We create a beautiful garden. No hassle. How to create a beautiful garden that does not need complicated care. In tune with nature

Beautiful colorful garden from spring to late autumn Is this not a dream? But not everyone wants to spend all their time on the site, planting flower beds and caring for the lawn. How to minimize the effort to enjoy the colors of the garden, lying on a deck chair with a book or rocking on a garden rocking chair? Firstly, competently plan the landscape and, secondly, select plants that require a minimum of care.

Think about which garden is easier for you to keep tidy - regular French, which requires frequent cutting of garden forms, flower beds, excluding even a hint of weeds, or slightly neglected English with its open plan? Logic suggests that the English version is more convenient.

The fewer flower beds in the garden, the easier it is to care for it. Choose vibrant shrubs that change their appearance throughout the season. But still it is difficult to imagine a luxurious garden without flowers at all. And they need beautiful background- lay large areas under the lawn or a picturesque lawn with clover, daisies, tenacity. Weeds are not so noticeable on it - it is enough to mow them. By the way, daisies easily tolerate a haircut and bloom remarkably, very low above the rosettes of leaves.

A beautifully blooming front garden that fills the space in front of the facade of the house will create the feeling of a painstakingly cultivated garden. But the rest of the area can be left under the lawn, surrounded by bushes. Instead of flower beds geometric shapes create mixborders with a free arrangement of different plants. They look more picturesque and look good even when overgrown with weeds.

Choose plants that are resistant to our climate and tolerate frost. Combine plants with different foliage in height, shape and color so that even when not in bloom, the garden remains decorative. Arrange mixborders at the intersection of paths to complicate the look of the garden.

If there is a landscape difference on the site, do not be afraid to create terraces and retaining walls - they will enrich the picture of the garden, make it more picturesque.

A paved patio will also do a great job of providing a backdrop for the flowers, and it will also reduce the hassle of mowing the lawn - a tiring task, even with a self-propelled gasoline lawn mower.

By the way, high-quality equipment will greatly simplify the care of the garden. In addition to a lawnmower suitable for open flat spaces, stock up on a petrol trimmer to cut grass and weeds around bushes and trees.

Lawn care advice
As soon as the grass has grown above ten centimeters, a weekly mowing (or at least once every two weeks) will accompany your holiday in the garden. Remember that the correct mowing of the lawn involves mowing with a “snake”, so that the grass crushed by the wheels falls under the blade of the mower going in the opposite direction.

The shape of the lawn and the organization of the plantings surrounding it is very important. The more separately growing plantings in the middle of the lawn, the more time you will spend. The border between lawn and solid plantings is another important decision to make maintenance easier.

Optimizing lawn mowing is not a reason to completely abandon the tapeworm in the middle of it. If we are talking about a tree, form its crown at such a height that you can walk under it freely. Plants that should be spaced apart should not be planted closer than the width of the wheels of a lawn mower, otherwise you will have to cut the grass with a trimmer, and this is quite tedious.

To avoid clogging the soil between out-of-lawn plantings, cover the soil with a decorative mulch (such as bark). Between young plantings, it is worth covering the ground with non-woven material and sprinkle with gravel - this will save you from weeding and ubiquitous grass. Or, if fresh plantings of shrubs and perennials require filling in the space between young plants, colorful annuals can be used.

What to plant in the garden
Refuse to plant annuals through seedlings - choose those that develop easily without care, do not require pre-germination, bloom for a long time and brightly, and also scatter on next year self-seeding: eschscholzia (Eschscholzia), self-seeding poppy (Papaver rhoeas), annual flax (Linum grandiflorum), cornflower (Centaurea), flaxseed (Linaria vulgaris), calendula (Calendula officinalis).

Bulb flowers: buried and forgotten
Tulips and hyacinths are magical spring flowers that delight the eye at the beginning of the season. But imagine what will be in their place in the summer, as soon as the flowers fade? Drying leaves that you still can’t cut off, so as not to deprive the bulb of the accumulated nutrients in this way. But after the leaves have completely dried, you need to have time to dig the bulbs to dry. And in late summer or early autumn, you will have to re-plant them.

Therefore, everything that needs to be dug up annually for drying or for wintering indoors and then re-planted (tulips, hyacinths, anemones, gladioli, crocosmia, and also tuberous dahlias) is, alas, better not to plant.

It is better to choose bulbs that will grow well if not dug at all. Beautiful, though not so large flowers: Pushkinia (Puschkinia), Scilla (Scilla), Muscari (Muscari), Brodiaea (Brodiaea), white flowers (Leucojum, blooms in spring and summer), crocuses (Crocus) - spring blooming and autumn blooming, camassia (Camassia) - showy blue flowers blooming in early summer, decorative bows decorating the garden with balls of flowers on high legs in mid-summer. Be sure to plant plenty of Asiatic and LA hybrids. And refrain from eastern ones, they winter much worse in central Russia. The care of these flowers is minimal - fertilizing with fertilizer for bulbs.

If you really want tulips, plant wild species: they look rather unusual. Daffodils in one place can bloom well without digging for about 4-5 years. The only problem is yellowing leaves that cannot be cut until completely dry. Therefore, choose a place for them next to perennials, which will cover them with their leaves in summer.

However, if you cannot imagine your garden without large beautiful tulips in spring, place their bulbs in plastic nets in the ground - it will be easier and faster to dig them out to dry. Allow yourself to forget about this process for a year - one summer spent in the ground without drying out will not cause such terrible damage to the tulips blooming next year. The ideal "shelter" for faded bulbs will be hostas, peonies, daylilies.

Do not be afraid of weeds and constantly fight with them. The garden, close to the country style, suits a slight neglect. The latest trends at the Chelsea Garden Show are further proof that weeds can beautify a garden.

Leave the natural forms characteristic of your soil. They will give the garden a more natural look. For example, an ordinary garden chamomile creates beautiful compositions without any participation of a gardener, links plantings together. In addition, it blooms for a long time and is very resistant to heat and drought. Even burdock with its huge leaves can look impressive, and thistles can decorate a composition with lupins and rudbeckia with their flowers.

Perennials - only the most unpretentious
Peonies require regular fertilization, watering before flowering and cutting leaves before winter, but this care will pay off a hundredfold when the garden is filled with huge fragrant flowers. Daylilies thrive in full sun and, like peonies, even after they have faded, will look decorative and neat.

Decorative foliage and beautiful arrows with white or lilac hosta bell flowers are ideal for semi-shady and shady places (including under trees, but not near the trunks). True, the hosts will need to be cut off after the first frosts, which will “beat” their leaves, and in October they will be mulched with earth for the winter.

Irises - Siberian (Irissibírica) and marsh (Iris pseudacoru), easy to care for - will decorate the humid sunny places of the garden. Before the onset of winter, they will also need to be cut at a height of 10 cm above the ground. Bearded irises will require more care: weeding, digging rhizomes ( bearded irises cease to bloom profusely and begin to hurt when their rhizomes deepen), shelters for the winter. But still, bearded irises are one of the best garden decorations in June. To make it easier to care for them, choose old proven varieties that grow quickly and are resistant to diseases.

Daisies, lupins, rudbeckias are all very resistant plants that look beautiful both in flower beds (elongated flower beds) and separately in a mixborder. They can be grown in the garden directly from seeds.

Biennials - Turkish carnation (Dianthus barbatus), stock rose (Alcea rosea) - are also suitable for discounts and mixborders and are very easy to grow. The only thing to consider is that they bloom only in the second year after planting, and then they must be removed and planted again, otherwise there will be no lush flowering.

flowering shrubs
To almost completely rid yourself of the worries of caring for the garden, create a multi-layer composition of beautifully flowering shrubs . Arrange shrubs of different types, heights and shapes around the perimeter of your garden, near the fence, next to the buildings. The more picturesque, the better - even if one of them freezes over during the winter, the neighbors will hide its untidy appearance.

The common lilac is a must-have in a low maintenance garden. In May, the fragrance of her flowers will flood the entire garden, and everyone knows about the beauty of the luxuriantly flowering bushes. Choose varieties with large double flowers - "Hope", "Beauty of Moscow" and other varieties of L. A. Kolesnikov, striking in the size of flowers and wintering well in the Moscow region. The only concern is to trim the faded brushes after flowering.

Quickly grow in a sunny place into a huge sprawling three-meter bush capable of vesicle. To create a contrasting composition with other shrubs and flowers, choose one of the brightest expressive varieties - Physocarpus Diablo with dark foliage. In June, it will be covered with white flowers, collected in slightly pinkish corymbs. In June, the mock orange will decorate the garden with its white flowers with the scent of jasmine ( garden jasmine).

