The joys of a table top fountain

The Joy of a table top fountain

One of my favorite things everyday as I work in my office is the fact that I can listen to the soothing sounds of water trickling out of the dragon's mouth and then dropping down onto some pebbles continuing on into the main pool of water. This is just one of my favorite table top fountains

I have always enjoyed fountains in my main garden at home but just recently I decided that I would add a table type fountain to my office at work and enjoy the sounds of the water all day as I work.

My job requires that I process and do a lot of paper work every day and most of the work is done on the computer. However this work at times can be very boring and take up a great deal of my time.

To help relax me and to help break up the silence of the day I keep my fountain running and it really has made a difference.

I'm lucky in a way I guess because I do not share my office with anyone and I have it all to myself. I do not work in an environment of the cubicle office like so many office workers do. My office is rather large and I have it filled to nearly capacity with indoor bonsai plants and other items that I enjoy.

Many have remarked about my office looking like a small nursery and I just laugh because to me they are just my plants and I enjoy having them around me all the time to see and tend to when I'm not working.

But I guess to my coworkers and others that have visited my office it probably does look very over crowded with bonsai plants as there are nearly forty of them in my area at work in various places.

I guess the point of all this is to tell you that if you can at all get your boss to let you add one of these small table top fountains to your work area then by all means do so as they are very relaxing and help the day go by. Not to mention they add a little beauty and also help to personalize your work area.

Most of the table type fountains usually have a little room left over where you can add some plant life to it and that will also begin to create a better effect for you and your passers by to enjoy.

There are many to choose from in the market place and styles and designs are most often of a personal preference. You could spend hours looking for the right one and in doing so pass many different ones by. But when you do see the one you fall in love with you will most likely just have to have it as these little fountains are almost always an impulse buy.

Since I'm into bonsai and frogs are part of the culture with the Chinese and Japanese so I most recently choose a fountain that displayed frogs and I love it. Of course dragons are also a part of the culture in some ways so I also enjoy my main fountain that has two bowls and a dragon in the center that dispenses the water.

I just yesterday added my new frog fountain as it is a little smaller than my dragon fountain and fits wonderfully on my desk right where I hear it well and also so that I can view it.

These fountains need not be expensive you can pick up a nice one in many shopping areas for under fifty bucks and get a life time of enjoyment out of your investment.

If you would like to see the frog table top fountain then I have added a picture to this post for you to view. If you like this fountain and would like to have one then contact me I can get one to your door in most parts of the country for $46.95 like I said under fifty bucks and that includes shipping and handling.

This style frog and lily pad designed fountain comes with pump and UL approved cord the decorative stones are not included. The size is 11 1/2" x 10 1/2" x 7" high. Four froggy friends grab a cool drink of water from the cup of a lilypad leaf. A treat to behold indoors or out! Pump included. The material is Alabastrite. Ul recognized. 11 1/2" x 10 1/2" x 7" high.

If frogs are not your cup of tea then by all means keep looking till you find your favorite table top fountain and then grab it up and enjoy it because there really is something about hearing the sounds or water moving that will do wonders for your day trust me about this one.

Just to let you all know this will be my last post for the year 2005. My first article for the year of 2006 will be the creation of an upright bonsai one of the main styles of bonsai.

I look forward to writing many new articles for you in the coming year and I hope you enjoy the Living Bonsai and More and will return often to read my ramblings and posts.

Here is wishing each and every one a very happy NewYear and a very fantastic 2006.


Thanks for reading and viewing.
By Harold Yearout

Abundance of Golden gate Ficus

Hi to all of my readers I have put together a very special offer for all of you that might be interested in getting started with collecting bonsai.

I have this year a real over abundance of Golden Gate Ficus and I need to make more room in my green houses.

So my need to make this necessary room can be your opportunity to get one of these plants that have been trained already for nearly seven years.

Although it is too late now to get one for the Christmas season you can still get one for your self or a friend and enjoy it for years to come.

