Gardening Tips From a Plumber

If you want to grow a great garden, there are some useful gardening tips from a plumber that you can use. First, make sure your plants have access to a water supply. If you do not have the money to pay for a watering hose, the plumber can often help you with financing. It is also a good idea to keep your plants away from damp areas. It is not uncommon for plants to suffer from rot or mold if they are regularly wet. To avoid this problem, test the soil by sticking your finger into the soil to determine how much water it needs.

Plant roots can invade underground plumbing

Invading plant roots can damage your underground plumbing. It is important to prevent this problem by not planting certain types of trees in your yard. Instead, choose trees whose root ball is limited. This way, the roots of these trees will not grow too far into your underground plumbing system, which will prevent them from damaging your pipes.

A plumber is certain that one of the most common types of plant roots that can invade underground plumbing is the ivy plant. Ivy is one of the fastest-growing plants and can quickly damage your plumbing. It can cause your pipes to clog and cause strange odors. Some municipalities have banned ivy plant cultivation because of its dangerous roots.

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Plumbers Highfields

Choosing the right components for a drip irrigation system

Before you buy drip irrigation equipment, make sure you know what components you will need. You will need a pressure regulator to control the flow of water, a vacuum breaker, and a compression adapter. These components will connect the drip tubes to the valves and main waterline. It is also important to buy the right size fittings, as the wrong ones can cause blowouts. If you are unsure of what you are doing, you can always seek professional plumber’s advice from the Plumbers Highfields team who has expertise in the plumbing system.

Drip tubing is an essential part of a drip irrigation system. It’s a polyethylene tube that is connected to emitters placed along a line. These emitters release water to the plants, and there are several different types and diameters to choose from. If you’re using drip irrigation for vegetables, you may want to use an emitter spacing of eight to 16 inches. However, you may want to get closer to your plants if your soil is sandy or has a low water table. However, this will increase your system’s flow rate and require a larger pump and pipe size, which will increase the cost. For most soils, an emitter spacing of twelve inches is fine.

Preventing tree roots from invading pipes

Invasive tree roots can be a big problem for plumbing and sewer systems. They invade pipelines in search of water and nutrients and can create leaks and clog pipes. This can also be a very expensive problem to fix. To avoid this problem, it is important to select plants that have well-controlled root systems. Unfortunately, some homeowners do not know enough about tree roots to make the right decisions about which plants to grow in their yards.

To prevent tree roots from invading pipes, first, determine the type of tree roots that are entering your property. Thin roots may be weed vines, but thick roots are likely from a tree. Generally, large trees have many roots and they will spread out from the root ball.

Choosing the right type of plants for your garden

There are a few factors to consider when selecting plants for your garden. First of all, you need to decide which type of plants will thrive in your climate. Decide if your garden will receive a lot of sunlight or need shade. Decide if you want a mix of perennials, shrubs, and trees. Perennials are a good choice for those who want to grow plants that return year after year, which means less maintenance and less money.

If you want a variety of plants, you can choose native plants, which are often drought-resistant and adapted to local conditions. Native plants are also hardier and require less maintenance than non-native plants. They also provide a habitat for local wildlife.


Great Backyard Landscaping Ideas You’ll Love

If you are seeking a backyard that you can be proud of, then with a little creativity, there are a wide number of backyard landscaping ideas that can transform your backyard landscape into much more than a swing set with grass.

Here are a few creative garden landscaping ideas to consider:

Vertical Garden

Are you attempting to squeeze a big garden into a small backyard space? With some organization it can be done quite effectively. Consider choosing container friendly climbing and trailing plants that create a space-saving vertical garden. Window boxes, baskets and pots filled with trailing plants can be a way of accomplish this goal. Try an upright plant holder pole with hooks that can hold multiple pots in a straight-up row. You can add something different to each pot for different interests that you have. Terraces and raised beds are another vertical option that is worth considering. Making it easy to improve your soil in limited areas, and if built sturdily can provide a seating option as well. Training and climbing plants can be a great option if you have a garden wall. You can add hooks as well or brackets to hang baskets, while small flowers can be grown in the cracks between stones. A wall mounted fountain is another great idea that you can add to list of small backyard landscaping ideas.

Foliage Garden

A garden does not require flowers to bring a tremendous amount of color and appeal to a garden area. Foliage gardens are low maintenance backyard landscaping ideas that are as much for show as any flower garden can offer. Foliage plants in golden yellow, cool blue, rich wine red and silvery gray can fill your landscape with tremendous color all year round. Plants that provide interesting shapes as well as color can be use in addition to the options listed above.

Touch Garden

When it comes to backyard landscape ideas, it does not only have to be about color. Plants with touchable textures and similar elements can add to your gardening experience. They are also safe for young children to touch and are good for the visually impaired. You will be surprised at how many touchable plants are available, so let your self go crazy and make your self a touchy-feeling garden for your pleasure.

There are hundreds of backyard landscaping ideas that can transform your garden into something special and magic. While the front yard may take precedence, do not neglect the back either and take time to consider as many landscaping ideas as you can find. You will soon find one that will fit your garden space as well as your own style and taste.