Derain white (Cornus alba) in its popular variegated form blooms beautifully in spring, expressively turns pink in autumn, and its red branches are spectacular even in a winter garden that has flown around. Plant turf on moist soils, where it develops rapidly, and be sure to plant it in the back of the composition, otherwise you will soon not see neighbors behind it - turf, like the silver sucker, behaves quite aggressively, occupying much more space than what was planned.

Do not forget about the wild rose - after fragrant flowers, it has bright fruits to decorate the garden.

Decide for yourself by evaluating the amount of necessary autumn work Are you ready to see forsythia in your garden. This yellow-flowered yet leafless shrub in early spring makes a big impression. By autumn, its graceful foliage turns into different colors. But for good flowering forsythia must be hidden in a shelter during the winter near Moscow: in the fall, special attention will have to be paid to forsythia, bending its branches to the ground and wrapping it with lutrasil.

For the foreground in a composition of shrubs and perennials, spireas in all their diversity are suitable - gray spirea (Spirae a cinerea), Japanese spirea (Spiraeajaponica), Vanguta spirea (Spiraeavanhouttei) and others. All of them are very decorative: they bloom beautifully, moreover, in different time and without any maintenance. The branches of a low gray spirea are completely doused with small white flowers in the spring. In the summer and even again in the fall (when pruning after flowering), the Japanese spirea blooms with pink flowers.

Hydrangea tree (Hydrangea arborescens) and paniculate (Hydrangea paniculata) - decoration for semi-shady places in the garden. It looks great in compositions with coniferous plants.

Barberries (frequently found common barberry Berberis vulgaris and Thunberg barberry Berberisthunbergi) bloom with yellow flowers not too spectacularly, but their characteristic leaves and branches with small red berries look very decorative. Moreover, last year's berries remain on the bush. The same can be said about the European spindle tree, extremely decorative in autumn thanks to the flaming foliage and its special fruits in the form of opened bright pink boxes with orange berries inside.

Whole-leaved willow "Hakuro Nishiki" (Salixintegra Hakuro Nishiki) - another ornamental shrub, which does not require care, which does not have flowers, but foliage is worthy of becoming a decoration of the garden. The white leaves on the young shoots of this willow are painted in the sun in pale pink tones.

Trees in bloom and more
Usually you have to wait too long until the young trees planted show themselves in all their glory, and not every gardener can master the planting of large trees. So if your garden already has large trees, let them be the basis for creating compositions from shrubs and perennials, because without them it is difficult to achieve a sense of natural luxury and scope in the most beautiful garden.

Of what is worth adding to the garden, not counting the beautifully flowering apple trees, cherries, plums, is the bird cherry in its red-leaved form. Horse chestnut with flower candles and decorative foliage good even as a young tree. Manchurian walnut (Juglans mandshurica) due to large openwork leaves, growth rate, excellent winter hardiness is another candidate for your garden. The red-leaved forms of oak and maple will support the purple barberry bushes, the red-brown foliage of the Diabolo vesicle with the color of the foliage.

evergreen garden
Must add to the garden coniferous shrubs and trees. Junipers different forms perfectly connected with each other different plants in a mix-border - from junipers and thuja alone, you can already create a decorative garden, playing with the color of the needles (yellow-colored Aurea forms, white-tipped Albospikata) and the shape of the plants. All these plants can be easily found in nurseries: more budgetary - in the form of very small seedlings and more expensive - at the age of three to five years. What to choose depends only on the budget.

Of course, the competent planting of all these plants and correct set fertilizer in planting pits desired width and depth - will require a lot of strength, but only once. And with the most minimal care, such a garden will sparkle with all the richness of colors in a few years. You just need to give him a little freedom.

So, you are a happy owner of a summer cottage. Moreover, its dimensions allow you to set up a beautiful garden - the one you have seen more than once in numerous booklets offering landscape design ideas. Of course for correct layout garden it is better to invite a specialist. But what if the budget is limited? Use the recommendations on how to create a beautiful garden with your own hands without spending extra money.

How to create a garden with your own hands without extra spending?

Before you properly set up a garden on a plot without extra expenses, think about where these costs come from, what do we pay for when we buy something? The answer is obvious: in the end, we pay money for someone's time, knowledge and experience, work. Although knowledge and experience is also the time spent on acquiring them. We spend money in order to save our time: to plant a big tree right away, and not wait five years for it to grow from a tiny twig (it's just that someone spent this time for us and worked for it to grow in a nursery).

We spend money to have a landscape designer design a garden space for us, because we ourselves do not understand the intricacies of perception, harmony and composition. We spend money so that a team of five workers in three days put up a fence that would take a month to do alone.

But if you decide that you need design, wood, and a fence, they will not arise on their own. Therefore, if you do not want to spend money on them, you will have to do everything yourself. And the result is very often much better than from hired labor. After all, you won’t cheat for yourself and you will do everything at the highest level!

How beautiful to set up a garden and at the same time save money? In order to become an advanced gardener or your own landscape designer, you do not need to graduate from universities. A smart person with a school education can do anything, his knowledge is more than enough to understand the intricacies of gardening. The missing information can be drawn from books and the Internet. What remains is the engine of this whole process — interest. A garden with your own hands is very exciting, and gardening can become an exciting hobby, a new direction of development. And the result will be a magnificent garden.

To make a beautiful garden with your own hands, as practice shows, is possible for everyone. When you create a garden on your own, you learn a lot, and the most versatile knowledge is required, from physics and chemistry to biology and artistic principles. It takes time to study the sciences, but in the end, all this contributes to your personal growth. The acquired skills will always remain with you, like any other education. And who knows if they will come in handy in the future?

Look at photos of beautiful gardens with your own hands - many of them are no different from those created by professionals:

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There are people who started with an in-depth study of aspects garden planning to create their own garden, as a result of which they became famous landscape designers.

How to plan a garden the right way

If you are closely engaged in studying the question of how to set up a garden, remember that optimal layout lies in simplicity and conciseness.

The economical gardener is his own designer. Do-it-yourself garden planning mistakes are expensive, an eyesore and result in additional costs. And since the stage of landscaping a garden is very important, it is better to take it most seriously, study all aspects of planning, review many photographs, cultivating and honing taste, considering preferences.

If the site is not bare and has been used before, it has the buildings, structures you need, as well as trees that you would certainly like to save. Before you properly set up a garden in a summer cottage, you need to put all this on the plan (it is also desirable to take into account neighboring buildings). Also, when planning a beautiful garden, you need to orient yourself to the cardinal points, determine the direction of the slope, if any, the type of soil, and find out at what depth the groundwater is located. All this is the primary design data, the basis that must be reckoned with.

It's easy to say "apply to the plan". How to do it in practice? How to “arrange” garden objects on paper relative to each other in the same way as they are in reality? If you have enough flat area, this can be easily done on your own, without resorting to other people's services and without spending finances or physical strength.

As you can see in the photo, for planning a garden on paper (optimally millimetric) you will need a ruler, a compass and a pencil, for “drawing” on the ground - a rope, tape measure and pegs:

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A rope with pegs tied on both sides will play the role of a compass, a tape measure - a ruler, and you can draw lines by driving in pegs. In order to outline a straight line, it is enough to drive in pegs at its ends; to mark a curve, you need as many pegs as possible.

To properly plan a garden, it is best to take measurements in early spring or late autumn, when there is no tall vegetation that can interfere with stringing or seeing something important. To determine the location of buildings, it is enough to note several of their angles and linear dimensions, for trees - the center of the trunk and the radius of the crown. If the crown is shifted to one side, a larger radius.

To transfer garden objects to the plan, one of the theorems of geometry is used: if all sides of two triangles are equal, these triangles are equal. At the site, it is necessary to select at least two literally starting points for measurements. They are always there. These can be the corners of the house, the corners of the site, an electric pole, etc. These points should be separated by several meters, not be nearby.

When you have determined the location of, for example, an old apple tree relative to the house, it becomes another starting point. The next object gives another point, and so on. There are more and more counted objects (=starting points). Fixing objects one by one, we move around the site and as a result we get the desired plan of "assets".

Only after understanding and taking into account what you have, you can start planning what you want.

As shown in the photo, before setting up a garden, be sure to draw a few plans to figure out as many options as possible:

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At this stage, do not think about the layout of the trees in the garden and the cost of implementation, just draw a picture. By superimposing tracing paper on the base plan, you can get many copies and draw on them what is planned. You can also use computer programs for design. They have many advantages, for example, they can immediately represent your plan with a three-dimensional model.

