Build a Rain Garden

There’s a new garden in town. It is (mostly) easy to install, looks good
year-round, requires almost no maintenance and has a terrifically upbeat impact
on the environment. No wonder rain gardens are such a great new gardening trend!

Storm water runoff can be a big problem in summer during heavy thunderstorms.
As the water rushes across roofs and driveways, it picks up oil and other
pollutants. Municipal storm water treatment plants often can’t handle the
deluge of water, and in many locations the untreated water ends up in natural
waterways. The EPA estimates as much as 70 percent of the pollution in our
streams, rivers, and lakes is carried there by storm water! By taking
responsibility for the rainwater that falls on your own roof and driveway, you’ll
be helping to protect our rivers, streams and lakes from stormwater pollution.

To reduce the excess water runoff, many towns are encouraging businesses and
homeowners to install rain gardens in their yards. Rain gardens are specially
constructed gardens located in low areas of a yard where storm water can collect.
The idea is to have the water naturally funnel to this garden. The rain garden
collects water runoff and stores and filters it until it can be slowly
absorbed by the soil. Rather than rushing off into a storm sewer or a local
waterway, the rainwater can collect in a garden where it will be naturally
filtered by plants and soil.

Installing a rain garden is easy.

You simply dig a shallow depression in your yard and plant it with native
grasses and wildflowers; things that are easy to grow and maintain in your area.

What makes a garden a rain garden? First, the garden will be designed with a low
spot in the middle to collect and absorb rain water and snow melt. This depression
can range from a few inches in a small garden, to an excavated trough that’s
several feet deep. Second, rain gardens are usually located where they’ll catch
the runoff from impermeable surfaces like sidewalks and driveways, or from gutters
and roof valleys. Third, rain gardens are usually planted with native wildflowers
and grasses that will thrive in tough growing conditions. Finally, rain gardens
are designed to channel heavy rains to another rain garden or to another part of
the garden.
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To get a good picture of Romano-British gardens of antiquity, we must consider their prototypes in Italy. Horticulture in primitive Italy, as in other countries, was at its beginning merely intended for practical purposes. Gradually the Latin word hortus, applied in the days of republican simplicity to a field of vegetables, was stretched, at the time of the luxurious emperors, to denote pleasure gardens of the utmost magnificence. In this latter period, the source of every new form of Roman art, including garden architecture, was Greece, which in its turn had received inspiration from Egypt, Persia, and Assyria.

Egyptian gardens are the earliest of which definite records still exist. Pictures and inscriptions, dating far back into the centuries before Christ, show that most Egyptian dwellings were built around a series of courtyards containing vegetation both useful and ornamental. Originally, a row of trees along the inner wall of the building shaded it and the enclosed quadrangle. Later, the tree trunks gave place to solid columns, and the overhanging branches to projecting rafters, which resulted in a general effect foreshadowing the Greek peristyle (columned porch or colonnade) and monastic cloisters.
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A lot of money is spent in this country to reproduce fragrances for perfumes and air fresheners. The majority of these manufactured fragrances have alcohol and other additives that can actually irritate the membranes in your nose. Nature has done it the best and these are some of the most heavenly fragrances you’ll ever smell.

1) Hyacinth! This highly fragrant flower is actually a member of the lily family. Lily’s tend to grow much larger than the hyacinth but if you look closely at this flower you will see that the clusters of these blooms are tubular in shape just like the lily. Hyacinths have been a popular garden flower since the 17 hundreds because of the brilliance of there color (of every shade) and because of the incredible fragrance they have. Whether you have them planted out doors or in a pot in your home, this beautiful flower will brighten up any space and give off a constant heavenly fragrance, but, it is not overpowering. I just can’t imagine a perfume that smells any better than this. And men, instead of giving her some fresh cut flowers, try giving her a hyacinth plant. It will last longer and she can replant it again next year if she wants to put it in a garden.

2) The most fragrant flowers are the pure white Casa Blanca and the dark pink Stargazer lily. They are absolutely beautiful, but beware; the fragrance they give off is so strong, that, one bouquet of lilies can fill up an entire room. Don’t place them where you are going to sit for any length of time unless, that is what you want. They don’t do well in direct sunlight or drafts so place them in a more diffused lit area. If you replace the water every couple of days and add flower food plus a new snip of the ends, you’ll have a long lasting, beautiful fragrant arrangement.
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Should I use a special Bonsai soil or just normal soil?

The increased popularity of growing Bonsai trees and plants has brought with it many more specialist shops; the Internet being virtually awash with Bonsai supplies. As a beginner, it is usual for people to go out and buy everything they think they could possibly want to ever grow a Bonsai. However, there is a good chance you may not need it. You can buy Bonsai soil at very reasonable prices now, and this soil is mixed to a perfect combination of nutrients, soil and grit that will help your Bonsai grow, but many practitioners of the ancient art of Bonsai would probably consider this cheating.

As a beginner, it is important that you do what you can to make your first Bonsai as successful as possible. Many people will throw in the towel after just one failure, and when you consider how long a Bonsai can take to reach maturity this really isn’t an overnight hobby. You must get into a regime of regular watering, annual potting and plenty of care and attention in order to be able to enjoy a beautiful Bonsai for your troubles.

Is Bonsai soil expensive?

Bonsai soil shouldn’t be costing you very much more than normal potting compost or bags of nutrient rich soil that you use in your garden. A good Bonsai soil, however, may contain a long list of ingredients including clay, soil and even bark. Some of these ingredients are loaded with the nutrients that your Bonsai will thrive on, and paying that little extra can certainly promote good healthy growth from your beloved project.
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