a house to climb up of.

The thing that you might have to consider is the rate at which the ivy plant grows. You see, when you first purchase the ivy plant at your local garden store, you will notice that it is relatively small.

However, you might find that over the course of a night the vine will have grown by several inches! Thus, keep this in mind, because otherwise the ivy will eventually completely cover over the area that it is placed upon.

Flowers as landscaping plants

If you would rather use flowers as landscaping plants, you have to consider the overall climate in which you live. Tropical flowers that you see in your garden store can only be placed outside if the climate is temperate throughout the year. Otherwise, they are meant as indoor plants.

Thus, if you live in a climate that had four definitive seasons, you should consider a flowering plant that is known to be quite hardy, and those generally are Impatiens or Chrysanthemums. Both flowers do require watering, but only every other day.

They require a mix of sun and shade as well.

If you are hesitant about buying either of those kids of flowers, be aware of the fact that these flowers are available in a variety of different colors.

Need more information about landscaping plants pictures?

If you would like more information about landscaping plants or landscaping plants pictures, be sure to ask for advice at your local garden center. You can also search the internet on reputable gardening websites. You are sure to find the right information about landscaping plants with the proper research.

1 comment - What do you think?  Posted by Landscaping Guru - January 6, 2008 at 3:33 am

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