I have taken a picture here of what these plants look like but please remember that each plant is in a way almost like a person and they all have there own slight differences. They vary little from plant to plant and the plants will not be much at all different from the one you see here in this picture.

Your plant might be larger but never smaller and it could vary slightly in the trunk curve and be even more curved for added beauty. What may be different if anything at all might be the pot size and color as I have so many of these Ficus that I could not possibly take a picture of each one.

So you may see a blue pot in the picture but you may receive a plant that could very well be in a brown pot or a tan colored pot or green you get the idea. The picture here simply can not do justice to what these wonderful Ficus are really like and the beautiful looking markings in the trunks and the fantastic bright green of there leaves.

With your added attention and continued care these Ficus plants will grow on to be one of your favorite bonsai in time and surly they will command the attention of anyone who sees one of these plants in your collection.

If you are at all interested in getting one of these plants then contact me with your shipping details and I will ship one to you as fast as possible. Usually from the time I get the order and the plant gets into your hands takes about a week and a half total turn around time.

I only ship a couple of days during the week so as to avoid any time that the plants might get held over a weekend sitting in a UPS truck or warehouse in which case they might dry out and then it would not arrive to you in the best of health and so I always ship as fast as possible and most of the time by three day air select.

One of these Ficus can be shipped to you including shipping and handling for only $44.95 and believe me that's a real bargain as these Ficus are about 7 to 10 years old and even if I do toot my own horn I think that there just absolutely beautiful.

Your plant will be delivered to you packaged carefully to avoid any spilliage of the earth it is potted in and to you will also receive plant care instructions for your plant.

Thanks for taking a look and have a wonderful and healthy holiday and return as always in 2006 for more articles and bargains on my favorite of all plants the wonderful living bonsai.

Oh and PS: If you would like to really ensure that your plant gets delivered right into your hands at your door step then it is wise to require a signature other wise UPS will simply drop the package at your door and drive a way.

If this is not practical because you may be at work and not at home then simply ask your employer if you can have it delivered to you at your work place. This would also alleviate the need for your signature.

UPS now charges $2.00 more per package for required signatures. The package is automatically insured so no worry there.

Respectfully yours, Harold Yearout

Contact me at h.yearout@gmail.com with the subject line of purchase bonsai:

Creating your very own wild flower garden

Creating your very own wild flower garden

A wild-flower garden has a most attractive sound. One thinks of long tramps in the woods, collecting material, and then of the fun in fixing up a real for sure wild garden.

Many people say they have no luck at all with such a garden. It is not a question of luck, but a question of understanding, because wild flowers are like people and each has its very own personality.

Please be aware that what a plant has been accustomed to in nature it desires always. In fact, when removed from its own sort of living conditions, it most often sickens and dies.

That is enough to tell us that we should copy nature herself. Suppose you are hunting wild flowers. As you choose certain flowers from the woods, notice the soil they are in, the place, conditions, the surroundings, and the neighbors.

Suppose you find dog-tooth violets and wind-flowers growing close together. Then place them the same way in your own new garden. Suppose you find a certain violet enjoying an open situation; then it should always have the same conditions in its new garden. I hope you see the point, I’m trying to make here.

If you wish wild flowers to grow in a tame garden then make them feel at home. Cheat them into almost believing that they are still in their native haunts.

Wild flowers ought to be transplanted after blossoming time is over. Take a trowel and a basket into the woods with you. As you take up a few, a columbine, or a hepatica, be sure to take with the roots some of the plant's own soil, which must be packed about it when replanted.

The bed into which these plants are to go should be prepared carefully before you make your trip to collect. Surely you do not wish to bring those plants back to wait over a day or night before planting. They should go into there new quarters at once. The bed needs soil from the woods, deep and rich and full of leaf mold.

The under drainage system should be excellent. Then plants are not to go into water-logged ground. Some people think that all wood plants should have a soil saturated with water. But the woods themselves are not water-logged. It may be that you will need to dig your garden up very deeply and put some stone in the bottom.

Over this the top soil should go. And on top, where the top soil once was, put a new layer of the rich soil you brought from the woods.

