Rain Garden Concept

Rain garden is a garden design concept to soak up a few inches of rainwater, mainly from the roofs, parking lots and hard surfaces and discharge it slowly into the garden ground. Rain garden can be landscaped with shrubs, grasses, wildflowers or other native vegetation to blend beautifully with the overall lawn and garden. It enhances the beauty of the yard and creates habitat for birds and butterflies.

Rain Garden Design

Rain garden itself is designed at a depressed area of 6 to 8 inches deep under full or partial sun. It is usually 10 feet away from building structure so as to prevent water seepage into building foundation. It is best situated at a location to catch rainwater run-off from roof, lawn and other hard surface areas. Rainwater is retained in the garden for a short time and slowly infiltrates into the ground or evaporates after a few hours. By this manner the amount of water filters into garden soil increases substantially.

Benefits Of Rain Garden

Rain garden recycles lawn fertilizers and pesticides back to the garden instead of washing off these pollutants and harmful substances into streams and lakes. Rain gardens require little maintenance once established. Some weeding and watering may be required until plants get established. Regular checks on mosquitoes breeding may be necessary during certain season of the year.

Creating a green and lush lawn takes time and dedication. There are basic principles as well as creative tips for proper lawn care.

Mow Lawn Frequently

Mow the lawn with high quality mower fitted with sharp blade will keep the lawn in good look and perfect shape. For proper lawn care, power blades should be sharpened once every 7-10 uses.


Set mower at 2.5 to 4 inches so as to allow lawn’s roots to grow deep. However, during hot weather mower can be set lower at 2 inches so as to reduce water use. Mowing should be done when the grass is dry as mowing wet grass may cause disease. Leave the grass clippings to decompose on the lawn so as to provide natural nutrients equivalent to one or two fertilizer applications.

Aerating And De-thatching

Aerate the lawn to loosen the soil, reduce soil compactness and remove thatches. Aeration allows air, water & vital nutrients to penetrate the roots. Aerate the lawn during the growing season, typically once in the fall and once in the spring. Mechanical spike-aerator is the most common type of commercial aerator available for proper lawn care.


Thatch is a dense layer of non-decomposed grass clippings, roots, & stems that gradually forms between soil and base of the grass plant. Thatches builds up when nitrogen-rich fertilizers are used. Frequent watering plus soil with high clay content can also contribute to the formation of thatch.


Thatch creates an ideal environment for insects & lawn diseases. Aeration is an effective mean to reduce thatch problems. De-thatch at least once per year to eliminate old thatch which is difficult to remove.

Alternatives to Pesticides and Chemicals

For proper lawn care, lawn pests need to be managed and the most common is to use chemical pesticides. However, when used incorrectly, pesticides can pollute water. They also kill both beneficial and harmful insects. Natural preventive alternatives to chemical pesticides are: Non-detergent insecticidal soaps, garlic, hot pepper sprays, water with liquid soap drops, used dishwater.


Plants that naturally repel insects are also useful alternatives. These plants have their own chemical defense systems, and when planted among flowers and vegetables, they help keep unwanted insects away. A partial list of nature’s alternatives is as follows:

Outdoor And Indoor Waterfalls

Water landscaping in garden, backyard and even inside the house has become a lifestyle trend. Outdoor and indoor waterfalls bring the beauty and relaxation of outdoors with mellow sound of striking water masking away undesirable vehicle sounds and street noises.

Indoor Waterfall

Indoor waterfall is usually self-contained and requires no special plumbing. It takes 4 to 6 weeks to be custom built. Garden and backyard waterfall can be just a simple container with a pump, or a whole natural system with a pond which is more costly and laborious to build. Once installed in place, waterfalls can be decorated with artificial or air plants to blend with the overall living ambience.


Indoor waterfalls can be custom built to any design. A water pillar is the most popular as it gives the look and feel of water without giving up a lot of space. The popular two-piece Rocky Mountain waterfall is self-contained and is meant to be placed against a wall, fence or deck railing.

Outdoor Waterfall

Outdoor waterfall focuses on two features: the pond into which the water drops and the cascading structure for the waterfall itself. A natural slope is best for building an outdoor waterfall; otherwise a beam can be erected to create such an area where the pond is dug. When a big enough pond is dug and filled with water, the cascade is constructed by piling up natural or artificial stones. stones are made of fiberglass, pumice or concrete and are designed to fit with each other. When completed no part of the submersible pump, liner and mechanical apparatus should be visible. An outdoor waterfall takes about a week to construct at a cost of $2,000 upwards. A DIY approach may be feasible if the home owner is familiar with the house construction.