And one more important aspect that must be taken into account before setting up a garden: trees and shrubs tend to grow strongly! Approximate sizes of some trees and shrubs 10-15 years after planting small seedlings presented in this table.

	crown radius	Height
Scotch pine
Spruce common and prickly
Larch
Umbrella apple tree		trunk height +0.5 m
Euonymus european
Hydrangeas paniculata
Bubbles
Pedunculate oak
Oak red

Landscaping a garden: design layout on the site (with photo)

When designing a garden landscape design, first of all, decide on the style. Look at photographs of gardens on the Internet, magazines and books. Pay attention only to the general feeling. What do you like? Which gardens in the landscaping of the site attract you the most? Strict, with straight lines, angles and an abundance of geometric shapes, or something like a wild forest with winding paths and clearings?

The first are regular gardens, the second are gardens in natural style. Usually regular gardens are more appropriate in large spaces and with houses. classical style. They require perfect cleanliness and accuracy, constant care and support. Almost everything is cut in them: from grass to bushes and trees, and this is a lot of work. They can be done in small gardens, but this requires knowledge of many landscape techniques. Otherwise, a vulgar mixture of French and Nizhny Novgorod comes out.

With natural gardens when landscape designing a site is easier. They are more democratic and less demanding of conditions, can be solved in various ways, they are as multifaceted as nature, they imitate it. Probably for budget garden it's a more appropriate style.

How do-it-yourself garden planning is done is shown in the photo below:

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Look at the resulting plan. Is it beautiful as an abstract picture? Not as a plan, but as a graphic object, a drawing? If yes, then the garden will turn out beautiful. You can start implementing.

A good test of the correctness of the garden design layout is the view of the garden in the off-season and in winter. In summer, when the garden is dressed in foliage, it hides and smooths out imperfections. A bare garden in gloomy weather, without bright flowers and contrasting leaves, shows its true nature. Do you plan to live in the garden year-round? This is especially important for you.

In the process of how to create a garden with your own hands, do not forget about moderation and accuracy.

It is not enough to create a garden (although it is the implementation of landscape ideas that takes the lion's share of finances). He still needs to be taken care of! And that also requires work and/or money. Who will mow the lawn? Who weeds the flower beds? Trim trees, cut hedges? You yourself? Is there enough energy and time? Or employees? Are they affordable?

You say it's not all that necessary? And here it is not. Let us return to the comparison with a beauty: if she is not combed, her teeth are not brushed, her clothes are not ironed, will her beauty be so noticeable? The garden is a match for her: the grass needs to be cut, the shaggy lawn ceases to be a wonderful backdrop for beautiful flower beds. Plantings need to be weeded, otherwise their structure and outline of plants are lost, or even the flowers will not be visible at all due to weeds. Trees without care get sick and lose their decorative effect. Perhaps the neglected garden has some charm of decadence, but it is sad in it.

Accuracy for the beauty of garden landscape design is perhaps in second place after the original layout. And what to do, how to calculate your strength in order to maintain it at the proper level, without driving yourself into exhausting work and without attracting specialists from outside?

Before you set up a garden on the site, first of all, it is worth subduing appetites. It is very tempting to have a lot of land, and besides, a large garden provides more options in terms of design.

However, from my own experience I can say that without living permanently in the garden, it is almost impossible for 1-2 people to maintain 20-25 acres. So that the garden does not become a heavy duty, it is advisable for a small family to limit itself to 10-15 acres. That is, accuracy is largely determined by moderation.

But what if there is already a large garden? An attempt to embrace the immensity on your own will mean a fiasco. It is better (at least for a start) to select some piece of the garden and work on it, bringing it to perfection. Well, if it is visually separated from the rest of the parts. In a couple of years, on 1-2 acres, you will have an ideal corner where you can come to admire and relax. And at the same time get a good workout, make some mistakes and be able to take this experience into the rest of the space if you decide to master it. In this case, it is desirable to draw up a plan for the entire site from the very beginning and adhere to it.

As shown in the photo of the landscape design of the garden, in addition to ennobling a small piece, you can plant trees that form the basis of the site, but require a long time to develop to full size (oaks, maples, apple trees, etc.):

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They can grow in a not very combed part, it is enough to keep the trunk circles mulched. But by the time the hands reach these corners, the trees will grow up, and the backbone of the garden will already be laid.

Moderation matters in another aspect as well. When the price of plants is not too important, a lot of not very necessary ones are bought in passing - only for beautiful needles or because the picture on the label is pretty. As a result, one problem first arises: where to plant. Soon another: what to do with the overgrown. But the main problem is that the garden, as if it no longer belongs to you, but to these bought strangers who filled it. There are a lot of plants, they are planted randomly, they crowd each other, they do not combine well with each other. It turns out ugly. And to get rid of part of the planted, oh, what a pity!

As shown in the photo, in the garden with your own hands, each species, it is better to plant a variety in an array of several plants, so that the size of such a flap matches the environment, other plantings and design elements:

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Most perennials are not a problem to propagate to such an amount in 2-3 years from one division. Savings and beauty is evident.

The same applies to many elements of the garden. What is usually included in the "landscape set" on the site? Lawn, "alpine" slide, pond and / or stream or fountain, humpback bridge, gazebo, pergola. Of all this, only a lawn and a gazebo can be considered really necessary (and even then not for every family). Everything else is just ways of dividing or connecting space, means, not an end. And, alas, being erected on a six to ten hundredth plot, where there is already a house, a garage and a bathhouse, they overload it excessively. Is it possible to save money on all this? Certainly yes! If you can refuse these elements, it is better to refuse all of them, or at least move them to the very bottom of the list of plans. If you really want to still entertain yourself, select only one element from this list (except for the lawn). One! But make it a decent size and quality.

How to properly and beautifully set up a garden at their summer cottage (with photo)

Often, when talking about gardening, they mention that it is an ecological activity. Usually, when laying a garden, the owner adds soil (destroying the existing soil layer), arranges drainage and watering system, changing the hydrology of the site, destroys weeds (native plants), planting poorly adapted exotics instead. It seems that the ecological approach is still more likely to preserve the original natural conditions of the site, rather than such global transformations.

When it comes to finances, it's all very expensive. Moving hundreds of cubic meters of soil, digging deep ditches, purchasing and installing irrigation equipment - it's not realistic to do it alone or with the help of a small family on weekends. We have to hire workers and equipment.

Look: the vast majority of gardens in Russia are located on the plain. It is clear that this does not automatically mean a perfectly flat area. But the slopes are usually very gentle, soil erosion and leaching nutrients does not happen to them. There is no need to bring such a site to the same height or make terraces, and even more so pour artificial mountains. If there are no real mountains and hills in the landscape surrounding the garden, such a structure looks artificial.

Adding "fertile" soil often leads to directly opposite results. For example, in the middle lane, loams are the most common, which are excellent soil for agriculture and gardening: they are nutritious and moisture-intensive. But inexperienced gardeners think that fertile soil should be black, and the fact that after rain water lingers on the loam, and they also dig heavily, are considered huge shortcomings. A low-nutrient peat-sand mixture is brought to the site under the guise of black soil, and then kilograms of mineral fertilizers are spent on top dressing.

Drainage, of course, is a pleasant thing. Ideally, it solves the problems of excess water in the garden, especially in the spring after the snow melts and during rainy periods. However, when you divert meltwater instead of allowing it to soak deep into the soil, you create a summer drought problem. Now you understand why drainage and watering always come with a kit? This is a bit exaggerated, but true. For the convenience of walking in the garden after rain in shoes, not rubber boots, you have to pay. Do you really need this convenience?

Look at the old orchards: no one imported tens of tons of soil to create them. And they grow and bear fruit, often even being abandoned. And these are fruit, which are very critical to excessive moisture and lack of nutrition. Ornamental plants for the most part are even less demanding, the main thing is to choose the right ones for specific conditions.

It turns out that at the stage of creating a garden according to current standards and rules, the site is brought to certain standard conditions and a system is created to control and maintain these conditions. Then the garden is filled with standard plants. Surely such a garden will be both beautiful and comfortable. But it does not satisfy our conditions: it is expensive. And in many ways lost the charm of a particular place.

