Garden Designs, Inspiration & Practical Gardening Ideas

Today's thought for the Moment comes from the inspirational site of Steve Brunkhorst.

His ideas and motivational tips about the way we live our lives and enjoy life are always a welcome and thought- provoking message in his weekly e-zine.

I've just read the thought of the day and been inspired. Why not try it now?

Thought for the Moment

Struggling to find inspiration in your life? Need to clearly see a way forward? We strongly suggest that you spend just a few moments of your time to view "The Secret".

This may be just what you are searching for and it costs nothing to look.

Pictures and creative notes of Landscaping Design Ideas, scenes and features for inspiration to learn from both nature and other peoples creativity.

Taming a natural spring in a hillside beside a road and small housing development in Nailsworth, Glos.

Detail of a small section of herb garden using a crushed green granite stone called locally, "Green Griggon" set between two rows of Marshalls' "Tegula" square brindle sets and surrounded with crushed plum colour slate. All of this was laid on weedscreen membrane over bare soil. Some plants like our garlic chives and oregano, manage to root through but generally do not really get a good foothold.

This simple sleeper set on its narrow edge makes an easy raised bed from the brick path. Use treated timber stakes driven down into the ground about 450mm (18") at the back to hold the sleeper in place by screwing or nailing through into the back of the sleepers. We sometimes drill down through sleepers and insert steel rods down into concrete footings if we are going up any higher. You can also use steel RSJ's or channel sections about 150mm(6") set into concrete to build higher retaining structures.

We discovered this fascinating futuristic garden design (right) in someone else's show garden at Westonbirt Arboretum (The Forestry Commission's favourite National Tree Collection in the South West of England). The variety of transparent colours and reflections that were created by these huge special glass panels with wonderful planting intrigued us all and we felt that you would find it exciting too. It is an inspiring, modern use of toughened glass with colour laminated ideas for gardens and landscapes. On the left reflective glass gives different colours and impressions on the colourful planting surrounding the panels. On the right glass panels depict different tree species and their trunk colour and textural content. These were part of the Westonbirt Arboretum Summer garden displays and are by other designers.

Could you use these in your garden to create the impression of walking in a woodland glade? Screen part of your garden to create a secluded retreat? Used in conjunction with stainless steel and decorative aggregates and strong structural plants they would be really impressive!

How about creating a smaller scale maze. You could use box plants in the form of a small parterre with white or coloured gravel and planting in pockets between the paths.

This ornamental maze is constructed using yew hedging and only needs clipping once or twice a year. It's at Longleat House in Wiltshire.

Does your life feel a bit like a maze? read on to the bottom for some inspiration from daffodil bulb planting and flowering.

To get the best information about current ideas and thinking of useful projects to use in your garden an inexpensive subscription to an information packed magazine such as "Practical Gardening" or "Garden News" is a must.

For more in-depth research and to increase your personal education and knowledge about your chosen specialist garden subject, style or design feature buy a reasonably priced book from our on-line associate store by following this link.

I've just added two great books to my collection, about using grasses in you garden landscape mixed with various perennial plants. One is a Dorling Kindersley book by the Royal Horticultural Society under the "RHS Practicals Range" ISBN No. 0-7513-3721- 8

The other is called "Grasses" - Versatile Partners for Uncommon Garden Design, by Nancy J. Ondra ISBN No. 1-870673-42-5

Should You be Planting Daffodils?

A story to inspire you for the rest of your life

A story that could inspire you for the rest of your life...

Several times my daughter had telephoned to say, "Mother, you must come to see the daffodils before they are over."
I wanted to go, but it was a two-hour drive from Laguna to Lake Arrowhead. "I will come next Tuesday", I promised a little reluctantly on her third call.

Next Tuesday dawned cold and rainy. Still, I had promised, and reluctantly I drove there. When I finally walked into my daughter Carolyn's house I was welcomed by the joyful sounds of happy children. I delightedly hugged and greeted my grandchildren.

I told my daughter, "Forget the daffodils, Carolyn! The road is invisible in these clouds and fog, and there is nothing in the world except you and my grandchildren that I want to see right now. I don't want to drive another inch!"

My daughter smiled calmly and said, "We drive in this weather all the time, mother."

"Well, you won't get me back on the road until it clears, and then I'm heading for home!" I assured her.

"But first we're going to see the daffodils. It's just a few blocks," Carolyn said. "I'll drive. I'm used to this."

"Carolyn," I said sternly, "It's all right, Mother, I promise.
You will never forgive yourself if you miss this experience."

So we went!
After about twenty minutes, we turned onto a small gravel road and I saw a small church. On the far side of the church, I saw a hand lettered sign with an arrow that read,

"Daffodil Garden ---->"

We got out of the car, each of us took a child's hand, and I followed Carolyn down the path. Then, as we turned a corner, I looked up and gasped.
Before me lay the most glorious sight. It looked as though someone had taken a great vat of gold and poured it over the mountain peak and its surrounding slopes.

The flowers were planted in majestic, swirling patterns, great ribbons and swaths of deep orange, creamy white, lemon yellow, salmon pink, and saffron and butter yellow.
Each different-colored variety was planted in large groups so that it swirled and flowed like its own river with its own unique hue.

There were five acres of flowers!

"Who did this?" I asked Carolyn.
"Just one woman," Carolyn answered.
"She lives on the property. That's her home."
Carolyn pointed to a well-kept A-frame house, small and modestly sitting in the midst of all that glory.

We walked up to the house. On the patio, we saw a poster.

"Answers to the Questions I Know You Are Asking" was the headline.

The first answer was a simple one. "50,000 bulbs," it read.

The second answer was, "One at a time, by one woman. Two hands, two feet, and one brain."

The third answer was, "Began in 1958."

For me, that moment was a life-changing experience. I thought of this woman whom I had never met, who, more than forty years before, had begun, one bulb at a time, to bring her vision of beauty and joy to an obscure mountaintop.

Planting one bulb at a time, year after year, this unknown woman had forever changed the world in which she lived. One day at a time, she had created something of extraordinary magnificence, beauty, and inspiration.

The principle her daffodil garden taught meis one of the greatest principles of celebration.
That is, learning to move toward our goals and desires one step at a time.

"It makes me sad in a way," I admitted to Carolyn. "What might I have accomplished
if I had thought of a wonderful goal thirty-five or forty years ago and had worked away at it 'one bulb at a time' through all those years?

Just think what I might have been able to achieve!"
My daughter summed up the message of the day in her usual direct way.

"Start tomorrow," she said.

She was right. It's so pointless to think of the lost hours of yesterdays.
The way to make learning a lesson of celebration instead of a cause for regret is to only ask, "How can I put this to use today?"

The Daffodil Principle.

Stop waiting.....
Until your car or home is paid off
Until you get a new car or home
Until your kids leave the house
Until you go back to school
Until you finish school
Until you clean the house
Until you organize the garage
Until you clean off your desk
Until you lose 10 lbs.
Until you gain 10 lbs.
Until you get married
Until you get a divorce
Until you have kids
Until the kids go to school
Until you retire
Until summer
Until spring
Until winter
Until fall
Until you die...

There is no better time than right now to be happy.
Happiness is a journey, not a destination. So work like you don't need money.
Love like you've never been hurt, and, Dance like no one's watching.

Wishing you a beautiful, daffodil day!
Don't be afraid that your life will end, be afraid that it will never begin!

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