About landscape gardening
Hope you find the DIY gardening articles spread throughout my landscape gardening website helpful.
If you would like me to quote for some or all of the landscape design and Hard Landscaping please follow this link Landscape gardeners
D.I.Y tips Scrol on down Or select from the navigation bar on the left for lots more gardeners tips.
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About Our landscape gardening
design service
Ideas
First Visit is to meet up and talk over your ideas, have a look at your garden and agree a meeting to prepare a detailed brief and the basis of the design.
Site Survey. We will usually carry this out but for large scale changes in levels a report by a Land Surveyor may be needed.
Design
This meeting sets out the proposals for your garden, including areas of hard landscaping and planting plans. The plan is discussed and agreed with you and any changes will made at this stage.
After agreeing the outline, a Layout Plan is drawn up showing the position of the main features and how the garden is to be set out and constructed. Its the basis for us or a landscape gardening contractor of your choice to build your Garden from.
Construction
Construction Drawings - if necessary, separate drawings can be provided of water features etc.
Landscape gardening - If you choose your own gardening contractor to do the work, we can monitor the work
and visit the site on a regular basis to ensure that work is being carried out to our design.
Planting
Planting plans will detail the name of each plant, position, spacing for planting and quantities required.
Supply and Planting - We can source the plants, and if required plant them.
Maintenance gardening.
The services of a local maintenance gardener can also be arranged.
Colours you have in your garden say a lot about you...
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Dark blue commands respect and is the Police Green is relaxing and is used on the walls of hospitals get the ideal. The colours of leaves, flowers and berries not only change our mood but show personalities.
So next time you're in someone else's garden, take a look around If the garden has consciously been planted with lots of red flowers this can imply assertiveness and play down femininity by either sex.
Red shows physical strength, Liverpool and Manchester United play best in red,in a garden it could be used in a more active area, perhaps forming a barrier around the lawn or swimming pool.
Use the tints, tones and shades they are stimulating and exciting and in extremes reds will actually raise the blood pressure. Crocosmia 'Lucifer', Papaver orientale 'Beauty of Livermere' and Potentilla 'Red ace' are all strong masculine red.
Yellow is for emotion, ego, optimism, self-esteem and spring, with daffodils, primroses, Fritillaria imperialis and skunk cabbage. It is bright and cheerful, the colour of sunshine and lifts the spirits. To much yellow may say that self esteem is not at its highest
Blue is the colour of intellect and boys, soothing and calming and encourages reflection, lowers blood pressure. Its the sky and the sea and in the garden can have the same effects. Great swathes of forget-me-not, Anchusa and cornflowers to relax. Its peoples favourite colour maybe because we recognise the need for calm and logic in our lives.
Green is the choice for a relaxing garden. Created by chlorophyll which is vital to life, in nature it shows water in abundance Think twice about ripping up your lawn and laying decking because when we are surrounded by plenty of green we are reassured. Hostas, ferns and rhododendrons all provide an excellent relaxing backdrop to other colours.
Violet is the colour of someone who prefers to be left to peaceful thought, someone who gardens just for themselves and isn't worried about shouting out their achievements to others, Lovely people. Wisteria, Syringa vulgaris and various delphiniums are all suitable.
Pink is an expression of femininity for those men in touch with their feminine sides. A hint of reddish pink like Cistus x purpureus and Filipendula palmata is soothing and brings out the feminine parenting instinct .Its flesh colour also make it sexy .
Orange is sexy too its the colour off physical enjoyment and fiery passion. It can create a feeling of physical comfort and can look very sensual. Try Euphorbia griffithii 'Fireglow', Lilium 'Enchantment' .
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About starting out on a landscape gardening project,
I can help, be it direct involvement with the hard landscaping, including paving patios or block driveways, building garden ponds & water features, sorting out the garden drainage, leveling a slope.
Or indirectly with the tips and advice spread throughout my landscape and gardening website. The articles cover gardening and landscape work from Disabled gardening, Sustainable gardener, digging sump pits for drainage, wildlife gardener, laying slabs, greenhouse gardener, raised beds right through to growing a wildflower lawn.
The pages are free to print off and if you want to add or suggest something or ask for advice, I'm only an email away.
If you have a garden drainage problem and are considering fixing it yourself, I can visit your garden to point you in the right direction, this will cost around £200. This is refunded If I carry out the work.
If you are a landscape gardening company setting up a website you are welcome to scrape my content, providing you add a link back to my website. http://www.flowerpotman.com/landscapegardeners.html
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About stuff to consider when planning DIY landscape gardening.
Have a plan in mind
Landscape gardening sometimes just evolves . A plant is planted somewhere in the garden because there is room for it and the rest just follow. If you are starting from scratch have a garden design and plan for the whole garden and stick to it.
What does a garden designer do?