Instead of creating conditions for standard plants in a beautiful garden with your own hands, take into account the special conditions of our garden and surrender to them: use, do not fight them, planting special plants suitable for our garden. Do you have a flat area? Let him stay that way! No need for mountains and ravines, make flower beds from traditional cultures. Slope? Excellent, water drains faster and it becomes dry, you can think about an alpine slide.

Close to groundwater? And why not arrange a water garden, dig shallow, but extensive ponds without waterproofing, and due to the excavated soil, slightly raise the area around the house where water is still undesirable? A cottage on a peat bog? Let's drop the idea of ​​a rose garden and make a garden of heather and rhododendrons. Given any natural conditions, you can make a beautiful garden. Yes, the set of plants for him will be limited and different from the standard, and their selection will require quite deep knowledge. But you don’t have to spend money on global transformations, and the garden will acquire a unique face.

These photos show how to properly set up a garden on the site, taking into account all the above recommendations:

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Trees when planning a garden: the best plants for the middle lane

The best plants for the garden are simple and hardy. Exotics and rarities, experiments with novelties - very an exciting activity. However, passion for them leads to significant costs, as well as the inevitable loss of plants. After all, this is a roulette - to buy something new and find out whether it makes our climate or not.

If the virus of collecting has passed you, but there is a goal to create a beautiful environment for life with minimal reasonable costs, the approach to the plant component should be different. You don't need experiments, you need results. The best perennial plants for the garden are trees and shrubs that have already been tested, proven and resistant to the conditions of our site. Such plants develop well, require minimal care, almost do not get sick. They give a predictable result, which is exactly what we need!

If you live in the country all year round, the importance of the stability of unpretentious perennials for the garden is even higher, because few people want to admire shelters for half a year.

Endurance, simplicity and provenness are especially important for arboreals. After all, they form the backbone of the garden, shape its appearance. Imagine that you planted an exotic tree at your own risk, several winters were mild, and it grew decently, fitting into the composition. But it happens harsh winter, and our tree freezes up to the level of snow. The composition disappears, and the emptiness in place of the tree is like a fallen tooth. And the replacement will not grow up soon. Reliable species and varieties will not let you down, and will only grow and please more and more year by year.

You can also look at old plantings in parks or private gardens. Anything that has been successfully growing for 20 or more years can be considered ideal plants in terms of resistance. Just do not forget to note the conditions in which the specimen that struck you is located: in the shade or in the sun, in a dry or damp place.

What usually catches the eye in the garden? Especially ladies? Perennials. Bright, profusely blooming. Phloxes, peonies, daylilies, roses are especially popular and do not cease to be fashionable - everything that blooms magnificently. But close your eyes and imagine a rectangular bed of peonies in the middle of a weed field with no woody surroundings. Is it beautiful?

So, despite the fact that they are the first to catch the eye, the main ones in the garden are not brightly flowering perennials. They are more like costume details, a brooch, a fashionable scarf or a handbag. In fact, the garden is formed by trees and shrubs, coniferous and deciduous, evergreen and deciduous. They create volume, their trunks and branches set the rhythm, graphics, they delimit zones, fill the space. Among the unpretentious plants for the garden there can be both beautiful flowering and decorative leaf crops of various sizes and crown habit. The wood component is especially important in winter. Just think: out of 12 months of the year, nothing blooms in the middle lane for 6 months! It's half a year! If the garden is your daily habitat, not only during the warm season, trees become even more important, because it is them and only them that you will admire 5-6 months a year - in winter. Not a single phlox or rose blooms for so long!

Therefore, give priority to winter-hardy hardy plants that not only and not so much bloom luxuriously, but are also good for something else for a long time. Among the best plants for a garden in the middle lane are derains, maples and conifers. At the Derens brightest color shoots in winter, many maples turn amazing colors in autumn, and conifers give green in winter and in the off-season, during the grayest periods.

Look at the photo, how to set up a garden on the site and what trees to plant on the site:

Photo gallery

These are the most unpretentious plants for the garden, they are much easier to care for. If they are chosen correctly, they need special attention only at the time of planting and the first season after it (watering). When they are rooted, woody ones develop almost independently. All that is required of their owner is perhaps some adjustment by pruning once a year, control of diseases and pests, as well as keeping the near-stem space clean.

Plantings of perennials constantly need care: watering, fertilizing, removing weeds, faded inflorescences, transplanting, thinning. Pay attention to abandoned gardens: what survives in them? Trees and shrubs. Perennials are consumed by weeds.

And now look: with a minimum of labor, woody ones give a long-term decorative effect. In addition, it is simply impossible to transplant many mature trees, and the loss large tree literally breaks a hole in the composition. Therefore, pay special attention to their selection and landing. After all, these are the best unpretentious plants for the garden, its skeleton. And fashionable clothes - perennials - are faster and easier to pick up or change. They can be postponed until later.

As for annual flowers, if you want to save money, you can do without them altogether or reduce their number to a minimum. After all, they have to be bought or grown every year, and this is either financial or labor costs. The undoubted advantage of letniki in a particularly long flowering: many delight us for 3-4 months.

Use local crops when choosing the best hardy plants for your garden. The same applies to materials: the more exotic they are, the more expensive they are. Yes, they can be beautiful and easy to use, but they are mined far away, which means that the cost due to delivery increases many times over. Another thing is local materials. Much can be "extracted" even on your own site: for example, in mountainous regions there is a lot of own stone, and in the middle lane in some places boulders of various sizes come across in abundance in the soil.

If the site is poor in "minerals", there are bound to be quarries nearby, where everything is much cheaper than in the city in the stone markets. Small quantities or waste can often be collected free of charge.

The same applies to plants. Most garden centers and nurseries sell imported material. And while it reaches us, its cost increases by 3-4 times. In addition, often suppliers do not understand planting material and its sustainability, but trade in what is cheaper and brighter - it is bought better. Therefore, in garden centers you need to behave like in a pharmacy: even if there are a lot of bright beautiful boxes (plants) around, you only need to buy what the doctor ordered (or at least you yourself outlined in advance).

It is difficult to take care of the garden when weeds advance on one side, and the garden and paths grow on the other. You water the garden in the morning, and by the afternoon everything dries up again. Fruit trees give a poor-quality harvest, from a strong wind the paths are covered with foliage and twigs. Do gardeners have few worries?

What plants to use in plantings to reduce the required care? Indeed, in addition to weeding and cutting, you also need to water, feed, seat and harvest. Sometimes even a small garden can be a big headache, especially if the site has been developed recently.

Absolutely all of my clients imagine a small care garden as an absolutely gorgeous modern garden. landscape style, where there is a minimum of artificial coverings, where plants do not require shearing, fertilizing, and preferably watering. Another condition is year-round decorativeness with lush bloom. How about an easy task?

Of course, if you do not want to cut, water and weed, then you should reconsider some points of your preferences. If you create a landscape garden that blooms profusely without weeding and cutting, you will waste the work of the designer and your money. You can't have a quality garden without proper care.

We clean houses, wash windows and floors, wash and iron. But before you get to your house, both the guest and you first of all see the garden. This is the calling card of your home. Therefore, a garden, in order to look worthy of the money invested in it, requires a lot of effort and time.

fabulous blooming gardens without care does not happen by definition. If the plants die, give few fruits, bloom sluggishly and for a short time, do not develop, go bald, then the problem is not in the garden and not in the selection of planting material, but solely in the absence of elementary, but labor-intensive care.

Can we create a garden where we can really relax and enjoy, instead of endless cleaning? There are ways (and there are quite a few). They will minimize the cost of time and effort on the site, while maintaining its ideal appearance.

It won't be cheap, but either we pay for convenience, or we work all weekend.

planting material

To begin with, let's analyze the main culprit that creates most of the difficulties in working in the garden - planting material. These are fruit and ornamental trees and shrubs, annual and perennial flowers, as well as vegetable and berry crops. All these plants have their own special category of growth rate, growth area and care requirements.

For ease of care, it is necessary to clearly delimit the areas of plant location. As a rule, the garden is located compactly, in a part of the site protected from the north wind and sufficiently illuminated. Plantings of trees and groups of plants are best placed around the perimeter of the site, creating a beautiful clearing from the lawn.

I don't like having trees and bushes in the middle of the lawn. Firstly, it is more difficult to mow the lawn around the plants, secondly, the fragmentation of plantings makes watering more difficult, and thirdly, deciduous plants will drop foliage and twigs directly onto the lawn, and removing foliage, and even more so fruits, is an extremely tedious task.

plant growth zone
As I wrote above, each plant has its own growth zone, some grow aggressively, quickly filling the space allotted to them, others are extremely reluctant to grow for the first five or six years of their life. To prevent the first plants from suffocating the second, you should consider the zones of their location and protect each planting zone in order to reduce the influence of some plants on others.

