soft landscaping - LJN Blog Posts - Landscape Juice Network2024-03-19T03:50:09Zhttps://landscapejuicenetwork.com/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/soft+landscapingHow to Keep Your Garden Maintenance to a Minimumhttps://landscapejuicenetwork.com/profiles/blogs/how-to-keep-your-garden-maintenance-to-a-minimum2016-05-24T16:03:15.000Z2016-05-24T16:03:15.000ZTobermorehttps://landscapejuicenetwork.com/profil/Tobermore<div><p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3314757377?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="750" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3314757377?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750" class="align-full"/></a></p><p>Author: Vanessa Drew, Landscape Designer at Tobermore<br/></p><p>It is a strange phenomenon that today, even though we have every conceivable labour saving gadget available, no one seems to have any spare time! Nearly every client I talk to asks for a low maintenance garden. A traditional cottage garden would have had herbaceous borders with plants requiring continuous dead heading, staking and tying. Hardly anyone these days would have time for all that extra work.</p><p>It is therefore vital when choosing a hard landscaping material that you consider which type fits best with your environment and lifestyle. Tobermore have a wide range of options available. A very popular choice for patios is Historic Flags as they are jointed with a pavement fixing mortar resulting in a low maintenance paved area. For driveways Shannon paving with its small bevelled edges and close fitting joints gives a smooth surface and minimises the amount of maintenance required. In reality any paving can be easily maintained if it is dealt with a ‘little and often’ approach.</p><p>Can you imagine what your kitchen floor would look like if you didn’t clean it for 5 years? Paving is exactly the same. Even though it is outside and gets regularly washed by the rain, natural dirt, debris and grime will land on it and this needs to be cleaned off to avoid build up. At my own house, I have Retro Heather which is one of the smallest paving bricks Tobermore offer. It has an aged appearance and is jointed with kiln dried sand. It has been laid nearly 10 years, and I am happy to say that it looks as good as the day it was laid. I am not a slave to it by any means – I have no more spare time than anyone else! So what is the secret? Little and often! I spend about 30 minutes per year on maintenance.</p><p>Regular brushing of paved areas helps to prevent build-up of dirt and grime and also gives those upper arms a good work out! The best piece of cleaning equipment is an ordinary garden sprayer. These can be purchased at DIY or garden shops for around £10 for a 10 litre sprayer. Weed seeds can blow on to the surface of paving and may start to grow in the joints. This can be remedied very easily by spraying on a dry day with any Glyphosate weed killer such as Roundup, Gallup or Clinic Ace (all available from your local farm supplies shop). Avoid residual weed killers as these are very damaging to the environment.</p><p>After the winter, or in shady areas, you may find that green algae or moss may appear. We have a product called Anti-Moss Paving Cleaner. It does exactly that! Simply spray it on and walk away. No need for brushing, and never scrape out the joints as this will create more opportunities for weeds to grow. This product reacts with the air and dries up the moss and algae. It takes about a week before you will notice the difference, but patience will be rewarded! A particularly damp shady area may require more attention, but in general areas which get plenty of light, once a year should be sufficient for this treatment. For areas that haven’t been regularly maintained then a light power hose at medium pressure is generally all that is required to clean general dirt and grime. Do not use a high pressure power washer and they can damage the paved surface. Any jointing material that is removed should be replaced once the area is dry.</p><p>For easy maintenance, little and often is the key, and your beautiful paving will last a lifetime.</p></div>Making Hard & Soft Landscaping Choiceshttps://landscapejuicenetwork.com/profiles/blogs/making-hard-soft-landscaping-choices2016-05-24T16:01:17.000Z2016-05-24T16:01:17.000ZTobermorehttps://landscapejuicenetwork.com/profil/Tobermore<div><p></p><p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3314757656?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="750" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3314757656?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750" class="align-full"/></a></p><p>Author: Vanessa Drew, Landscape Designer at Tobermore</p><p><br/> The choice of plants is very important to ensure year-round interest in the garden. Traditional style cottage gardens, herbaceous borders and wild flower meadows look beautiful from June to August. They are often depicted in glorious full bloom in garden magazines and television programmes. However, they are never photographed between November and April when it can be rather unattractive to look at. In addition, these gardens are very high maintenance. They require daily deadheading to ensure repeat flowering and wild flower meadows need to be re-seeded every year as an annual project. For these reasons, I would always ascertain the amount of time a client has to spend on their garden to ensure they are happy with the amount of maintenance. It is an odd phenomenon that we now have more labour saving gadgets than ever before, but no one seems to have any spare time!</p><p>Container gardening is also fairly high maintenance. Pots need to be constantly replanted, deadheaded, watered and fed in order to keep them looking their best. The lowest maintenance planting for year-round interest is a good selection of shrubs, trees and hedging. It is vital to choose carefully to ensure the shrubs will not get too large for their space. Plants must be properly spaced apart to allow them to grow to their eventual size. Repeat flowering shrubs, or those which produce berries and/or good autumn leaf colour deserve a space in every garden. Once planted, they can be pretty much left to their own devices with only occasional pruning as necessary.</p><p>When designing an outdoor space, it is essential to get the balance right between hard and soft landscaping. Both require a lot of careful thought. Often I am asked to visit a garden which is long established and requires a lot of renovation. Occasionally the clients have just moved in to the house and the garden has been neglected. Or perhaps the clients have been living in the house for many years and have been adding to the planting as they went along. </p><p>A common problem in gardens is that there is only plant interest in Spring or Summer. This is a very frequent dilemma because people tend to only visit garden centres at these times of year. They will have a walk around and buy a few plants which are in full glorious bloom, take them home and plant them. Within a few weeks however, the flowers are over and the shrub returns to its original green-leafed self. From this we can see that it is important to research plants in advance and select those that are repeat flowering. Good choices include Hypericum or Lavatera (flowering continuously from June to November). For Autumn and Winter interest, choose shrubs with berries and/or good autumn leaf colour. There are even some plants which look their best after they have lost their leaves as they have wonderfully bright coloured stems. These include Cornus alba ‘Sibirica’ (bright red stems) and Salix britzensis (orange stems). For best effect, these last two shrubs must be coppiced (cut down to 15cm high) in Spring because it is the new young stems which provide the best colour.</p><p>The eventual size of plants is another very important point to consider. It may look very small and innocent in its pot when you bring it home, but beware that some shrubs can reach 5 metres high (15 feet) and more in a very short time! It is a waste of money if these plants have to be removed after a few years because they are too large for their space. Most plants have large and small varieties available, so be sure to do your research and decide on the variety you need before you leave home.</p></div>