Before planting water the soil well. Then as you make places for the plants put into each hole some of the soil which belongs to the plant which is to be put there.

I think it would be a rather nice plan to have a wild-flower garden giving a succession of bloom from early spring to late fall; so let us start off with March, the hepatica, spring beauty and saxifrage.

Next comes the month of April bearing in its arms the beautiful columbine, the tiny bluets and wild geranium.

For May there are the dog-tooth violet and the wood anemone, false Solomon's seal, Jack-in-the-pulpit, wake robin, bloodroot and violets.

June will give the bellflower, mullein, bee balm and foxglove. I would choose the gay butterfly weed for July. Let turtle head, aster, Joe Pye weed, and Queen Anne's lace make the rest of the season brilliant until frost.

Let us have a bit about the likes and dislikes of these plants. After you are once started you'll keep on adding to this wild-flower list.

There is no one who doesn't love the hepatica. Before the spring has really decided to come, this little flower pokes its head up and puts all else to shame. Tucked under a covering of dry leaves the blossoms wait for a ray of warm sunshine to bring them out.

These embryo flowers are further protected by a fuzzy covering. This reminds one of a similar protective covering which new fern leaves have. In the spring a hepatica plant wastes no time on getting a new suit of leaves. It makes its old ones do until the blossom has had its day.

You will find hepaticas growing in clusters, sort of family groups. They are likely to be found in rather open places in the woods. The soil is found to be rich and loose. So these should go only in partly shaded places and under good soil conditions. If planted with other woods specimens give them the benefit of a rather exposed position, that they may catch the early spring sunshine.

I should cover hepaticas over with a light litter of leaves in the fall. During the last days of February, unless the weather is extreme take this leaf covering away. You'll find the hepatica blossoms all ready to poke up their heads.

The spring beauty hardly allows the hepatica to get ahead of her. With a white flower which has dainty tracings of pink, a thin, wiry stem, and narrow, grass-like leaves, this spring flower cannot be mistaken. You will find spring beauties growing in great patches in rather open places. Plant a number of the roots and allow the sun good opportunity to get at them. For this plant loves the sun.

The other March flower mentioned is the saxifrage. This belongs in quite a different sort of environment. It is a plant which grows in dry and rocky places. Often one will find it in chinks of rock. There is an old tale to the effect that the saxifrage roots twine about rocks and work their way into them so that the rock itself splits.

Anyway, it is a rock garden plant. I have found it in dry, sandy places right on the borders of a big rock. It has white flower clusters borne on hairy stems.

The columbine is another plant that is quite likely to be found in rocky places. Standing below a ledge and looking up, one sees nestled here and there in rocky crevices one plant or more of columbine. The nodding red heads bob on wiry, slender stems. The roots do not strike deeply into the soil; in fact, often the soil hardly covers them.

Now, just because the columbine has little soil, it does not signify that it is indifferent to the soil conditions. For it always has lived, and always should live, under good drainage conditions. I wonder if it has struck you, how really hygienic plants are? Plenty of fresh air, proper drainage, and good food are fundamentals with plants.

It is evident from study of these plants how easy it is to find out what plants like. After studying their feelings, then do not make the mistake of huddling them all together under poor drainage conditions.

I always have a feeling of personal affection for the bluets. When they come I always feel that now things are beginning to settle down outdoors. They start with rich, lovely, little delicate blue blossoms. As June gets hotter and hotter their color fades a bit, until at times they look quite worn and white.

Some people call them Quaker ladies, others innocence. Under any name they are charming. They grow in colonies, sometimes in sunny fields, sometimes by the road-side. From this we learn that they are more particular about the open sunlight than about the soil.

If you desire a flower to pick and use for bouquets, then the wild geranium is not your flower. It droops very quickly after picking and almost immediately drops its petals. But the purplish flowers are showy, and the leaves, while rather coarse, are deeply cut. This latter effect gives certain boldness to the plant that is rather attractive.

The plant is found in rather moist, partly shaded portions of the woods. I like this plant in the garden. It adds good color and permanent color as long as blooming time lasts, since there is no object in picking it.