Growth restriction. Edges and borders
Suppose, in one mixborder, Canadian spruce ‘Konika’ was planted, the growth rate of which is extremely low, and the clover, cuff, spurge. These aggressive perennials do well with semi-shaded group plantings, but you just need to monitor their growth every year.

To pacify and organize growth zones, plastic or metal edges are usually dug in. Edges over 20 cm wide should be used so that they protrude slightly from the ground.

Edges are good for more than just separating mixborders. This method also works in the raspberry garden. Only, when creating a raspberry, you need to dig in the plates as deep as possible. Also, the edges will help create the perfect line between the flower garden and the lawn. Through it, the lawn will never begin to grow into a flower garden, which means that you do not have to trim its edge every year to make it look neat. There is a danger that without an edge, weeds from the flower garden will climb onto the lawn and it will begin to thin out from the edges, which will reduce its service life and decorative effect.

Selection of decorative
Everyone dreams of a beautiful garden. But, for some reason, when choosing ornamental plants the main attention is paid to their flowering. If we want to create a not troublesome, but very beautiful garden, we should give preference to decorative leafy plants rather than flowering ones. And it is even better that 70% of the range of tree and shrub forms consist of coniferous species.

We will add flowering due to perennials, which do not clog the area with foliage so much, do not create inedible fruits we do not need, and by the end of the season they simply mow. Colors in the garden will create bright planters with annual flowers.

Slow growing plants and their benefits
If you create a garden mainly from slow-growing plants, then you get plants that retain their shape for a very long time without requiring a haircut. But such plants are best taken as adults, otherwise you will have to enjoy a half-empty garden for 5-6 years. But the minus of such plants is high price for mature plants.

I really want an orchard, but the fallen fruits have to be constantly removed. Is there a solution?
In one garden, I saw a solution to this problem. Simple, convenient and, oddly enough, rare. The owner had always wanted to create a large deck patio, but because he had a lot of large old apple, plum and pear trees, he put deck around them. All the fruits fell on the decking, which was made at a slight slope towards the fence. There, the owner made a gutter, where he swept away all the fallen fruits with a brush, and the remnants were simply washed off with water from a hose. Thus, his patio was always clean, without wasps and the smell of sour fruits, and most importantly - without rotting fruits, which can infect the soil around the tree with a fungus.

Herbicides in weed control

For every gardener, weeds in vegetable gardens and flower beds are major problem. After all, their removal takes a lot of time and effort, which after a working week I would like to spend on vacation.

When weeds appear locally and in small quantities, this is still nothing. But when you purchase a plot where a new garden is required, the most simple solution it may be the use of herbicides to destroy them.

Where and when to apply herbicides
There are various types of herbicidal preparations, but for garden plots it is best to use organic, systemic penetration, continuous action. Such preparations generally penetrate through the stomata of the leaf blades of all plants to which they have been sprayed. When the sun sets, the plant begins to "inhale" the drug, which spreads to absolutely all its parts, and within one week it completely dies. After the weeds have dried, the plants are raked, burned, and the soil is plowed up, bringing up the roots of plants that could survive.

This procedure is carried out on neglected areas in spring in May, in July and in August-September, followed by plowing for winter. So you remove all unnecessary, preventing unwanted germination of seeds that have had time to crumble. In the spring of next year, it is already possible to calmly line the lawn and plant the desired plants.

The herbicide should be chosen depending on the type of overgrowth of the site. I always use "Tornado" as it also extends to tree crops, which are always plentiful in heavily overgrown areas.

Isn't it harmful?
Many gardeners are wary of using herbicides for fear of harm to humans. If you do not spray the drug between plants in the garden, then there is nothing to fear. Preparations disintegrate in the soil after two weeks, along with the remains of dead plants. And if you plant a garden the next year after pre-autumn tillage, then you can not think about it at all.

It is better, of course, to be sure of the composition of the herbicide you are using. It is important that it does not contain heavy metals and harmful poisons. Use organic! They have a lesser effect, but do not accumulate harmful substances in the soil.

Rolled lawn instead of sowing

What garden without a green lawn?! Walk barefoot on neatly cut grass, here it is - a summer resident's dream! But sometimes it seems that such lawns exist only in England or America, which is shown to us on TV. In these countries, gardeners pay special attention to the creation of a lawn. They carefully and painstakingly grow it from the very seeds.

In order to achieve a dense, high-quality, dense seed lawn cover, you need to take special care of it in the first two to three years. It is during this time that its roots form into a strong turf, which will delight the eye with its uniformity, softness, density and prevent the growth of weeds.

For this, the first year after sowing the seeds, do not walk on the lawn at all, otherwise it will damage the roots. Yes, the grass grows quite quickly, it will have to be cut, but there will not be real density yet. Such a lawn is cut every 10-14 days so that grass bushes form. Do not forget about regular top dressing, mandatory regular watering, removal of all fallen leaves, otherwise the lawn will quickly turn yellow in these places, and bald spots will appear in which weeds can settle.

For the density of the turf, the lawn is aerated by piercing it with special boots or a special roller with spikes.

The device of a seed lawn is cheaper only at first, but in order for the garden to be perfect, it is better not to spend a lot of effort on correcting the flaws that are inevitable when caring for a seed lawn, and simply lay a roll.

Benefits of the lawn type
Let's compare the device of two types of lawn roll and seed.

seed lawn

1) Beating weeds in the prepared area 2) Shed the soil 12 hours before laying 3) Level the soil with a rake before laying 4) Lay in a checkerboard pattern and compact 5) Water You can walk on the lawn the next day. After two weeks the lawn grew

1) Get rid of weeds 2) Shed the soil before sowing 3) It is IDEAL (!!!) to level the ground so that there are no hollows where they stepped. It is important. 4) Sow seeds thickly 5) Tamp with boards or a roller. You can't walk on the seeds! They move, leaning on the spread out boards. 6) Pour 1 cm of soil for protection from birds, erosion and weathering. 7) It is better to tamp again with a roller or board. So it will be seen where the earth was not filled up 8) It is important that there is no rain in the first days after sowing. Otherwise, the seeds will be washed into puddles, and they will germinate in bunches. 9) Water evenly without puddles You can STEP on the lawn in three to four weeks. You can walk the first planting season only during mowing. With frequent walking on the lawn, he will quickly show bald spots and overgrow with weeds.

It seems to me that things are easier with roll. Considering that we are creating a low-maintenance garden, this material suits us much more, and the cost of its creation and maintenance in the future is even lower than that of a seed lawn, and the quality is higher.

Selection of rolls in nurseries. Where do we save?
There are only TWO types of lawn. The first is 100% bluegrass and the second is fescue+bluegrass. 100% bluegrass is used for private landscaping. It is darker, more uniform and looks more terry.

A mixture of fescue and bluegrass is mainly lined with football fields, parks and other green areas where sufficient watering and careful maintenance are not expected. Such a lawn is cheaper, it is lighter and less decorative, it seems more rough in texture. But it is resistant to all the hardships of this world: the scorching sun, trampling, it can survive even in a dry summer without proper watering, though there will be dead plots.

For private landscaping, we still take 100% bluegrass. After all, we want a beautiful garden with uniform emerald grass? And watering shouldn't be a problem.

If you go to the turf grass nursery website, you will see a list of different types with different prices. Remember one rule: there are only TWO types of lawn. The rest is just marketing tricks :)

If you see in a lawn mixture consisting of 100% bluegrass, the names of its different varieties - do not be fooled. Bluegrass in all formulations is exactly the same. And even an expert will not tell the ratio, since the seeds are supplied with a probable re-grading.

Choose 100% bluegrass in the composition at the lowest price, and simply ignore additional information about whether it is parterre lawn, shade-tolerant or something else. Thus, instead of 130 rubles per roll, you can pay 80. Knowing this, you can save a lot on the construction of a visually expensive lawn.

How we save
If you turn to specialists in arranging the lawn, who, with their team, will buy and lay the lawn themselves, give back from 600 rubles per m². You will have to develop the soil yourself, but the experts do everything else on their own.

The price of a rolled bluegrass lawn is on average 100 rubles. There are two rolls in one square meter. That is, 200 rubles per m², if you install it yourself. Add here manual roller, which costs 8,000 rubles, but you can use a smooth barrel filled with water instead. Count yourself. Of course, there are benefits, but you should not forget about labor costs.

