If you are fond of receiving roses, you might also want to try planting and create a rose garden.  Here are some guidelines to help you out:

1 – Buy plants that are healthy.  See to it that the flowers are blooming great.  Get hold of those that have grown in an organic way.

2 – On a weekly basis, remove dust particles as well as insects that are stuck in the roses.

3 – If it is not rainy season, water the roses.   You have to make sure that it gets enough amount of water – not too many and not too small.  Otherwise, it will either get soaked or dried up.

4 – If you want the beauty of your roses stand out, you have to make it appear like it’s on the spotlight.  For instance, if your walls are painted with a dark color, choose light-colored roses.

5 – Choose a place where there is good ventilation.  The roses must be able to catch a good amount of sunlight.

6 – During winter, make sure that you mulch the roses.  This way, you’ll be protecting the plants from getting damaged due to the change in temperature.

7 – As much as possible, use only organic fertilizers.  This will not only make your plants healthier, but it will also protect you and your family from the harmful chemicals emitted by inorganic fertilizers.  Conduct some research on how you can organically grow roses. If you’ve figured out ways to do it, you do not anymore have to regularly spend for commercial fertilizers.

8 – You can begin building your rose garden by coming up with a plan.  Find a space where you intend to grow your roses and try to get a picture of how you want it to appear when the flowers have already bloomed.  If you want your garden to look amazing, you can also create a color theme wherein you can base it in the color of your home, your fence, other flowering plants, etc.

Maintaining a rose garden is exciting and addicting if you know how to do it properly.  The most important thing that you should always remember is that it is best to grow roses in an organic way as they will grow healthier.



It is not easy to create a landscape on your own because the end result might turn out to be a disaster.  If you want to have a blissful place, it would be nice to get the services of a landscape designer.  Landscape designers can really make wonders.  They can well interpret your needs based on your lifestyle, attitude and views.  They are well versed with the business of turning simple into amazing scenery.  These people have an in depth knowledge about horticulture, art and architecture, and this a good reason why they are really good in successfully transforming spaces.

Landscape designers make use of resources and they know exactly how to use them in building a heavenly space.  Defining spaces and creating admirable art with a nature’s touch is where they’re really good at.  When the designers create a landscape, they make sure that they will achieve what their customers want them to do.  This is not simply a profession for them, but is also one of their passions.

The main factors in landscaping are texture, scale, colour, form and line.  All these factors need to be taken into consideration all the time when creating a landscape.  It is so important that the correct colours be applied because it sets the mood in the garden.  If wrong colours are chosen, a good outcome will never be achieved.  The form refers to the shapes of plants while line is referring to the arrangement of the plants as well as their borders.  As for the scale, this pertains to the proportion of different elements.  Lastly, texture means the right feel of the surface of a particular object.

Landscapes definitely can make a home more attractive, and this can be well achieved with the help of landscape designers.  Have a garden where you can be in close touch with nature.  Sit and relax underneath a tree with birds singing or while listening to the splash of the artificial waterfalls.  Imagine to have a place in your home such relaxing as this.

Older children and adults automatically hold their breath when their head goes under water, but small children and babies do exactly the opposite and take a deep breath in order to scream. Instead of getting a lungful of air, they get a lungful of water, and so drown.

So be aware that if you have water in your garden it is potential a fatal hazard. Some water features such as small ponds and pools, can be filled in, eliminating the risk altogether. This is not practical or even possible for large ponds, swimming pools or streams, in which case you must take precautions to reduce the danger.

Once drained a shallow pond may be turned into a sunken herb garden or sandpit which will need a lid to stop it being flooded by rain. Larger ponds make excellent play areas once they are drained and filled with bark, wood chippings or sand.

If you do not want to drain your pool, cover it with rigid wire mesh. There are many makes on the market which are robust enough to take the weight of a child. Many are coloured green to be unobtrusive and large aquatic plants will grow through the holes in the mesh.

Swimming pools should be fitted with strong, child-proof covers and fenced off. Put a child-resistant lock on the gate and never leave children unsupervised in the pool, even if they are able to swim. Don’t allow unsupervised play in a paddling pool either and when the children have finished playing, empty it and turn it upside down to prevent it filling up with rainwater.

Gardens in a river-side setting are extremely desirable, but risks to children are obvious. The only solution is to erect a stout fence. This need not be an eyesore as you can disguise it by growing shrubs and flowers in front of it or planting climbers which can be trained up and along it. In this way it becomes an attractive feature until the children are old enough for it to be taken down.