There are numbers and numbers of wild flowers I might have suggested. These I have mentioned were not given for the purpose of a flower guide, but with just one end in view your understanding of how to study soil conditions for the work of starting a wild-flower garden.

If you fear your results, then take but one or two flowers and study just what you selected then you can move on to others. Having mastered, or better, become acquainted with a few, add more another year to your garden. I think you will love your wild garden best of all before you are through with it. It is a real study, you will see once you try.

Thanks for reading.
By Harold Yearout

Creating a Raft Syle Bonsai

Nearly any species of tree could be used for a raft style bonsai but you’ll have more luck if you stick with material that is as pliable as possible.

Simply because you will need to bend and push things around quite a bit when you’re creating your raft style bonsai you'll be working with the tender limbs and trying to position them and move them where you want them as much as possible creating less work in the long run.

Some good sound choices for this style of bonsai would be yew, pine, or perhaps even Japanese maple or you might want to try an elm. There are others that would work and have worked but these would be my first choices and especially for the beginner creating this type of bonsai for the first time.

You will want to hunt for a tree that is fairly tall as this will afford you a fair amount of limbs to choose from and understand that you will only be using one side of your trees limbs for the raft so look for the side that has the most suitable limbs in your opinion as this side will be your raft.

Now we will want to trim the entire tree and then after words remove the limbs from the opposite side of which we chose to be our raft. Now lay the tree down on to a bed of soil in a fairly over sized planting box. Be sure to leave your tree still in its original pot and soil.

At this point it should resemble a row of trees pointing upwards from your remaining branches.

Now you will want to make cuts into the cambium layer of your tree trunk at about 1 inch intervals and then try to insert a small pebble to hold this area open a bit and also dress these scars with a rooting hormone powder. This is perhaps the hardest part of creating your raft planting.

Now your ready to remove the pot from the base of your tree and then tie in the roots of the tree to your planting box then cover up the trees branch as though it were the trunk for all of your trees because really it is.

However above the soil it really will resemble a group or row of trees at this point and this is the effect your trying to create.

Cover about two inches of soil over the trunk and then you can begin to wire the limbs if you want at this point and try to keep your biggest and most heavy looking limbs towards the front and the smaller limbs at the back this will add perspective to the entire planting.

Once you have this all accomplished and hopefully nothing has gone wrong and your tree is planted then all you need to do is sit back and wait for roots to form along the cuts that you made in the cambium. This could take a long time perhaps even a couple of years.

During this time take especially good care of this tree as you want to have success with your new raft planting. Keep it shaded in the hot days of summer and mist it regular and also feed as with any other bonsai.

It takes a long time to develop any good bonsai and especially one that is good looking and attractive. So just work with it and treat it like any other of your bonsai and you should have success.

In the mean time you can be thinking of how you want the whole raft to look after it is has grown for a season or so and is well established. Once it has its new root system developed then you could remove the old root and begin thinking of a pot that will work for your new loved bonsai.

Now of course pot selection is always a matter of preference and choices can be varied but you’ll at least want a pot that is large enough to give your bonsai room for expansion and yet not be out of proportion to the tree.

I like to choose either a nice large round shallow pot or one that is oval if possible or even better yet if you can afford it a nice slab type container would even be better.

Once I have selected a nice container then I will wait till the right time of year preferably spring and then I will replant my entire raft of trees in its new pot and then begin my real magic of creating it into the look of a landscape.

I will cut out some of the branches now to enhance a look of distance between trees and I will add moss where I can and then perhaps a small rock or two to add to the effect.

I will then train each individual limb as it were a completely separate bonsai tree and in time work at developing trunk and canopy accordingly for each tree in the raft.

As you work with your bonsai don’t be in hurry as it will most likely take you another couple of years to really begin to see the look of a small forest of trees but it will happen with time and your creative ability.

