The Desert and Plants
If you live in a biome desert climate, which can be a hot arid climate, then your desert landscape design is going to take a little more planning than other parts of the country. A desert biome landscape will have to work with a plan that includes only drought resistant plants and flowers along with dry climate trees. There is no point in planting something if it cannot sustain itself afterwards. One other type of desert biome landscape to consider is desert hardscape. This is the use of rocks, stones and brick. Take some time with your desert landscaping ideas and make sure that you have done everything suited to the deserts climate.
You could spend the money on a do it yourself irrigation system, it would be money well spent but quite time consuming. A better and much simpler desert landscaping ideas would to include arid climate plants that will thrive even in the hot sun all day.
What makes arid climate plants so great is that not only will these plants do well in the hot sun they will also be able to thrive in poor quality soil. This is a much-needed quality because biome deserts have so much sun that they tend to have poor deserts soil as well. So in essence you are killing two birds with one stone as they say.
Here are a few wonderful biome desert plants that you can use in your desert landscape design:
Dark Knight Caryopteris
These are deciduous shrub bushes; they will grow back each and every spring. It will always come back healthy and happy. This makes it perfect for a desert landscape design. They are not tiny drought resistant flowering plants, they can grow to be anywhere between 3 and 4 feet high with a width of about 2 feet. This is a lovely plant to use in your desert biome landscape because the plant has water-storing leaves. Butterflies and bumblebees pollinate the longwood flowers. They are not only beautiful biome desert plants with their pretty blue flower clusters and silver foliage, they are also quite fragrant.
Autumn Joy Sedum
The sedum Autumn Joy plant is a wonderful perennial that you can plant in a biome desert location. With this choice you will have great leaves in pretty whorls. These leaves can be of any number of different colors and can be bought to go with any desert landscape design. The Autumn Joy Sedum is the ultimate for your desert landscape design because it can grow in your desert rock landscaping with ease. This is one of the more common plants in the desert. These lovely drought resistant flowering plants also have a unique and interesting flower unlike any other I have ever seen. The small flowers grow in clusters and they can be a few different colors and shades. The most common are yellow, orange and red and pink. If you make these desert region plants part of your backyard desert, then you will have butterflies for the garden all the time. Besides, a butterfly and humming bird garden make such lovely entertainment all on their very own.
Successful Gardening!
Kali Winters is a gardening enthusiast and author who spends much of her time teaching others how to setup and maintain beautiful, amazing gardens. Her latest book, “Holistic Herbs~A Beginners Guide to Herbal Gardening” is available Here!
Learn more about Growing Bonsai’s!
Free Bonus Book Here!
Other Articles That Might Be of Interest:
Home Landscaping Ideas-
Best Home Plants for Landscaping-
Cement Designs for Your Yard-
Easy Front Yard Landscape Design-
Compost Instructions
Many people who maintain gardens have a large amount of compost yard waste, from grass clippings to leaves and dead plants. Unfortunately, many waste time, money and energy having these wastes transported to a landfill. It isn’t just a waste of good organic gardening compost; it’s a waste of everything that goes into the process of transporting it (the garbage man’s time, the money you pay for the removal, etc). It is truly a travesty.
All these organic scraps that people is trying to get rid of can become a better supplement for your garden than any fertilizer or chemical ever would. If you properly decompose garbage, it will alter chemically until it is in such a state that it becomes a nature safe fertilizer for other plants. Therefore you can turn all your organic scraps that you would have normally thrown away, into top grade organic garden fertilizer.
Normally a compost structure is maintained in a pile somewhere in your backyard. Usually the thought of compost yard waste brings disturbing images to ones mind; the thought of having garbage decompose in your backyard and emitting a horrible odor. However, if compost maintenance occurs regularly, you will be able to create a great organic garden fertilizer without producing an offensive odor. When I first began my compost bin plans in an effort to improve environmental health, I made several major errors. These included preventing the pile from getting the oxygen it truly needed. I also inadvertently left the compost structure too dry. I ended up with garbage decomposing in a very non-beneficial way, and producing an odor so foul that I had government agents knocking at my door.
When you are choosing the compost bin placement, that is where you will be putting all these organic scraps, you should aim for a higher square footage. Having really deep compost pile bins is not a good idea, because generally the deeper sections won’t be exposed to anything that is required for the process to work. It is better to spread it all out over a large area so compost heat will not accumulate. You will want to maintain a steady compost temperature to decompose garbage naturally. If you have a shed or a tool shack of some sort, it is a possibility to spread it over the roof (with boards to keep it from falling off, of course). I have seen this done several times, and it helps keep the pile out of the way while still maintaining a large square footage.
Home composting bins can consist of any organic scraps from your yard, garden or kitchen. This includes leaves, grass, any leftover produce that won’t be eaten, eggshells, coffee grinds or newspaper (no more than a fifth of your pile should consist of newspaper, due to it having a harder time decomposing with the rest of the materials). Usually if you have a composting barrel devoted to storing all of these compost items, it will fill up quickly, within a couple of weeks. It is easy creating a compost heap, but the hard part truly comes in getting good compost, i.e. an organic garden fertilizer.
After you have begun to acquire a large assortment of organic scraps in your compost pile bins, you should moisten the whole pile. This encourages the process of composting. Also chop every element of the pile into the smallest pieces possible. As the materials start to compress and meld together as they decompose, frequently head outside to perform the aerated composting technique. You can use a shovel to mix it all up, or a compost aeration tool to poke dozens of tiny holes into it. Doing this will increase the oxygen flow to every part of the pile, and oxygen is required for any decomposition to take place.
If organic gardening compost sounds like something that would interest you, start considering your different compost bin placement options. The hardest part about compost maintenance is choosing a spot that provides enough square footage without intruding upon the rest of your yard or garden. While usually you can prevent the horrible odors that most people associate with compost pile bins, it’s still not a pleasant thing to have to look at whenever you go for a walk in your garden.
This is but a small excerpt from my new ebook: Holistic Herbs ~ A Beginners Guide to Herbal Gardening. If you would like to learn more about landscape, composting and garden design, Click Here to grab your copy today!
Want to Learn more about Greenhouses?
Free Bonus Book Here!
Successful Gardening!
Kali Winters
Other Articles That Might Be of Interest:
Organic Gardening Tips-
Going Organic for Plants-
Organic Gardening Pest Control-
