10 Essential Tools Every Landscape Gardener Needs
Gardens, Renovating

10 Essential Tools Every Landscape Gardener Needs

With any profession, employment, pastime, or hobby there are going to be tools and equipment which are essential, and landscaping is no different. Whether you are involved in landscaping as a business, as a passionate hobby, or simply as an enjoyable and relaxing way to spend a few hours in your garden, there are tools that you will need to complete certain tasks successfully.

On larger scale landscaping projects we might be talking more about machinery than we are tools, but for the purposes of this article, we are only going to look at the sorts of tools you will need for smaller and medium-sized landscaping. In particular, here are 10 landscaping/ gardening tools which are regarded as essential by expert landscape designers:

Gloves: Whilst landscape gardening might not be considered as a ‘high-risk’ activity, that does not mean that all personal safety should be ignored. In particular, it is your hands that are most at risk of cuts from tools or scratches from thorns, for example, which is why a pair of robust gardening gloves is essential.

Spade: If you are going to be able to dig anything then a high-quality spade is needed. Apart from digging ,it can also be used for moving mulch, compost, and soil. If possible, use a flat edge spade as it penetrates the ground more easily.

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Compostable vs. Degradable vs. Biodegradable
Eco-Living, Gardens, Sustainability

Compostable vs. Degradable vs. Biodegradable – What’s the Difference?

In a world that’s far more aware of the importance of sustainability, it can be a challenge to get to grips with marketing jargon. You want to make sure the products you purchase are safe for the environment, but how do you understand the various terms that describe if it is or not?

Three terms you will see thrown around quite a bit are: compostable, degradable, and biodegradable. Do they mean the same thing? Are they different? Is one better than the other? Read on to learn what these three words mean, and if you should be using any product labelled with any of them more than the other.

What is a Biodegradable Product?

Something biodegradable is the epitome of sustainability. It means that the item you have just bought can break down into the natural environment through natural elements and organisms.

The way in which they biodegrade can make all the difference as well. If they use water, organic material, and carbon dioxide, they are breaking down without doing any harm to the environment.

Most products that boast a “biodegradable” label feature sustainable materials and plant by-products.

However, how you dispose of your biodegradable product can matter more than you might think. In a landfill environment, it may not be able to break down while being buried under tonnes of trash. The best way to dispose of such products is by sending them to a recycling plant.

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Watering Your Garden
Eco-Living, Gardens, Recycling, Sustainability

Are You Watering Your Garden Right?

It is easy to understand the ‘why’ when it comes to watering the plants in your garden. However, the ‘when’ and the ‘how’ are often the most misunderstood aspects of the practice of gardening. Landscapers Sydney say this can literally make or break your garden. Therefore, it is best to understand what reticulation practices are good, and what methods spell disaster.

Tackling the ‘when’ –

Truth be told, professional landscapers tell us that there is no right time or wrong time to water your plants. The ideal time depends on a number of factors such as the climatic conditions in the area concerned, the type of plants that need to be watered, the kind of soil they are planted in, and a number of other criteria. A little trick to work around this arbitrary situation is to check the soil.

The consistency required to determine if the time is right to water your patch is somewhere between moist and dry. The right balance has to be struck between these two states. The mud has to be moist enough to form a consistent ball in the fist of your hand, but also loose enough to fall apart when you drop it. If you have plants sheltered in a nursery, over time, you get better at determining just how heavy or how light the soil should be when it is adequately watered.

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Expert In Gardening
Gardens

Tips To Make You An Expert Gardener

10 Effective And Practical Tips To Make You An Expert In Gardening

So you want to become an expert landscaper like harrisonslandscaping.com.au? Well, if you’re passionate about working amongst nature and love flowers, have an eye for design, then you certainly have what it takes to become one.

Gardening requires practical and viable solutions that go hand in hand with the raw resources at your disposal. You also need to have the right attitude because unless you aren’t interested in gardening, it would only seem a tedious and muddy task in which case call professional help. But if you are zealous enough, then your personal touch can create for yourself a beautiful garden with a landscape design to match.

Here are 10 effective do it yourself tips to make you an expert gardener.

    • It’s All About Good Soil

The most basic and primary need for gardening and planting is soil. The best way to enrichen soil is to build a compost pit to produce organic matter through waste material. Dry leaves, dead wood, used tea leaves, leafy vegetables waste, peelings, are great sources nourishment for compost matter. Soil enriched with compost ensures healthy plants.

    • Low Maintenance Plants

Choose plants like perennials that require low maintenance. Astibles, Siberian Iris, bleeding hearts, yucca, yarrow and ornamental grass not only require less work but also lend an aesthetic look to your garden not to mention the beautiful colors of the flowers. Such plants don’t require constant staking or deadheading.

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Gardening Ideas
Eco-Living, Gardens

Gardening Ideas for the Not-So-Green-Thumbed

So you haven’t tried your hand at gardening ever before? Or perhaps, have you tried it a few times and failed to create the perfect haven? Not to worry. By following a few tips and tricks from garden landscaping experts, as given below, you can create a beautiful garden space of your own.

  • Clean up the space – This is the most obvious way to begin setting up and planting a garden of your own. Mow up the entire space, and weed out the surface completely. Rake the yard up during the spring in order to remove the debris that accumulates over autumn and winter. This clean up helps to prepare your space for a lush collection of plants.
  • Prepare the soil – The key to a great garden is good soil. The soil needs to be fed with nutrients in order to prepare it for supporting a plethora of plant life. In order to achieve this, you need to add layers of organic matter to the soil. For established or predesigned soil beds, it is advisable to allow the layer of organic matter, consisting of manure, dried leaves, and compost, to sit on the surface for a few weeks, so that it can work its way into the soil bed. In case you are making do with the naturally available soil surface, you can dig it and let the manure mix fill the gaps.

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Maintain Your Swimming Pool
Gardens

How to Clean and Maintain Your Swimming Pool

If you have just finished pool renovations and are new to the delightful world of home swimming pools you will want to know the best ways to keep that pool clean. The easiest way of all is to purchase an automatic pool cleaner. That way you don’t have to work quite so hard to clean and maintain the water in your pool.

However, automatic pool cleaners can’t do all the work that is needed. Here are some of the other ways in which you can ensure good water quality and reduce the need for extra chemicals in the pool.

  • Use a pool scoop to skim leaves and other debris out of the pool on a daily basis. The sooner they are out, the less likely the ph of the water is to change. Rotting starts immediately, even though you cannot see it with the naked eye and it is that which interferes with the ph level of the water. Vacuuming should be done at least once a week, but daily is better.
  • If you don’t have an automatic cleaner, brush down the walls of the pool. Algae tends to form on the walls of the pool. Since it seems to grow there, it needs to be brushed off. It will then sink to the bottom where the robot cleaner can deal with it. If your pool is concrete lined with plaster, a stiff brush will be needed. Other types require a soft bristle brush.

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