A well-designed garden can improve property value, add extra space, increase privacy and complement your home. But probably the most important factor will be improving the usability of your garden and quality of life. be it converting unworkable slopes into accessible terraces. Turning an overgrown jungle into a low maintenance garden. Turning a waterlogged area into a garden to grow fruit ,vegetable and flowers or breaking up cracking 60s concrete and creating paved areas and borders. Asking a landscape gardening designer to improve your garden is a big investment so I have listed some of the things you might want to consider when planning landscape gardening.
What do you need to do?
Think about the landscape gardening changes you would like to make and why. Do you want a large paved area or keep some lawn, and maybe flower borders, a barbecue area, space for children to play? You are paying and will be living with the new landscape for a long time.
What's the budget, How much does landscape gardening cost?
Have a realistic figure in mind, I have just finished a job and needed another ton of landscaping gravel to complete a extra bit of work for the client. He thought chard gravel cost £5 per ton.
Its worth spending a little time visiting local builders merchants and landscape gardening supply companies, to see the sort of natural stone or concrete slabs and other gardening materials available and to check out the cost of landscaping materials. There really are to many to bring out as samples and they never look the quite same in a catalogue. Other factors affecting the price for landscape gardening are clearance, surface, leveling, garden drainage and groundwork.
Questions to ask
Has the garden designer and landscape gardening team had experience of the landscaping work you want done? Will the person who calls to discuss the quote, also work on the job ? Can the designer and landscape gardening company give an estimated time scale for the work? The answer to all these questions should be yes. If they haven't had experience of the type of work you want carried out, can they recommend a garden designer and landscape gardening company who has.
Garden drainage.
Often forgotten until it rains, garden drainage is so important unless you want your expensive investment to disappear every time it rains. I have forgotten how many times I have been called out to sort out drainage problems, landscape gardening designers had not recognised and taken into account. Checkout my garden drainage page.
Practicalities.
A multi level patio or decking platform might look good in the back garden but is useless if the surface area is to small for family or guests to pull back there chairs, spread out a little without falling of the edge. Its not the wine its the design. A practicle landscape gardening design is even more important if the garden is being designed for a person who because of disabilty finds it difficult to get around or uses a wheelchair. Check out my disabled gardening page.
Who do I choose?
The landscape gardening and garden design team you choose will depend on how he or she has answered your questions, quotes are important but if you go for the cheapest, it may cost a lot more in the long run. If the designer and gardening contractor both share your idea of what makes a beautiful garden, come in with a sensible price, are people you can trust working around your home for a few days or weeks. You are half way to your dream garden.
About Essential minerals for health gardening Explained here minerals for heathy soil
About Cottage gardening and tips from an old landscape cottage gardener
About Do I need planning permission to build a patio, driveway or decking do I need planning
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About flowerpotman's landscape gardening
As well as landscape gardening work I also undertake all aspects of clearance and maintenance, including Hard landscaping, Garden drainage, Patio laying, Garden fencing, Lawn care and Turfing, Garden ponds and we supply and fit Wrought iron railings and gates.
We only work for residential customers and you wont find us in the local classified adds or Yellow pages, Most of our new business is recommended to us by satisfied clients so you can be assured you will receive the best service possible.
We offer free no obligation quotes for all aspects of landscape gardening and discuss your requirements in great detail before any work is agreed or carried out.
About Hard garden landscaping,
Modern landscape gardening companies took of in the 1970s. Barbecues became popular as families cooked and dined in the garden.
A whole range of reasonably priced landscape gardening materials became available in the 80s bringing landscaping materials within the price range of most people, Pre-cast concrete patio slabs readily available for garden landscapers and patio layers and Patios became the in thing, offering a place to sit, sunbathe or BBQ in the garden.
In the 90s Decking became very popular, the answer to a low maintenance garden and no grass to cut. Although decking is no longer a cheap alternative to paving, properly designed and fitted decking looks good and raised decking with retaining walls is a practical solution to sloping gardens.
Landscape gardening tips to build retaining walls and suggestions for materials to use can be found on the sloping garden page.
In the 2000's, Environmental impact is sometimes a consideration for eco friendly landscape gardening, tips for eco friendly landscape gardening and materials can be found here Sustainable eco gardening.
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Sustainable Landscape and wildlife Gardening in Bristol and Somerset
- A wildlife area set aside at home encourages children to engage more with their environment by bringing nature upclose. Have a look at my wildlife landscape page.
- Sustainable landscaping: Whenever we are asked by our client, landscape gardening and design projects are undertaken with an eye to sustainable gardening. Building materials and timber are sourced from replenishable stocks and the use of cement is kept to a minimum especially in our nature ponds.
- The new patio or decking will look great, why not also create a wild area to compensate for the lost habitat and encourage birds and butterflies wildlife back. Bristol, Weston super mare, Clevedon, Portishead, Nailsea, Somerset
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Reflective house numbers
Quality door numbers to fit walls and garden gates delivered from only £8.95 inc P+P great on driveway gates too.
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