Thanks for reading.
By: Harold Yearout ©Copyright 2005 Harold Yearout All Rights Reserved for more information feel free to contact me:

The Japanese Dwarf Garden Juniper

Better known in the bonsai world as Juniper Procumbens Nana


This lovely shrub is great for bonsai and especially for the beginner its low growing habit is great for creating a cascading bonsai and can be developed in a short time.

This material has been very miss used by many different sellers and other people displaying starter bonsai and even beyond in malls and other places where you might not normally expect to find bonsai for sale.

Good bonsai are normally sold by nurseries or people that specialize in this type of plant material and not in some mall out in the middle isle from a booth.

Don’t get me wrong sometimes you may find a really good buy in one of these types of places but most often I would be very careful.

Most of these sellers will simply slap one of these tiny starter plants into a pot and then call it bonsai. Buyers beware.

Such is not the case. It takes a few years to develop a nice bonsai and even with this material you’ll spend some time and have1 to do your homework if you really want to create a nice one.

This material however can make a wonderful bonsai and can be accomplished with very little efforts on the grower’s part if only you will follow a few simple guide lines.

Look for a plant in a nursery that is from five to seven years old and that has already been established and grown some nice branches for you to choose from and work on.

You can expect the price to be from around $9.95 when on sale to somewhere around $25.00 depending on the size of the plant and the amount of growth it has developed.

These plants can be found in nearly any fine garden establishment around the entire world.

If you want to work on your plant such as wiring or training of the branches this is best done in the fall when the plant goes dormant. If you do wire or train at other times of the year you will have to be very vigilante that you do not scar your bark and break the branches.

The branches will then have all winter to become accustomed to there new position. You will want to keep up with regular pinching of new growth of these plants during the growing season and please do pinch out the new growth and do not cut it out with scissors as this will turn your needles brown and make your plant look unsightly.

Pinching only encourages the plant to grow more vigorous and it will be come a lot more compact and not nearly as leggy looking on your branches.

All you need to do is grasp the new growth between your fore finger and your thumb and slightly twist and the new shoot will easily break away from the mother plant.

Eventually your aim is to try and create pods as I call them and let these cascades down for a very nice visual appearance. In other words a nice looking branched cascading arm with clusters of rounded or an elongated looking pods.

Fertilize your plant from early March till June and then stop feeding as you will not want to risk fertilizing this plant in the heat of summer as you may kill it.

The Juniper will tolerate full sun and can go a little on the dry side but as with all bonsai you will never want your plants to completely dry out; this simply is not good at all for any bonsai and most often will spell disaster.

The juniper likes to be sprayed or misted every day during the normal growing season from around June till September and in most areas it will begin to start its winter nap during the month of late October or even in to November.

You will need to repot your bonsai about every one to two years and at repotting time you will want to gradually remove about one third of the entire root growth but not at all once.

Do this over say two or three years and then once you have a nice established plant you’ll only need to transplant it about every five years or so.

Do not keep these plants indoors for long periods as they are indeed an outdoors bonsai. Others will try to convince you that it will simply grow just fine indoors. I’m here to tell you they are wrong.

Plants that are used to being out doors all the time simply will not do well indoors that’s just the way of it. By bringing those into your home you’re setting up a almost instant death for the plant.

These plants are simply used to being outside in the elements rain, wind, cold, and the like and once they acclimate to these types of conditions and then you try and change the conditions by bringing the plant in doors you will most often kill your plant.

This is not to say that you can’t bring your plants indoors for a short while to enjoy them because you can. But then you must return them to the garden or patio or where ever you’re growing them outside or expect disaster.

If you’re interested in trying your hand at one of these fairly simple to grow and tend bonsai then I would recommend that you get a nice starter from your local nursery during the growing season, or you may wish to get one from an auction if you do not want to wait. Or you can purchase a plant that is already growing and been pre trained to some extent.

Here is an auction link for you to take a look at if you want a plant you can hold over till spring and then begin work on, just click the link to take a look at this material. Simply click on the link below.