It is possible to attract a wide variety of birds, from owls to tits, by pulling up a range of nest boxes. Like birdbaths there are many different styles available, from thatched rustic to Shaker style. It is also possible to buy traditional and rather grand white-painted pigeon- or dovecotes, which can either be fixed on the side of a building, or set on a post and left freestanding.

Whether you decide to buy a box or construct your own make sure that it is water-tight and remember that it is the size of the entrance which will determine which bird uses it.

It is important to choose the correct spot to site your box, otherwise the birds will simply slum it. Pick a place where it is not exposed to direct sunlight and where a cat cannot reach it – at least 3m above ground on a tree trunk, wall or fence.

Once the box is in place leave it well alone for the birds to find it. The only thing you can do to encourage them, besides making sure there is a good supply of food nearby, is to provide nesting material. This could be dry grass cuttings, fluffy pampas grass, thistledown and small twigs.

Once the birds are happily settled it s important not to disturb them too much. It is fine very quietly to peep into the box every once in a while, but beware of scaring them off, especially when they have little babies. It is much belter to watch their comings and goings from a distance.

Once the babies have grown up and flown the nest the box will need to be cleaned out and disinfected. This is an excellent opportunity for children to examine the nest. They will find dissecting it totally fascinating but discourage them from taking the nest indoors as it may well be full of mites and fleas.

When you have cleaned out and thoroughly aired the box, sprinkle some clean hay or a few wood shavings inside it and leave it for the next occupants.

Occasionally you may see a newborn bird on the ground. While it seems lost it has probably just fallen out of its nest, which is bound to be just above it. First find the nest, then gently scoop up the little bird and put it back. However if the baby is a bit older and has leathers, do not touch it. Simply observe from a distance and scare off any predators, as the mother is probably close by and may even be leaching it to fly.

If you are really keen on birds it is mil a good idea to have a cat. They are natural hunters and will not be able to slop themselves going alter each and every bird which braves your garden. You cannot chastise this instinctive behaviour but it can be distressing to see creatures killed for sport.

Even before children learn to walk they are living to climb, pulling themselves upright by any means available. So what could be better than providing them with the means to indulge this basic instinct.

Climbing frames range from the simplest structure of two ends connected by a single crossbar, to veritable labyrinths of ladders, walkways, slides, swings, awnings and tunnels. Choose a frame that you can add to, so that it grows with your children, constantly offering new challenges to their developing abilities.

Give some thought to the material the frame is made of as, once up, it will be a feature in your garden for years to come. There are many brightly-coloured metal frames mi the market, but there are also more subdued wooden frames available, with dark green attachments rather than vivid red or orange.

If you are lucky enough to have a few sturdy trees then you can attach climbing ropes, rope ladders, commando-style netting and swings to their branches and you have the most natural frame there could be.

Even if you cannot find the space, for a climbing frame it is always possible to fit in a swing – there are even models which can be attached to the wall of a house, if you have a tiny courtyard garden. Of all play apparatus, swings are unique in that they are equally popular with boys and girls, toddlers and teenagers.

If you do not have a suitable tree, buy or make a frame instead. Self-assembly aluminium or wooden frames are not expensive and are easy to erect, the only tricky bit being anchoring the legs. These can be secured by pins, but the safest method is to sink them in concrete-filled holes several feet deep.

Make your swing grow with your child by altering the seat. Babies require a high-backed bucket seat with a safely harness and restraining bar at the front. The next stage up is the strap, or belt seat made of soil rubber which moulds itself to the shape of the child s bottom, preventing them from slipping off. For  seven year olds and upwards there is the flat rubber or planked seal.

Both children and grown-ups can get a very nasty injury if they are bit by a moving swing, so place the swing well away from paths, sandpits and playhouses and drill into your children the importance of keeping their distance – you can always mark out an exclusion zone.

Trampolines
Young children will love sit-on, bouncy, rubber balls and small trampolines, and for older children with masses of energy a full-size trampoline is tremendous.

Ensure one child or an adult keeps watch while another bounces and fit cushioned pads to cover the hard edges of the frame. If you follow a few safety guidelines – one at a time, no shoes or jewellery, no eating and drinking – your children will bounce happily for hours.

They also offer the prospect of other young families to befriend, as well as conveniently placed facilities such as playgrounds, medical centres and shops.