Maintenance Of Outdoor And Indoor Waterfalls

Before starting the waterfall, always fill the water basin with distilled water and prime the stone with spray bottle or sponge to fully wet down the slate. Check the water level regularly to make sure that the pump does not run dry.


Waterfalls come in all shapes and sizes and make forceful focal points and add value to the entire house by the dynamism it creates. Waterfall with fishes and plants easily becomes an attraction centerpiece for parties. Waterfall’s soothing water sound creates a piece of nature in your home.

Lawn And Garden Design

Good garden design boosts the value of a garden more than just its location. Garden Design is more than connection to water, electricity and rich soil. Design concepts and ideas include: Soil, plants, dividers, water design and garden furnitures.

Soil Conditioning

Soil is the most important element for professional lawn and garden design. Soil with subsoil and topsoil aerated thoroughly enables plants to establish themselves quickly and blend according to design.

Boundary Plants

Boundary impinges influence strongly on lawn and garden design. Boundary plants in the form of hedges or group of shrubs can be used creatively in lawn and garden design as internal boundaries between areas of uniqueness.

Dividers And Fencing

Hedges vary their colors throughout the seasons and are often used as strong features in lawn and garden design to divide sections of the garden. However, they require as much as cares the garden plants and may not be as good choice as boundary walls or dividers of various materials. Dividers are mainly made of stone, brick or concrete with wide choice of color, size, and texture. Fencing is the soft alternative to hard divider.

Surfacing

A smooth expanse of lawn and a textured surface of loose gravel, small pebbles, or wood chips create different visual satisfaction in a garden. Various textures, shapes, sizes, colors, and materials of different paving elements creates different degree of relaxation in professional lawn and garden design.

Water Design

Water design is more than providing the necessary wet conditions for plant growth. Water spigots and pipes throughout the garden are helpful in providing a wide range of wild life and plant habitats. Fountains and waterfalls create an entirely different gardening dynamism and aesthetical experience. In modern eco-garden design, rain garden has become an important lawn and garden design landscape concept. Rainwater from roofs, parking lots and hard surfaces is soaked up and slowly filter into the ground through well-designed garden drainage.

Electricity And Lighting

Electrical layout provides the power for water pump, pool house and lighting. Just as any building project, electrical cables must be laid before the construction of garden interior. Lighting is required as most plants require direct light for photosynthesis and phototropism. Photosynthesis produce the energy source of plants. Phototropism is the effect of causing the plant to grow toward or away from light source. Lighting in lawn and garden design focuses on heights, safety, up-lighting, and down-lighting. More importantly is the type of lamps and fittings for the creation of desired and aesthetical effects.

Garden Furnitures

Garden furniture is available in a range of materials of which wood is the most common material. Non-rust durable metallic furniture is also popular. Dining sets, benches, hammocks, chairs complements garden design when creatively designed and placed.

Southwestern Landscaping

The excruciating summer heat in the southwest of United States makes it seem impossible to consider any type of home landscaping. With the difference in heat and humidity and the likelihood of drought conditions by mid to late summer, trying to plant flowers and plants will only find them all dead by the beginning of June.

Southwestern Lighting Fixtures

Beautiful southwest lighting fixtures and home decor surround the home with artist-made pieces that are both beautiful and functional. Paying greater attention to the details and craftsmanship on the southwestern lighting fixtures goes a long way to improve the home ambience. High quality, UL-listed southwest lighting fixtures are ideal for a southwestern landscaping design. Unique Southwestern hanging lights and wall sconces can be used either as house theme or to complement the decor.


Common southwestern lighting fixtures are artist-made wall sconces, western hanging lights, chandeliers and mission table lamps and mission floor lamps. The cowboy theme of southwestern lighting fixtures is also popular, such as hanging cowboy hat lights, cowboy hat sconces and cowboy boot lights.


Southwestern lighting fixtures offer a variety of style such as subtle, bold or whimsical. The right choice of unique selection of UL-listed, artist-made lighting fixtures, hanging lights, wall sconces and mission style Tiffany table and floor lamps will create a soothing look and ambience.

Southwestern Landscaping Plants

There are four matters to consider when planning for southwest landscaping: the types of plants to choose, the soil available, the water or lack thereof, and the weather.


It is possible to create bountiful landscaping but the type of landscaping design needs to be carefully considered in order to create beautiful southwest landscaping. The landscaping and garden plant selection can be very simple and native or adaptive to desert. Native desert plant such as “ocotillo” can be chosen for its height and neutral gray color.