Click here to see the auction

If you want to perhaps purchase a plant that has already been established and some what pre trained then look at my link below. At my link you can take a look at a couple of plants that I have for you. Clik the link below to view the material.

http://www.bonsainmore.com


Thanks, for reading
By: Harold Yearout
©Copyright 2005 Harold Yearout All Rights Reserved For more information feel free to Contact Me:

Bald Cypress starter trees in a forest planting

Here are some bald cypress that I bought this last year close to the end of the season and it was simply to late to do much with them at that time other than put them into a pot and keep them until spring rolls around again.

I will begin to create a forest planting with these young starter tress this next spring and I will work them into a nice shallow pot at that time suitable for a penjing style type bonsai planting with some rock and other small materials.

I will at that time repost these same trees after I have transformed them into a nice forest type bonsai planting.

But at least you can get some what of an idea what you could do with these lovely trees by creating your own forest planting.

Please note that these pictures were taken while these trees still had there needles and they do not look like this at all now because they have lost all of there growth for the winter months.

But I wanted you to be able to see what these trees look like during the normal growing season and not in the winter months. They are now bald of there beautiful needles as there name implies bald cypress.

If you have any questions that you are unsure about of or would like my help with in any way with this type of project or any other that centers around bonsai feel free to ask me here or contact me.

You'll have to wait until spring to create one of these wonderful forest plantings but trust me you will have a fantastic looking starter bonsai if you do.

If you would like to try your hand at one of these beautiful type of plantings and create your very own great looking bonsai forest then check out a fantastic offer that I have found for you today go right now and chek it out. Simply click the link below.

Out Standing Bald Cypress Starter Offer



Thanks, Harold Yearout

The Bald Cypress bonsai

It has been touted that there are cypress that are eight hundred to one thousand years old. I can not attest to that simply because I have never seen one that old.

However there most likely are some that are that old. The bald cypress is called that because they will begin to shed there needles in the early fall and will remain that way until the next spring thus the tree looks bald.

In early March April or sometimes May the tree will begin to bud up again and get its needles back and will remain until the fall again.

These beautiful trees love to be wet and they are most often found in very swampy areas however they can also survive in soil that is not kept wet.

The cypress will do well as a bonsai if kept in a fairly deep pot and kept pretty much like a bog most of the time. If left to dry out then you would have a tough time to nurse your plant back.

Cypress growing in the wild have very large flared trunks at the base and if grown as a bonsai it will take many years to get a trunk of substantial size.

You could if you wanted to field grow your plant for a few years to obtain trunk girth and then work it down to be of a size suitable for bonsai. Perhaps the most significant stands of these trees are in the state of Illinois where there are some that indeed are spectacular.

The needles are very light green and will turn orange in the fall the cypress looks like it could fit into the family of conifers but it is deciduous.

If you want to have your best luck with this type of plant for a bonsai then I would highly recommend buying some small starts and then using them to create a forest scene as in the Chinese style of bonsai pronounced as punsai or penjing or a planting that looks like a landscape.

At the beginning your plants will be very slender and not require a deep pot and will have fairly small root systems and they would lend themselves to this type of planting very well.
Select a pot that is shallow in depth but rather long and half as wide and you’ll have a good pot for your trees then always stager your trees in this type of planting just as they would look in a forest never in a row either from left or right.

The cypress can stand full sun and if you want to start more then take cuttings or learn how to graft, or simply buy more starts. They could be grown from seed but this would take you several years.

Most people are way too impatient to wait for a tree to grow from seed.

Fertilize your cypress during the normal growing season from March to late September and then slack off when the tree begins to loose its needles indicating that it is going to sleep for the winter months.

Wiring can be preformed best just as the buds begin to emerge in the early spring and you should also transplant any trees that need bigger pots at this time too.

There are many types of cypress so do not get the bald cypress confused with other varieties. This variety is Taxodium distichum and is what you should be looking for if you want this material for bonsai or for your landscape.

You can see a couple here that I have worked on now for a number of years and they are now becoming very nice bonsai.

Thanks for reading:

By: Harold Yearout
©Copyright 2005 Harold Yearout All Rights ReservedFor more information feel free to Contact Me:

LANDSCAPE GARDENING

LANDSCAPE GARDENING.