Your Guide To Pond Landscaping

Doing pond landscaping can be quite a challenge. If you’ve got a natural or man-made pond in your yard, there’s no reason to let the natural resource sit there like some depression that filled in with rainwater. Many ponds seem to only be sitting in the middle of a grass lawn, looking terribly lonely and bare.

These days, pond landscaping is becoming more and more popular, with beautiful, natural-looking materials that can enhance your backyard area and make it more attractive and pleasing to the eye, most especially if this pond landscape is placed to the area of your house made of glass built by Murphy Glass for instance, where you can see the beauty outside. You can make that pond look great, and turn it into a water feature that will only enhance your backyard. Spruce up that waterhole and turn it into a pond landscaping project – the results will be sure to draw you outside just to admire your own handiwork!

You’re going to have to make sure that the ground around your pond area is solid and stable. Pond landscaping will require you to plant some greenery and add stones to spruce up the area, so you want to make sure that the first rainfall won’t sweep your hard work into the water. Adding clay to the loose ground can help to keep the pond water from making the shore soft, and it will also give you a good ground base to work with. One possibility to consider for your pond landscaping project is building retaining walls around the edges of the bank, or even ones that go straight into the water, and you’ll be able to fill the space with good topsoil and compost for plants without fear that the earth will be washed back into the pond.

Designing The Look Of Your Pond Landscaping

Do visit other natural water areas such as natural ponds in the woods, or lakes and marshes. Bring along a camera, because the reason for your visit is to try and see how nature does its own pond landscaping. Pay attention to the slopes of the banks or how rocks can make the shoreline more attractive. Figure out if you prefer areas with tall grasses that grow directly in the water or ground-covering plants that creep down to the edge of the pond or lake. Do you like driftwood cast up on the shore, or small piles of stones that have eroded and scattered down with the weather? Take lots of pictures and bring them home to see what sort of look you’d like to achieve for your own pond landscaping project.

Try to map out your pond landscaping project on paper. Draw the shape you’d like it to be and write in where you want plants and stones to go. You’ll probably need to alter the shape of your existing pond by adding curves to the shoreline, or filling in places with clay and earth or stones. No matter what you do, always keep in mind that you’re aiming for a natural look, as anything else will make your pond landscaping stick out like a sore thumb. Visit greenhouses to discuss what types of plants match your image of the perfect pond landscaping project, and make sure to ask about heights, maintenance and spread.

You don’t want to buy a plant that will choke out your pond in a few years. Use your pictures to show salespeople what you’re looking for, and don’t be afraid to ask questions. With all your good planning, you’ll soon be out there doing some pretty nice pond landscaping!


The Key For Beautiful Landscaping

Unknown to most , landscaping is an art. It is the interesting art of designing gardens. As an art, it therefore follows basic principles that help bring out the best in the creator and the design. And one of the often overlooked principles in landscape design is simplicity. It is also a principle in all forms of art, not only in design. The idea is to just keep the landscaping design as simple as possible.

Keeping the landscaping design simple doesn’t mean that it will no longer have form or life in it. Other principles like balance, proportion, repetition, and form are also taken into consideration.

A simple landscape design during its initial stages will put things in perspective. Adding too much different elements into the design would make it look too unprofessional. You can then add more to the design later.

What you can do is choose a good plant and different variations of color. This is generally the sort of problem for home landscapers due to the fact that there is a vast plant variety. Some would even just pick out different types of plants to be included in the design. This leads to an imbalance in the landscape.

Some home gardeners have little idea about landscaping plants. Some are familiar with a thing or two about what would look good in the landscape. The best place to be familiar in choosing a good plant would be to observe other designs. Unknown to others, a simple selection of varieties and putting them in a pattern through the garden will have more impact than getting a wide selection of unrelated plants. A selection of two to three varieties of plants, colors, and shades and having them repeated throughout the landscape will do the trick. Repetition is a landscape design principle that is quite easy to follow.

Another trick worth trying is building borders and even some few beds using several varying shades but of the same color. An interesting contrast in texture can be obtained if you employ the trick with three or more species of your garden plants. Like repetition, contrast in texture and in color is a basic principle in art and design.

People into landscaping tend to forget that the landscape is not just about their trees and their plants. Other nonliving components of the garden should be taken into consideration in the design and planning to keep its balance. Plants, trees, and even animals in the garden should likewise look good together with the paths, walls, rockery, and paths and vice versa.

Keeping your garden simple also entails refraining yourself from being faddish. Additional faddish designs should always be minor so it could easily be changed when it becomes outdated. Remember that it is better to make great use of your space than to fill it up with just trendy features. Your garden landscaping must be great to look at in all the four seasons of the year. You don’t intend to worry about making a lot of changes every time the weather changes.

These principles are applicable to all your landscaping stages and designs. It doesn’t matter if we’re talking about your backyard landscaping, your front yard; nor is it just limited to some of your plantings. Taking note of them will bring you and your garden a long way. Landscaping at its best should always be kept simple at the beginning stages. This will be much easier to handle and much easier to design. Adding more accessories late will always be exciting. A nice landscape or a good garden definitely glows of simplicity—and eventually, beauty.