Planting scheme for southwestern landscaping is usually very simple and follows a consistent setting of just a few varieties and colors. The common plants are Coreopsis (Yellow), Red Tip Yucca (Red), Lavender (Purple and Neutral), Texas Sage (Purple and Neutral) and Ocotillo (Red and Neutral).

Landscaping With Fakes For Good Reason

English Ivy is a wonderful groundcover and makes a home look lovely. However Ivy can kill trees and other plants and cause extensive damage to foundations, siding, and chimneys. An alternative is to creatively deploy colorful fake flowers and foliage. Besides, they do not require fertilizer and water which is economical and time saving.

Landscaping With Fake Plants

These landscaping items can be used to sculpt and cover problem areas in an instant. Plastic ivy can even strung around cold and ugly down spouts with architectural feature that has color and charm. Fake vines can hide cables and wires by looping them on hooks for fast placement.


Fake plants and foliages are great decorative tool for your garden yard. Use it whenever landscaping with fakes is necessary. Fakes improve the landscape quickly and economically, though they do not last quite as long outside as they do inside. Landscaping with fakes through these delightful decorative flowers and artificial vines will look beautiful through several seasons.

Landscaping With Fake Grass

Not only silk and plastic trees, plants and flowers are useful and easy to maintain, fake grass is equally popular in many homes. Synthetic grass, also known as fake grass, has come a long way from the plastic looking grass to the look and feel of real grass. Sure the new synthetic surface does not look exactly the same, but it looks real enough to make it very difficult to tell the difference without closer examination. With increasing awareness of the importance of water conservation, many people are looking for alternatives to natural grass. Water restrictions, upkeep, and difficulties in growing natural lawn are just some of the reasons why there is a growing demand for a synthetic surface that can replace natural grass.


New synthetic grasses have a thin layer of rubber granules or sand trapped within the base of the fibers to provide a cushioning effect allowing Children to slide on the grass without getting carpet burns. In a garden setting, synthetic lawn can even be perforated to let rain through and to reduce the impact on nearby trees and plants. It also has the advantage of being able to be taken up and re-installed in a different area.

Elements Of Landscaping Concepts And Ideas

Landscaping is the improvement of the natural beauty of an area of land with the help of basic methods such as planting or changing the contours of the ground. It is an art combined with science with strong understanding of the elements of nature to create a piece of art involving terrain shape, elevation, water, plants and other natural elements deploying artificial elements such as structures, buildings, fences, lighting or other material objects. Certain elements of art such as color, line, form, texture and scale are used in various combinations to improve the aesthetic and practical aspects of the landscape.

Landscaping Design

Landscape concepts and ideas focus more on the artistic merits of design with the main emphasis on the principles of unity and balance to convey the main landscape theme. The prominence is on equilibrium of visual attraction of forms, colors and textures. Some of the common design effects are:


Transition: A subtle gradual change in the form of color, textures or sizes to add life into the landscape.


Proportion: Matching of relative size of the various parts of the landscape to achieve the sense of natural harmony. For example, a large lawn would require a waterfall or fountain of larger scale.


Rhythm: Elements such as water flow creates the feeling of motion and liveliness which tune naturally with the surrounding.


Simplicity: excessive landscaping will only negate the ambience and aesthetic of the essence of design.

Landscaping Components

More and more people are now opting for landscaping components such as patios, decks, pools, hot tubs, ponds, fountains, waterfalls, fireplaces, play structures, gazebos, ornamental lights, artificial putting greens, complex outdoor kitchens and many other landscaping concepts and ideas to make their homes and gardens a retreat for comfort and relaxation. Most of the landscaping ideas focus on the following elements:


Plants and flowers: Plants and flowers keep the area beautiful and fragrant. Creative placement of flowers in can make the garden look more individualistic, personal and attractive.


Water: water has always played an important role in landscaping. The sound of water can be very relaxing, creating a source of life dynamism. Most water ideas work around fountains, ponds or waterfalls.


Visual Effects: Landscaping concepts and ideas aim to create visual effects by the design. For example, the use of various bed levels can create an effect to express the principle of unity. The ‘free Southwest landscape design idea’, which exhibits lots of free curves, gives illusion of even more space. Elegance can come in the form of simplicity, which is illustrated by the well known ‘rustic style old-time landscapes’ landscaping.

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This article tells you about how easy it is to pick wicker furniture for your outdoor patio or porch. It tells you about the difference between old wicker and the wicker of today and how easy it is to care for.

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