Planners and builders of new estates often concentrate all their attention on the houses rather than their gardens. These tend to be left as small bare rectangles of either mud or grass. Although such spaces may look uninspiring they offer a wonderful opportunity to create something entirely suited to your family’s needs and personalities. Think of them as a blank canvas.

The first thing to do is to examine the soil. Once the hastily laid turf is peeled back, it usually reveals a rather unappealing mixture of rubble with the thinnest sprinkling of top-soil. So if your home is less than five years old, the first thing to do, before you rush out and buy lots of plants, is to set about improving the soil. This may involve buying and working in more topsoil. You should incorporate as much organic matter as possible to make the soil nutritious and ready to take plants.

Next look at the surroundings of the garden. There may be a busy road which you would like to screen off, or the garden may be overlooked by neighbours’ windows, making privacy a priority. There may also be vast expanses of bare wall or fence which could be improved with a clothing of climbers or painted in an attractive colour.

Assessing your family¡¯s need
Every family is different, with its own unique mix of personalities and requirements. So before you start any work on a garden have a good long think about your family, their likes and dislikes. Take time to examine your everyday domestic routines and your leisure time.

Are your home and garden always overflowing with your children and their friends? Do you enjoy entertaining? Are you quite an active person who cannot sit still for a minute, or are you always looking for the opportunity to relax with the papers and a cup often in a quiet corner?

Get everyone to make their own wish list. You may gel some highly impractical suggestions, but they will give you an idea of how each member of each family views the garden and how they would like to use it. You need to complete your list of family requirements before you can start planning their position in the garden.

Don¡¯t feel obliged to think in traditional terms: if nobody is bothered about a lawn, a vegetable patch or a flower bed. Then don¡¯t have one. You can always change your garden later when your family s requirements change.

Holed kettles can be pushed sideways into a hedge for small birds to nest in, a chipped mug can be hung up as a birdfeeder, old carpets can be used on top of the compost heap to help all the ingredients heat up, and plastic photographic film containers are perfect for storing seeds.

Polystyrene packaging makes an excellent alternative to crocks as drainage material for containers. In fact, if you are planting up containers for a balcony or roof garden, polystyrene is really ideal as it is so light it reduces the weight of the containers.

Virtually anything dial can hold water can be used as a plant container, from ancient Wellington boots to old tin baths, plastic buckets and ancient cracked butler’s sinks. Be careful not to over-clutter your garden, however. It¡¯s best to luck these items away in foliage, so that you come to them as a surprise.

Artificial mulches
Pieces of old carpet, thick layers of newspaper, plastic fertiliser bags and sheets of cardboard can all be used to clear an area of obstinate weeds. Just cover the ground and leave it alone for a year. As the soil is deprived of light nothing will be able to grow and all the troublesome weeds will die. Disguise your mulching material with gravel or bark if it looks too ugly.

Water features
Washing-up bowls, old baking trays, upturned dustbin lids and pans are all excellent candidates for transformation into miniature water features. They can either be left unplanted as informal bird baths, or can be planted up to form perfect small-scale habitats that will attract a surprising number of wild visitors. Don’t forget to keep the water very shallow if you have small children.

A lacewing home
The larvae of facewings are a gardener’s true friends, as they prey on aphids. To boost your garden’s facewing population create a comfortable place for them to breed. Take an old, plastic, soft drinks bottle and cut off the base. Now roll up a sheet of corrugated paper and insert it into the bottomless bottle, securing it with large paper clips or wire. Hung it up in a tree for the winter and the lacewings should lay eggs in it.

Home-made cloches
Glass cloches are now classified as antiques and so have accordingly high price tags. You might be lucky enough to find some al second-hand shops or car-boot sales, so keep an eye out. There are cheaper plastic alternatives available, bill if you need to cover a whole row of plains these will also work out rather expensive. An alternative is to use jam jars for emerging shoots, then as they get larger, slice the bottoms off plastic bottles and use these as cloches for the small young plants. Leafy vegetables prone to slug and snail attack, such as lettuce, will especially benefit from this protection. Discard the lids as the plants need fresh air.

Planters
Yoghurt cartons, jam jars and the bottom halves of drinks hollies are perfect containers for seedlings. Jam jars have the advantage of weight, making them less likely to blow over than lighter plastic items. But as it is impossible to make a hole in the bottom of the jar safely be sure to half-fill it with gravel or small pebbles for drainage.