Landscape gardening has often been likened to the painting of a picture. Your art-work teacher has most likely told you that a good picture should have a point of chief interest, and the rest of the points simply go to make more beautiful the central idea, or to form a fine setting for it. So in landscape gardening there must be in the gardener’s mind a picture of what he desires the whole to be when he completes his work.

From this study we shall be able to work out a little theory of landscape gardening.

Let us go to the lawn.

A good extent of open lawn space is always beautiful. It is restful. It adds a feeling of space to even small grounds. So we might generalize and say that it is well to keep open lawn spaces. If one covers his lawn space with many trees, with little flower beds here and there, the general effect is choppy and fussy. It is a bit like an over-dressed person. One’s grounds lose all individuality thus treated.

A single tree or a small group is not a bad arrangement on the lawn. Do not centre the tree or trees. Let them drop a bit into the background. Make a pleasing side feature of them. In choosing trees one must keep in mind a number of things. You should not choose an overpowering tree; the tree should be one of good shape, with something interesting about its bark, leaves, flowers or fruit. While the poplar is a rapid grower, it sheds its leaves early and so is left standing, bare and ugly, before the fall is old.

Mind you, there are places where a row or double row of Lombardy poplars is very effective. But I think you’ll agree with me that one lone poplar is not. The catalpa is quite lovely by itself. Its leaves are broad, its flowers attractive, the seed pods which cling to the tree until away into the winter, add a bit of picture squeness. The bright berries of the ash, the brilliant foliage of the sugar maple, the blossoms of the tulip tree, the bark of the white birch, and the leaves of the copper beech all these are beauty points to consider.

Place makes a difference in the selection of a tree. Suppose the lower portion of the grounds is a bit low and moist, then the spot is ideal for a willow. Don’t group trees together which look awkward. A long-looking poplar does not go with a nice rather rounded little tulip tree. A juniper, so neat and prim, would look silly beside a spreading chestnut. One must keep proportion and suitability in mind.

I’d never advise the planting of a group of evergreens close to a house, and in the front yard. The effect is very gloomy indeed. Houses thus surrounded are overcapped by such trees and are not only gloomy to live in, but truly unhealthful. The chief requisite inside a house is sunlight and plenty of it.

As trees are chosen because of certain good points, so shrubs should be. In a clump I should wish some which bloomed early, some which bloomed late, some for the beauty of their fall foliage, some for the colour of their bark and others for the fruit. Some spireas and the forsythia bloom early. The red bark of the dogwood makes a bit of colour all winter, and the red berries of the barberry cling to the shrub well into the winter.

Certain shrubs are good to use for hedge purposes. A hedge is rather prettier usually than a fence. The Californian privet is excellent for this purpose. Osage orange, Japan barberry, buckthorn, Japan quince, and Van Houtte’s spirea are other shrubs which make good hedges.

I forgot to say that in tree and shrub selection it is usually better to choose those of the locality one lives in. Unusual and foreign plants do less well, and often harmonize but poorly with their new setting.

Landscape gardening may follow along very formal lines or along informal lines. The first would have straight paths, straight rows in stiff beds, everything, as the name tells, perfectly formal. The other method is, of course, the exact opposite. There are danger points in each.

The formal arrangement is likely to look too stiff; the informal, too fussy, too wiggly. As far as paths go, keep this in mind, that a path should always lead somewhere. That is its business to direct one to a definite place. Now, straight, even paths are not unpleasing if the effect is to be that of a formal garden. The danger in the curved path is an abrupt curve, a whirligig effect. It is far better for you to stick to straight paths unless you can make a really beautiful curve. No one can tell you how to do this.

Garden paths may be of gravel, of dirt, or of grass. One sees grass paths in some very lovely gardens. I doubt, however, if they would serve as well in your small gardens. Your garden areas are so limited that they should be re-spaded each season, and the grass paths are a great bother in this work. Of course, a gravel path makes a fine appearance, but again you may not have gravel at your command.