Garden with high beds and paved paths

Creating a clean and hassle-free garden is not at all an easy task. Neat raised beds in frames, framed by paved paths - this is a gardener's dream. But when creating, you may encounter difficulties: weeding and loosening.

How to prepare the land? without using herbicides
When setting up a garden, you can get rid of weeds without using herbicides in one season. Spread black agrospan over the entire area, it allows water to pass through and prevents plants from breaking through. One season will be enough for all the vegetation under it to wither away. If you use a film, then the soil under it will become moldy due to insufficient ventilation, and then you will have to get rid of the fungus that will affect some crops. This is how I got rid of weeds in the greenhouse. The method worked great!

What are raised beds made of?
Raised beds are best made from light plastic. The frames are connected using self-tapping screws, so they can be easily removed so that you can move or plow the bed itself. If there is no plastic, then take boards. They will last for three years, but if you initially saturate them with engine oil, then they will last 5 years, and you don’t need more, during this time you still want to move something in the garden.

Cons and pros of high beds
Of the pluses, I can note a pleasant view, cleanliness, a neat edge without weeds, besides, in raised beds, the soil heats up faster, which means that plants develop faster, and it is more convenient to work on such beds.

The downside is that you can’t do a lot of such beds, you have to remove the frames for the time of plowing, you have to dig carefully with a shovel so as not to pile the earth on the path.

How to make paths so that weeds do not grow
At the base of any path in the garden, you need to lay out any geomaterial, be it agrospan or geotextiles. You can already pour or stack on them whatever your heart desires. The advantage of such fabrics is that if you use wood chips or crushed stone (chips are better), then if necessary, you can always simply roll up the path, pour everything from it and move it to another place. If you want to make paths from tiles, then it is better to take geotextiles.

Autowatering and autofertilization

Half the time spent tending a garden is watering. Ideally, it is better to water before or after the sun starts to burn, that is, the watering time falls on the early morning or evening, when after the summer heat you just want to sit in the garden and relax, enjoying the evening coolness.

well made automatic watering of the entire site will radically change your leisure time in summer season. It will cost a lot, but from experience I can say that you definitely don’t need to save on such things. If something in the system fails, there will be no problems. I always work with Hunter and RainBird systems (made in the USA). In my opinion, this is the best equipment in terms of reliability that can be used on the site without worrying that something will be covered.

Automatic watering system
Modern automatic irrigation is not just water flowing through pipes and watering the site through sprinklers. This is first of all a complex system led by a computer that programs watering at the right day and time, these are rain sensors that do not allow water to be transferred in vain, these are electromagnetic valves that distribute watering over the entire area, these are filters that prevent sprinklers from clogging, and, of course, these are big system hoses and connections of different types and diameters.

Any system of such watering must be carefully thought out. For ease of use, landings are best divided into zones. Do not plant plants in the middle of the lawn, as not every Christmas tree is useful to spray regularly, but the lawn needs it.

Different zones require different watering frequencies, so using a computer is extremely convenient to program all this for the whole season.

Irrigation varieties
For different types of plants, there are different ways to deliver water. Drip irrigation is an economical irrigation that is widely used in vegetable gardens and greenhouses. Regular watering during hot daytime can cause burns on the leaves. vegetable crops, and if you organize a drip, there will be no problems.

It is watered for a long time, but the water consumption is very low and clearly under the bush under which it is required, weeds will thus be much less and there will be no puddles. Such watering is good to use in group plantings. In order not to carry out sprinkling of plants every time, the delivery of moisture directly under the root will reduce water consumption and improve the quality of watering.

Surface irrigation is irrigation on brackets, which is suitable for large areas, and irrigation with rotary sprinklers and sprinklers, which is suitable for lawns and flower beds. Effectively moisturizes, but it is not convenient to water narrow strips of flower beds among paving, near the house, arbors and other hard-to-reach areas.

Root watering or subsoil watering is presented in the form of a perforated corrugated hose with small holes through which moisture enters the soil.

Water consumption is higher than with drip, but, firstly, the hose is dug in and is not visible, and secondly, it moisturizes in all hard-to-reach places without puddles and without dirt.

Such watering works great in conjunction with drip irrigation in group plantings. If we use drip irrigation under trees and bushes, then we have root irrigation among perennials. Of course, they can be watered with the help of the surface, but some perennials are so high that moisture does not always break through them to the smaller ones in the background.

Improving the quality of plant growth with regular watering of the entire area
When all the plants in your garden get enough moisture, you have no problems with wilting and premature leaf fall, the need to cut the yellowed and withered parts of perennials is reduced, and you do not need to worry about the quality of the crop.

By the way, using the same irrigation system, you can fertilize the necessary zones without any problems. A stationary barrel is mounted in the system, in which you dilute water with fertilizer, lower the water supply hose into it, select which zone you need to fertilize and simply start the system. No buckets with ladles and a sore back.

How much can auto-irrigation cost?
For a plot of 10 acres, an automatic irrigation system of the brands that I wrote above, with a computer and everything you need, will cost about 300,000-400,000 rubles. This amount will include everything: design, installation work (and there is a lot of it!) And the equipment itself, wires, hoses and fittings, plus setting / programming of all valves.

I said it won't be cheap. But what will you do for the sake of free rest in the summer?

Robot lawn mower, trimmer or scooter?

So, we laid the lawn, equipped it with irrigation, and now our lawn is growing lush, thick. And what is the best way to mow so as not to harm either the watering equipment or the lawn itself?

I will say right away that the trimmer is used ONLY in narrow and hard-to-reach places for a conventional lawn mower: under the fence, around fences, along the walls of the house, arbors and retaining walls. Never, under any circumstances, touch a turf-covered lawn with a trimmer. Uneven mowing will damage the structure of the cover. In some places, where a lot has been cut, it will burn out and bald spots will appear, in others it will begin to spike. A trimmer can damage sprinklers, and each of them costs about 1000 rubles. This attachment is not for mowing open lawn areas. For this better fit any self-propelled lawn mower.

Most lawn mowers are equipped with bags to collect the chopped grass, which you will definitely need to collect and then can be used as fertilizer or dried as mulch. On hot days, the mulch left on the lawn will help protect it from fading. Of course, with her, he will not seem so terry and emerald, but it's better. yellow color freshly burned lawn.

Mow in season every 7-10 days and it takes a lot of time. And since our task is to create a lazy and as independent garden as possible, it is worth paying attention to modern developments.

An analogue of a home robot vacuum cleaner, a robot lawn mower, is gaining more and more popularity. They have a base on which they are cleaned and charged independently, a mowing zone is allocated with laser or cable limits.

In America and European countries, bases for recharging robots are made in the form of stones or decorative houses. By the way, the edges that separate the lawn from the flower beds will provide you with an invaluable service, serving as a natural limiter.

Robotic lawn mowers do not mow quickly, but constantly, maintaining the lawn at one point of growth. Working days are programmed on the robot itself. He works in any weather, even in the rain. And the price for this miracle of technology varies from 50,000 to 100,000 depending on the brand and the required mowing area.

Again, not cheap, but you will completely forget about the need to mow the lawn once a week and collect long cut blades of grass from it. After all, the robot lawnmower mulches the grass so much that it goes into the ground every other day, improving the quality of the turf.

Mulch: crushed stone, sawdust, wood chips, cones-needles

Mulch is a material that is sprinkled on the soil to prevent it from drying out too much, to reduce the growth of weeds, to decorate sprinkled surfaces and to protect plants.

Advantages and disadvantages
In our case, it will be a huge plus that we fill all the open soil between our plantings. If we use slow-growing trees and shrubs in a low-maintenance garden, then there should be a lot of empty space between them, if the space is not planted with annuals, mulch is ideal.

Weeds grow much less, mulch does not interfere with the growth of cultivated plants, it fertilizes the soil and protects it from rapid drying. Also, mulching the trunk circles protects the root neck from early frosts. If you use wood chips, cones, needles, sawdust, then, rotting, they will fertilize the soil, but there is also a minus - the soil oxidizes and you will have to keep an eye on its acidity.

Preparing the soil for filling with different materials
For organic mulch(chips, sawdust, etc.) soil preparation is not required, just level the surface and remove weeds. When using decorative gravel, polished glass and decorative pebbles, it is necessary to line any geomaterial around each plant, otherwise the soil will deteriorate, and it will be easier to remove the dumping. The disadvantage of such backfilling is that you will have to leave the area where the plant should grow unfilled, but the plus is that it will not grow further than this zone. Another disadvantage of such dumping is that the soil will compact over time.

