Mixborders, tracks and dumping - ideas for the garden
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PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN DEVELOPING MIXABLERS AND TRAYS IN THE GARDEN
The rapid rhythms of modern life often do not allow a person to stop, take a breath, comprehend what is happening ... But sometimes there comes a time when you realize that without communication with nature you can’t live on. And then some people start indoor plants or animals, others seek relaxation in the forest or on the river, and others plant a garden.
When such a moment came in my life, there were no grand plans - I just wanted to arrange a small alpine slide and a decorative pond. At that time, I still did not know how exciting and captivating landscape art was, how the birth of new ideas makes it necessary to change the original plans.
NEW GARDEN IDEA
I successfully implemented my initial idea of creating a mini-pond and rock garden. But by creating a garden, I laid out the entire plot with winding paths going in all directions. Between the paths there remained the islands of the land of bizarre outlines, which prompted me to create mixborders on them.
Each of the elements is an independent, complete composition. Creating my garden, I am guided by the idea of a natural, natural landscape, so my mixborders smoothly "flow", pass into each other. Thinking through the compositional solution of each individual mixborder, I tried to select plants so that they looked advantageously from different sides, if the possibility of a circular view was assumed. If the review is one-sided, for example, the composition is located near the fence or the wall of the building, plants were arranged in tiers: the first tier, the highest. - tall coniferous plants and climbing roses on high supports, in front of them, in the second tier, - flowering shrubs, herbaceous perennials and ornamental cereals, and near the very paths, at the feet of the viewer, - tiny (0,5-1,0 m2) alpine lawns with a scattering of stones and the smallest plants.
Each my mixborder includes one or two tall, so-called "skeletal" plants. These are willows, conifers, sometimes fruit crops, creating vertical accents.
Ornamental grasses add color to the second tier, as well as shrubs and grassy perennials that bloom at different times. Creating such compositions, I tried to provide a continuous flowering conveyor from spring to late autumn. If you competently, carefully pick up the species composition of plants, mixborders will bloom and have a wonderful decorative appearance, even in autumn and winter.
In our garden, on a snow-white background, perennial grasses and evergreen conifers, magonies and boxwood stand out in bright strokes.
When planting, be sure to take into account that the trees grow over the years, so they need to leave free space and plant at a fairly large distance from each other. However, when you plant a tiny plant, it is hard to believe that in a few years it will grow to a meter and a half (or even more) in width. If you can not take into account the growth and size of plants, comes to the rescue curly shrubs and trees.
ABOUT FORM AND COLOR
The species composition of plants in a mixborder can be very diverse: a fragment of a wild prairie of prickly pears and ornamental grasses, or a lush flower garden, pouring aromas and attracting many butterflies and bees; coniferous and heather plantations or roses and lilies. Mixborder is so good that when it is created, the gardener has no restrictions regarding the shape, selection of plants, as well as their location and framing - there are a lot of options. The main thing - our imagination, sense of proportion and style.
The color mixborder can be monochrome (monochrome) or multi-colored (polychrome). For a monochrome composition, plants of different shades of the same color are selected. For example, a white or “lunar” garden is distinguished by the elegance and airy beauty of flowers with white color - tulips, lilies, carnations, poppies, complemented by gray foliage of wormwood, stachises, willows.
There are compositions in blue, pink or yellow. A discreet, elegant and elegant green monochrome garden looks, where shades from salad to emerald and malachite are combined. The decorative effect is also enhanced by a harmonious combination of the texture and shape of the foliage of trees, shrubs and grasses.
And yet I prefer polychrome compositions, built on contrasts - bright, vivid, they create a sense of celebration. I add colors to the garden, planting plants with red, yellow or orange leaves: maples, beeches, barberries. I try not to overdo it with their number, so that the garden does not look defiantly screaming, always looking for a middle ground.
See also: How to make mixborders attractive for birds - landing plan
USING REFERENCE
I think that in the garden the main thing is to emphasize the beauty of the plants. Decorations such as artificial mushrooms, gnomes and storks are best avoided. I prefer to use large beautiful stones, picturesque snags, simple ceramic jugs in compositions with plants.