It is possible for any of you to dig out the path for two feet. Then put in six inches of stone or clinker. Over this, pack in the dirt, rounding it slightly toward the centre of the path. There should never be depressions through the central part of paths, since these form convenient places for water to stand. The under layer of stone makes a natural drainage system.

A building often needs the help of vines or flowers or both to tie it to the grounds in such a way as to form a harmonious whole. Vines lend themselves well to this work. It is better to plant a perennial vine, and so let it form a permanent part of your landscape scheme. The Virginia creeper, wistaria, honeysuckle, a climbing rose, the clematis and trumpet vine are all most satisfactory.

Close your eyes and picture a house of natural colour, that mellow gray of the weathered shingles. Now add to this old house a purple wistaria. Can you see the beauty of it? I shall not forget soon a rather ugly corner of my childhood home, where the dining room and kitchen met. Just there climbing over, and falling over a trellis was a trumpet vine. It made beautiful an awkward angle, an ugly bit of carpenter work.

Of course, the morning-glory is an annual vine, as is the moon-vine and wild cucumber. Now, these have their special function. For often, it is necessary to cover an ugly thing for just a time, until the better things and better times come. The annual is ‘the chap’ for this work.

Along an old fence a hop vine is a thing of beauty. One might try to rival the woods’ landscape work. For often one sees festooned from one rotted tree to another the ampelopsis vine.

Flowers may well go along the side of the building, or bordering a walk. In general, though, keep the front lawn space open and unbroken by beds. What lovelier in early spring than a bed of daffodils close to the house? Hyacinths and tulips, too, form a blaze of glory. These are little or no bother, and start the spring aright. One may make of some bulbs an exception to the rule of unbroken front lawn.

Snowdrops and crocuses planted through the lawn are beautiful. They do not disturb the general effect, but just blend with the whole. One expert bulb gardener says to take a basketful of bulbs in the fall, walk about your grounds, and just drop bulbs out here and there. Wherever the bulbs drop, plant them. Such small bulbs as those we plant in lawns should be in groups of four to six. Daffodils may be thus planted, too.

The place for a flower garden is generally at the side or rear of the house. The backyard garden is a lovely idea, is it not? Who wishes to leave a beautiful looking front yard, turn the corner of a house, and find a dump heap? Not I. The flower garden may be laid out formally in neat little beds, or it may be more of a careless, hit-or-miss sort. Both have their good points. Great masses of bloom are attractive.

You should have in mind some notion of the blending of colour. Nature appears not to consider this at all, and still gets wondrous effects. This is because of the tremendous amount of her perfect background of green, and the limitlessness of her space, while we are confined at the best to relatively small areas. So we should endeavour not to blind people’s eyes with clashes of colours which do not at close range blend well. In order to break up extremes of colours you can always use masses of white flowers, or something like mignonette, which is in effect green.

Finally, let us sum up our landscape lesson. The grounds are a setting for the house or buildings. Open, free lawn spaces, a tree or a proper group well placed, flowers which do not clutter up the front yard, groups of shrubbery these are points to be remembered. The paths should lead somewhere, and be either straight or well curved. If one starts with a formal garden, one should not mix the informal with it before the work is done.

If you would like a little help with the whole process then there are a couple of fine books that I highly recommend that you read and study. Now you will not be able to carry these books very easy to the garden but they are both very good and especially the one about garden plants from A to Z.







So check these out today and if you want or need more then there are others that I can recommend.

Thanks for reading: BY Harold Yearout

Shohin Bonsai

shohin
Originally uploaded by silverone55.

This is a tiny Shohin Bonsai. In Japan the word Shohin means tiny thing.

This is indeed a tiny bonsai the entire tree is less than seven inches from the bottom of the pot to the top of the tree.

Planted in a pot that is less than one inch around and about one and a half inches deep.

The material is Chinese Sweet Plum.

These tiny plants require that the owner pay very close attention to the watering needs of his or her plants as these small plants will dry out very fast.

Please read the entire article below to learn more about Shohin bonsai.