Material prices
For sites, it is possible to purchase material or the whole machine in a shaft or in bags large packaging 50 or 100 liters. Prepackaged materials typically cost one and a half to two times more than bulk material.

Ordinary chips of natural color cost about 110-150 rubles for a bag of 50 liters. Painted mulch will cost from 300 to 500 rubles for the same bag. And sawdust (curly shavings) is given free of charge at woodworking stations, and sawdust of small fractions can also be loaded at sawmills for free. The main thing is to bring a truck. Those who sell sawdust online do just that, shhh...

We neutralize the soil
With long-term use of mulch in the form of sawdust, cones and coniferous needles, after a few years the acidity of the soil will increase. Since not all plants prefer acidic soils, they will have to be deoxidized. This is usually done every three or four years. There are several ways to deoxidize the soil:

1. Use lime fertilizer. This will easily reduce the acidity of the soil and activate the reproduction of beneficial microorganisms.
2. Some use chalk instead of fertilizer. It is less aggressive, but harder to apply.
3. Dolomite flour, in addition to deoxidation, can enrich the soil with some minerals.

These are the most effective ways to deoxidize the soil, which sometimes need to be carried out in any garden.

Creation of tracks on the conscience

Paths and platforms are used to create almost all gardens. Paving stones, tiles or natural stone are mainly used.

Almost always this part of creating a garden is the most expensive. It takes from one quarter of one to one third of the cost of creating the entire site. Due to the high cost of installing tracks in central Russia, many are trying to save money by reducing the required area, simplifying the device road cushion. But after that, literally in the first three years, the first troubles begin to emerge in the form of overgrowth, crackling and prominence.

Since we want to create a garden that requires a minimum amount of maintenance, we do everything once and correctly. Coverage should be sufficient for parking lots, roundabouts and short routes.

Norms for the "pie" of the road trough
Of course, you should not save on a pillow of sand and gravel. The thicker these layers, the better the canvas will be. I suggest you familiarize yourself with the scheme of the device of the track with a tiled coating.

Heated walkways
Many summer residents do not come to their Vacation home in winter, because you have to dig it out first ... In general, how do you spend your weekends in the winter on the site?

Personally, my neighbors bought a rotary snow blower because they were tired of shoveling heavy snow. But in winter you really want to come for the weekend and enjoy your vacation no less than in summer. Admire the winter coniferous garden and walk along dry and clean paths. And it is quite possible!

Now the use of heated tracks is often practiced. It is of two types: electric and water.

The essence of installation and device is the same as in warm floors. If you choose an electric thread for heating, a temperature sensor will be located on it, on which the intensity of heating will depend.

Though electric heating, easier to install, and is popular, for the sake of economy, many use water heating systems from a gas boiler. And here the principle of installation is the same as for underfloor heating in the house. PVC hoses of special strength are used, they are laid with a snake along the entire length. With them, the screed layer on top will be a little thicker, but, as a rule, there is no visual difference. For thermoregulation, external sensors are used that are connected to the boiler so that it distributes the temperature evenly and according to the weather.

In principle, installation is easy in both cases, the main thing is to make sure that everything is in working order and without damage before installation.

Runoff from paths
When arranging paths, the necessary slope is often not observed, guided by the fact that their width is small, and the water itself will somehow go away. And when the water itself does not go away, the tiled canvas begins to collapse due to standing puddles. Thin tiles burst, paving stones fall out. To prevent this from happening, be sure to ensure that when creating the tracks, a slight slope to one side is observed.

On the side of the path where the slope will be, it is good to make a small concrete gutter for stormwater. This will protect the track pad from being washed away.

We are not shy about coverage areas
Sometimes, to save money, you have to cut the coverage area, but this is not always for the benefit of the site. Remember: your site must have at least one and a half parking spaces. This is done so that you can walk around the car or ride a bike. Also on the site there must be a path that unites all the main places of stay: a house, recreation areas, technical facilities, a garden. Often such paths are created in the form of a circular route. To save money, lay out shorter routes with stepping tiles or natural stone. It will organically fit into any landscape and protect the lawn and flower beds from trampling.

So let's sum up my article. A garden is never without troubles, but troubles can be one-time (during its creation) or weekly (until the end of its existence). Our task is to make the garden work independently. The garden waters itself, the lawn mows itself, the plants fertilize themselves, the paths themselves get rid of water and snow, and weeds and cutting plants are such rare occurrences that they will not cause too much trouble. Such a garden is IDEAL and will bring into your life what a real garden should bring. Garden of Eden- tranquility, peace and relaxation.

Before those who bought a piece of land, the task is to ennoble the place. It will be necessary not only to build a cozy house, but also to create a garden.

You can invite landscape designer who will design everything, or you can save money and do everything yourself. Moreover, this process is very exciting.

Let's talk about how to arrange a garden with your own hands.

Design stage

First you need to decide what the garden will be like. Everything should look simple and concise, no need for piling up details. It is best to borrow ideas from experienced designers from special books or the Internet, where there are many photos of beautiful gardens.

Before drawing a plan, you need to determine the type of soil, find out the depth of groundwater. It is more convenient to take measurements in early spring or late autumn, since there is no high vegetation.

First, everything that is on the site is applied to the plan: trees, shrubs, a house or some other building. Only after that you can draw what you want to see in your garden.

Make different options, then compare and choose the best. There are special computer programs for designing. With their help, you can see a three-dimensional model of your plan.

We plan the design

When the plan is ready, you need to decide on the style. Garden design can be anything. It all depends on your own preferences.

You can choose a regular garden or opt for a natural style. regular garden arranged over a large area. He will have to be constantly looked after. It is necessary not only to arrange weeding, but also to cut the grass and trees.

A natural style garden does not require complex maintenance. It is much easier to design it, and the cash costs are less.

It must be remembered that the garden should look beautiful both in summer and in late autumn, when there are no flowers and green foliage.

If the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe land is large, then you do not need to rush to plant it all, since it is difficult to take care of the plants. It is better to select a small area and ennoble it. In other corners of the garden, you can plant trees and shrubs.

When designing a garden, moderation must be observed. Do not buy a lot of plants just because they are beautiful. Determine first what you want to plant, and only then go in search.

Don't overload the garden with details. On the site, you can install a gazebo, make an alpine slide or organize a small pond. You should not create everything together, as it will look bad. You need to choose one element and work on it properly.

Sites in our country do not require leveling, creating artificial mountains or terraces. All this looks unnatural. Also, do not add more "fertile" soil. So you can only harm the plants. It is better to leave everything as it is and plant, traditional for our area, culture.

If groundwater is located nearby, then you can create small ponds without resorting to waterproofing. For peaty soil, heather and rhododendrons are perfect.

Ideas for a garden can be different, but the most important thing is to take into account natural conditions.

Note!

What to plant?

As noted above, buy plants that grow in our climate. Experimenting with exotic flowers is not worth it, as the costs for them are high, and it is unlikely that they will be saved.

Perennial flowers are perfect. Choose anything that blooms profusely. For example, you can plant roses or peonies.

As for the trees, among them you need to choose winter-hardy species. In spring, they will delight the eye with their luxurious flowers. Great for the garden coniferous trees and maples.

In the first season after planting, trees and shrubs require watering. Then they don't need much attention. You only have to prune once a year and destroy pests.

Flowers require constant care. Watering is not limited to everything, you need to regularly weed them and replant if necessary.

It is better not to plant annual flowers, as this is a waste of money. They will grow only 3 months.

Note!

Many people ask the question: how to decorate a garden by spending a minimum of money? The answer is simple. It is better to choose materials for decoration of local production, as they are several times cheaper.

Stone paths look great. You can install some kind of garden statue. There are plenty of them in specialized stores.

Remember that creating your own DIY garden is easy. The main thing is not to rush for everything exotic.

DIY garden photo

Note!

Professionals know how to save money when arranging a garden, and now you will know it too. They will help you save a lot and achieve your goal - a beautiful, stylish garden with a minimum of costs.

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Conduct a marketing analysis

Secret 1. Conduct a marketing analysis
There are now a huge number of offers for any goods and building materials, it is difficult to navigate, information is lost, slips away, as a result, no single solution is developed. How to know where to buy? Record information. Make yourself a special sign! Vertically, you will have a list of building and finishing materials, plants and accessories that interest you. And horizontally - a list of companies that sell all this. Call firms and enter data on prices in this table. You can also make a “notes” column where you will note various additional features of the goods. So all the information will be at a glance, and you can always compare prices and choose the best option for yourself.