You and your children could decorate your home-made planters by painting them with a mall acrylic paint or by sticking on shells, twigs or pieces of broken china.

Home-made cobbles
Use empty yoghurt carious as moulds to make your own cobbles. Simply mix up some concrete then pour into the carious. Allow to set then lap out the finished cobble. Special powder dyes can be added to the concrete when it is being mixed to change its colour.

Ponies
Taking on a pony is a huge and expensive responsibility and not to be embarked upon lightly unless you are absolutely sure your children will take on the daily discipline of mucking out, grooming, feeding and exercising. You may also find you need to buy a horsebox and give up countless weekends to go to gymkhanas and point-to-points. You not only need a paddock and stable, but tack, suitable clothing, and, of course, feed. Vet s bills add to the costs. However, once children have caught the pony bug their enjoyment is so overwhelming and infectious, that parents cannot help but be won over.

Goats
Goats are great fun and are useful to keep the grass shorn. They are easy to milk, and the milk makes fantastic cheese. Some sort of shed is vital if you want to keep goats as they are delicate creatures and must be taken in overnight, or if it is rainy or cold. They eat anything and everything, there-lore should be kept in a secure paddock or on a strong tether, well out of reach of prized plants.

Pigs
It is curious that pigs have such a bad reputation as they are intelligent creatures with great character and, contrary to popular belief are very clean. If you are only keeping a few pigs a small shed with a paddock or enclosed yard attached will be sufficient, as long as the shed is draught-free, warm and dry. Some pigs, such as Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs, are so affectionate that they have long been kept as, pets. They can even be trained to use a litter tray.

Sheep
Firstly consider whether you want to keep sheep purely as a hobby, in which case it may be fun to concentrate on a rare breed, or whether you want to keep them for their milk, wool, or meat. Once you have decided, you can set about choosing a breed, although do get expert advice before buying. Generally sheep are happy left to graze with little or no shelter besides that provided by trees, hedges or rocks. If the climate is mild they can be left out all year, although in many places winters are so cold and wet that they will need to be brought indoors for the worst of it.

Poultry
All poultry will attract predators such as foxes, so it is important to provide them with a secure house for night-time, surrounded by a strong, high fence. Remember that foxes can dig, so bury the fence approximately 46cm/18in and bend it outwards for the same distance.

Geese
It is possible to get surprisingly attached to a goose. Although they are renowned as excellent watchdogs, certain breeds can be quite affectionate. One goose egg will provide enough scrambled eggs for two hungry people. They will also, if you have the heart for it, provide you with a traditional feast for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Ducks
An obvious requirement for ducks is access to water, whether a pond, a stream or even a large container for them to dunk then heads in. Ducks are comfortable-looking creatures and, like geese, provide delicious eggs and meat. They will not do much damage to flowers, but must be kept away from young vegetables. However, if you let them into the kitchen garden in autumn they are very helpful, gobbling up pests such as slugs. Both geese and ducks are liable to churn up the lawn and both leave large, messy droppings.

Hens
Free-range eggs are so much better than the shop-bought variety, that for a growing family, hens are an excellent choice. Chickens and gardens do not mix as poultry is extremely destructive, so it is best to confine them in a run. They need green, leafy plants as well as grass to eat and plenty of grit in their diet. The ideal option is to allow them, like ducks, to graze the kitchen garden in autumn. If you have a portable hen house move this to the vegetable garden at the same time – this will allow the ground of their original run time to recover. You don’t need to keep a cockerel in order for hens to lay eggs and sometimes the hens are happier without one around.

The shape you decide upon for your paths and driveways will have as much an effect on the impression they create as the materials they are surfaced with. A straight front path and driveway will create a feeling of formality and purpose and are usually best suited to small front gardens. Curves and undulating shapes look more natural and create a sense of movement and freedom, tempting visitors to explore, especially if your front garden is large, with the house set well back.

The overall shape of your plot and where the house stands within it will determine whether you choose straight lines or curves. A straight driveway and path may seem a little too ordered, but work extremely well with either a very modem house or, at the opposite end of the scale, an old, grand house. A curved, or even circular driveway, with a curved path to the front entrance, will look at one with most country houses.

While practicality is obviously important, it is also vital to choose surface materials which look good and are in keeping with the style of the house, garden and boundaries. All these considerations apply to paths around and through the back garden. A garden design is like a jigsaw in which no one element can ever be viewed in isolation and each part must slot together to make the whole picture.