However, my favorite method of decorating is dumping from natural materials. It minimizes the care of the garden, allows you to correct the "straightness" of the tracks, change the contours of any mixborder, gives conciseness of the composition of plants that frames.
The process of dumping is not difficult, it is available even to a novice gardener. First, I outline the area of the future mixborder, carefully freeing it from vegetation, level the surface, and cover it with dense agrofiber or geotextile. In the places of planting plants in the material I make slots, in which I plant my green pets. After that, the whole area between the plants is covered with rubble or gravel. The material for the dumping should be uniform in both color and size. The contours of the dumping are usually limited to special borders, but they can be replaced by improvised means - scraps of linoleum, bands of rubber (conveyor belt), old facing or ceramic tiles. Instead of gravel and gravel, you can use mulching with bark, wood chips, and pine needles - these materials also create a decorative effect and retain moisture in the soil.
See also: How to master a new site - what and how much to plant, what to build and how to care for
TRACK AND TRAWS WITH YOUR OWN HANDS
They play a crucial role in the garden. And not only because we can wander along the paths, admiring the plants. They themselves play an important aesthetic and functional role, serving as a link between all elements of the garden. Therefore, the tracks must be sturdy and durable. There are many options for arranging garden paths - they use paving slabs, bricks, concrete, and even tree sawing.
You can arrange the "crunchy" tracks of rubble or gravel. In most cases, it is desirable that the path looked modest and unobtrusive, only emphasizing the beauty of flower beds or a lawn. The shape and location of the paths - straight or winding - depends on the style of the garden and the availability of functional areas to which access should be provided. Regular garden style usually involves straight paths, in landscape style - they have a free form, revealing a new wonderful view around every corner. And with the help of narrowing and widening of the paths, it is possible to create optical illusions in the garden, visually distancing or bringing objects closer.
I decided to lay out the paths of limestone so that they were durable, harmoniously combined with gravelly dumping and served as a neutral background for the plants.
Finally, it seems that the job is done: all the plants in their places, it remains only to admire the created beauty. But work in the garden never ends, because it is a living organism, it needs love and care, watering and feeding, treatment and prevention of diseases, and sometimes surgical interventions. Pruning and cutting, spraying and weed control, replanting and replacing plants ... Of course, this is a lot of work. But when you go out into the garden after a working day, wander along the paths, breathing in aromas, admiring the blossoming flowers, marvelous bends of branches, a combination of foliage colors, you realize that all the work is not in vain.
© Author: Tatyana GRECHANAYA, agronomist, Alexandria
See also: Garden paths - materials and design options (photo)
MAKING A MIXBORDER - VIDEO
TOOLS FOR MASTERS AND MASTERS, AND HOME GOODS ARE VERY CHEAP. FREE SHIPPING. THERE ARE REVIEWS.
Below other entries on the topic "How to make your own hands - a householder!"
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- Division of a bush of grassy peonies - master class
- DIY flowerbed
- Decorations for the plot and cottage made of wood - inventions and ideas of the master
- How to make your own flower garden in the courtyard of the villa
- DIY flower pots on the wall
- Do-it-yourself hedge of thuja grown from seeds
- Preparing mulch and mulching the flower garden
- Live framing for flower beds or flower beds - CREATING A BORDER FROM PLANTS
- DIY illuminated decorative windmill
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Do-it-yourself Butterfly Path in the Garden
After the construction of the bathhouse and furnace, many stones of different sizes remained for her. My husband was going to take them to the quarry, but I remembered that I had long wanted to make a path in the garden. As a result, the pebbles found a worthy application.
The husband carved butterfly-shaped turf at about the same distance from each other. In total, seven insect depressions were obtained.
Then he prepared a cement-sand mortar in the proportion of 1: 3 and poured holes in it.
Until the mixture hardened, she laid out butterflies in each form, picking up stones of a suitable size and color. Now in my garden is summer all year round.