Secret 2. Low price is sometimes dangerous
The paradox is that very cheap is not always good. Do not purchase obviously low-quality materials, this will lead to repairs, alterations, and, as a result, to the replacement of these materials. And also, if, suppose, you have purchased a lining of poor quality, then you will also need additional finishing materials to “disguise” the appearance of this lining. Therefore, if you do not take directly from the manufacturer, too low a price should alert. Waste and marriage cost a penny, which then turn into thousands of rubles for alterations.

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Low price is sometimes dangerous

Secret 3. Substitution of materials
You don't have to follow stereotypes. Of course, it is accepted, and most often it happens that some object is made from such materials. Well, for example, what is the roof of the gazebo made of? Options: galvanization, metal tile, katepal. This is the rule. And you can create your own rules, and make, for example, it from cellular polycarbonate. Or, suppose you can use not “round timber” for building a bath, but an ordinary beam, even the cheapest one. And you can finish the surface with a blockhouse.

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combination

Secret 4. Combination
The different materials together are interesting solution and overall much cheaper. Designers know this. Heterogeneous impressions in our perception are added up and mutually reinforced. It is not so important how much of this material, it is important that it is! Monotony, as a rule, does not decorate, it is very unpretentious. Any detail of your garden will look fresh and unusual if you combine different materials. In the construction and decoration of the house, you can combine wood, stone and siding. For a recreation area, combine timber, stone and forged elements. For a flower bed, use stone and pebbles or brick and wood. For a barbecue, a combination of wood, ceramics, stone and forged elements is suitable. Mosaic inserts are always appropriate in designs, glass elements, and during the construction of the track, the number various materials can reach six or seven.

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Cheap material can be turned into expensive

Secret 5. Cheap material can be turned into expensive
This can be done by appearance, by the impression made. Cheap material (but, of course, high-quality!) plus a little imagination and ingenuity add up to worthy, interesting material that you can’t buy. For example, ordinary timber. Not a curiosity. You probably don’t want to decorate a recreation area with them. Build from it - yes. And as for the idea of ​​using it as a decoration… But if the same bar is decorated with carvings and arranged in an unusual way, for example, at an angle, then it’s a completely different matter!

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Extend the life of materials

Secret 6. Increase the life of materials
Nature, of course, has no bad weather. But construction materials they don't think so. In our climate there are spring, winter, summer and autumn; snow, rain, frost and wind. All this does not contribute to the durability of even the best materials. Save your investment! Use material protection products: special impregnations, antifungal agents, varnishes, high-quality paint, wood oil, paints and primers against rust, varnishes for stone and concrete. If you do not protect, for example, wood, and do not use impregnations, but limit yourself only to primer and paint, it will last at most 5 years in our climate, then restoration or replacement is needed. And here correct handling increases the durability of the material up to 10–15 years. The cost of protective materials is in no way comparable with the cost of reconstruction, and even more so, replacement.

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If you can’t hide a flaw, don’t hide it, because it is your dignity.

Secret 7. If you can’t hide a flaw, don’t hide it, because it is your dignity.
What will be the cost of correcting the defect, count! For example, if you have a steep slope, then, of course, you can try to level it. But it is so technically difficult, it requires such a huge amount of materials and equipment that, in terms of costs, leveling such a slope will not even be “golden”, but “diamond” for you. You need it? With the money spent, you could build everything you need on the site and purchase all the plants you want, so think about the appropriateness of such expenses. But the same slope can give you the opportunity to build a fantastic observation deck on stilts.

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New - well forgotten old

Secret 8. New is a well-forgotten old
Breaking the old means building the new. Or maybe avoid all these costs? Ugly buildings: utility blocks, sheds, wells, gas boxes, woodsheds and other structures can also be successfully disguised, well, let's say, with the same plants. But one of the best techniques, especially when all these buildings are already there, is to turn them into design objects. Indeed, they can be built in the wrong place, they cannot be hidden by plants, but these are comfortable, solid buildings. From the point of view of a practical owner, breaking these is not worth it. You just need to decorate them.

Secret 9. Bet on plants
In order to achieve significant savings in the garden without losing quality, that is, the beauty of the garden, it is more profitable to rely on plants. Plants are significantly cheaper than any materials. Therefore, it is better, for example, not to design a huge recreation area with rich decor, which will take a lot of materials and work, but to concentrate on and decorate existing buildings with conifers, shrubs and flowers. Moreover, the living is always more effective than the non-living. Think: plants are beautiful even without a gazebo, but a gazebo standing alone “in an open field”, without a single plant nearby - is it so attractive?

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Bet on plants

Secret 10. Choose plants that will help you save
No need for exotics, bet on local, unpretentious plants. They are no less beautiful, and most importantly, they will not need to be replaced, they do not need to be given much attention, they do not need to buy additional fertilizers and protection products. Exotic does not justify itself. And yet, perhaps you do not know everything about unpretentious plants for an easy-care garden. They are sometimes so exotic in appearance! What do you say, for example, about pink marigold, black tulips or green gladioli? In addition to decorative garden flowers, you can use wild flowers in your garden design, of course, choosing the most beautiful of them. In some landscape styles, they are simply necessary. And in general, the selective use of wild flowers gives the garden a special charm and makes your garden even more “light”.

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Use the "gifts" of your garden

Secret 11. Use the "gifts" of your garden
Carefully inspect your site, and everything outside of it. What plants do you see there? If a plant came to you by itself - this is a pleasant surprise. Here, for example, incomprehensible thickets of some strange plants and in the most "interesting" place. Upon closer examination, it turns out that they are really out of place here, but the plants are rare, it is difficult to get them even in the nursery. What a luck! The solution is obvious: carefully transplant into more appropriate place and even multiply.

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Grow your own plants

Secret 12. Grow your own plants
It is enough to purchase at least one perennial that you dream of, because you can propagate it yourself. And in a couple of years, you will have as many plants as you want. And if you can’t get what you want, then the only way is to grow perennials from seeds. Indeed, there is a rather limited selection of perennials on sale - "hits", but, say, plants - "alpines" are very difficult to find. But seeds are always available. By growing perennials from seeds, you will get flowering plants in the third year. And then - you can safely divide and propagate your plants. The purchase of large-sized and adult container plants is not justified. It is best and cheapest to buy small seedlings of trees and shrubs, they will grow quickly, and, by the way, it will be easier to take root. Well, sowing seedlings for seedlings is as easy as shelling pears. Why buy petunia seedlings when you can grow your own? extra seeds also not worth buying. Collect your seeds. It is worth buying if you want to guarantee the purity of the variety.

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The cost of materials for flower beds is not always justified

Secret 13. The cost of materials for flower beds is not always justified
Flower beds are different. The beauty of the flower garden is not due to the high cost of framing. There are economical options. For example, free flower beds, where no fences are provided at all. And if fences are needed, it is not necessary to lay them out of marble. Beautiful forged bumpers or homemade bumpers made of bent metal strip, effective low wattle. Also, on sale are many ready-made fences for quick assembly flower beds. A “fence” for a flower bed can also be some interesting object dug into the ground, or simply laid on it, for example, an old boat. For small flower bed, for example, very spectacular option is the use of cart wheels. Flowers framed by stone are always beautiful. But that doesn't mean designs! You can simply surround your flower garden with beautiful stones. For finishing flower beds, you can use any stone: multi-colored sandstone, granite, rubble stone, gravel, crushed stone, pebbles. But .

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Many garden structures you can do it yourself

Secret 14. Many garden structures can be made by hand.
Especially the small ones stylish things which are sometimes unreasonably expensive. For example, decorative bridges do not have to be purchased, you can do it yourself. Or, say, trellises are free-standing small supports of various shapes. On sale very often there are such designs that look like works of art. But they can also cost, like works of art. The idea for trellises is to use other items as them, but those that are suitable for this role in appearance and design. For example, large decorative balls made of branches that are used to decorate the interior are quite a suitable trellis! You can also use for this purpose a window grill with an intricate pattern or unusual shape openwork stand for flowers.

In garden accents, the idea is important, not the costs

Secret 16. In garden accents, the idea is important, not the cost.
Do not do unnecessary work, evaluate whether they are needed. Garden accents are bright, memorable details that give style to the garden and make it unique. But nowhere does it say that these should be expensive things. Brightness is creativity. Garden accents can be any size, even very small details can make a big impression. An accent can even be a withered tree if you decorate it in an original way - for example, arrange a nest with a stork on it.