Driveway
Most visitors approach the house via the driveway, so it is vital to give this area thought when planning. After all, first impressions are important and so it is not enough just to choose the most functional shape and surface material.

As the driveway adjoins the house take the colour of the house as a guide to the ideal colour of the drive. A slightly deeper shade of the same colour looks best. If you try to match colour and shade exactly the result may look rather boring.

Paths
Paths can serve several functions in a garden. If you have a path leading to your front door instead of a driveway, think about the impression it creates. Paths also exist to link or divide different parts of the garden.

Obviously the quickest route between any two points is a straight line, but a straight path will not necessarily do your garden justice. If a path is allowed to meander, with plenty of curves and little surprises along the way, such as a shady arbour with a bench to sit on, or an interesting focal point to draw the walker on, it will help transform your garden into a place of magic and mystery. Be aware though, that people may be tempted to take shortcuts, which could damage your lawn.

Use planting to create paths with different atmospheres. For example, trees and shrubs can be planted alongside the paths to create a tunnel effect. To make this even more dramatic plan the tunnel so that it emerges into a bright, open area of the garden. The contrast will be delightful.

You can make an entirely different tunnel effect by erecting a pergola or a series of arches, planted with fragrant climbers. Enhance the romantic effect by placing an urn mounted on a plinth, a piece of sculpture, or an attractive container at the end as a focal point.

There are also numerous tricks you can employ which fool the eye into thinking the path or garden is longer than it is or which change the shape of the plot.

A particularly effective illusion is to lay the path so that it gradually gets narrower and narrower. This will make it seem longer than it actually is. Or design a mysterious path which disappears behind a dense shrub or hedge. You may have nothing behind this other than a garden shed, but it will create the impression that there is a whole new area of the garden, just out of sight.

If your garden is noticeably oblong or square, you can make use of a path to alter the visual perception of the shape. Simply lay the path so that it runs in a semicircle around the edge of the garden, creating a circular area of grass or hard surface in the centre. This draws attention away from the hard boundary lines.

The rather harsh look of a large expanse of concrete can be lessened considerably by combining it with large pebbles, brickwork or cobbles. These provide a visual distraction and break up the monotony. If you already have a concrete drive or path and want to smarten it up, then dig up sections, breaking up the concrete with a pickaxe or drill, fill with concrete then inset any of the above materials. Keep your design simple and. if in any doubt of your abilities, call in a professional.

Stone and paving slabs
Original, stone slabs always look extremely handsome, with their feeling of solidity and patina of age. Reclamation yards usually have good stocks, but they are expensive. A cheaper but equally attractive alternative is reconstituted stone slabs. These are man-made from precast concrete and aggregates. There is a huge range and they are so realistic it is virtually impossible to distinguish them from stone. Like the real thing they also age, improving with time and exposure to the elements until they become pleasantly mellow.

Cobbles and precast setts
Cobbles and sells look wonderfully natural and are extremely hard-wearing, although, cobbles are not very comfortable to walk on for long distances. Original cobbles can be difficult to obtain and laving them is a job for a professional. If it is not done expertly individual cobbles can work their way loose and be difficult to reset.

Another option which looks just as good is precast setts. This is a relatively new process which uses variously coloured concrete or clay in a mould to produce a surface indistinguishable from the real thing. The end result is very tough, and the wide choice of tints allows you to find just the right shade to suit your house and its surroundings.

Tiles, brickwork arid pavers
The patterning in bricks and pavers comes mil from the material itself but from the pattern of laying. Among the most common patterns are herringbone, stretcher bond and basket weave. Tiled paths work very well in an urban setting, particularly on the path leading to the front door, where they look suitably formal. They are probably not suitable elsewhere in the garden where they are liable to crack and become dangerously slippery with heavy use and exposure to planting. Slipperiness can also be a problem with bricks and some pavers, although a thorough clean with a high pressure jet or a scrub with a stiff brush and soapy water will help keep the problem in check. Avoid special moss and algae treatments as they are unnecessarily harsh and will eventually lake the .surface off the tiles or bricks.

When choosing tiles and bricks check dial they are frost-proof, otherwise they will soon start to flake and crumble. Pavers are very tough, being designed to withstand the weather and wear from cars and feel.

Clay and concrete tiles are available in every pattern and colour imaginable, and while the choice of colour for bricks and pavers is slightly more limited, it should be possible to find some to match your house without much difficulty.