Creating a private garden space is a lot of fun to do, but it also provides you with years of enjoyment after the fact too. Sometimes called garden rooms, or outdoor rooms, a private garden space is made to be private. A sanctuary you can retreat to anytime you'd like, to enjoy nature, smell the beautiful flowers growing, and simply destress from the everyday hustle and bustle of life.

When planning your private garden, the general goal is usually to create a quiet place to retreat from the world. This garden doesn't have to be fully private, but it does have a much more calming effect when it's at least semi-private. So consider the location of your garden before starting to create it. If you must place the garden near busy or noisy areas such as close to the street, there are tactics you can use in your planning and design which will help dampen the noise and distractions. If possible though, you'll get the best results from a private garden space by creating it away from everyday noise and activity.

Private garden spaces usually tend to be on the small side, and many people turn small backyard patios or gazebos into their private garden space. The garden can be as large as you'd like though, depending on your own personal preferences and budget restrictions.

One of the first things you'll need to plan for is what kind of barrier you'll use for your garden. One of the reasons a private garden space is often referred to as a garden room, is because many people like to create living walls for their garden area. And these walls make the space seem more like an outdoor room because the garden space is more enclosed. If you prefer not to have your garden enclosed too much though, you can simply create an entranceway to your private garden space using an arbor or arch.

Living walls can be made by simply putting up inexpensive materials such as a chain link fence or wooden trellis, and using fast growing flower vines. Flower vines can easily be trained to grow up and over fences, trellis materials and arches too, and as these vines mature they create a thick living wall which separates your garden area from the rest of the world. These vines also tend to sheild the area from everyday noise and activity, plus they help to make the garden space cooler than the rest of the yard area may be as well.

An alternative way to create your private garden space quickly, is to simply buy flower pots and containers in a variety of sizes, then buy plants which have already started to grow. Arrange your flower boxes, pots and containers around the perimeter of the garden space, then plant the new flowers into them. If you choose flower pots and containers which have varying sizes and heights, you'll be able to strategically place them in locations which will block out everyday activities from your main line of sight. This type of private garden space won't always block out much noise though, so it's best located in a more secluded area of the yard.

Tags: Private Garden

Another thing that new organic gardeners become confused about, and sometimes even frustrated with, is figuring out how to control pests and bugs in their gardens. It doesn't matter if you're growing roses, annuals, perennials, bushes, trees, vegetables or something else… all plants have one or more bugs which seem to like to feed on either the plant leaves and stems, the flowers themselves, or both.

The most natural way to control pests in your garden is to simply hand pick the bugs off of leaves and flowers as you find them. This is a time consuming process for large gardens though, and many people do not like controlling pests this way alone. Thankfully there are many other things you can do to help with the process naturally though.

One step you'll need to take is effective weed control. Be sure to leave enough space between your plantings to allow yourself room to pull up weeds as you see them. In vegetable gardens particularly, it's helpful to leave a wide enough space between the rows which will allow you to take a hoe to the area, because this makes weeding go much faster. If you pull or hoe weeds while they're still quite young and small, you'll see the best results too. Because they come out of the ground much easier, and they don't have a chance to start dropping seeds and drawing in a lot of bugs and pests to the area.

Another natural way to control pests though, is through planting itself. By planting certain herbs and flowers around your garden, you can naturally control and even repel a wide variety of common garden pests.

Planting chives around your apple trees for instance, will help prevent scab. And if you plant chives around your roses, they help prevent black spot.

Elderberry is a plant which can be used to get rid of garden moles. Just stick branches and leaves from this plant down into the mole holes, and they'll leave the garden. You can also make a tea or wash with the leaves from this plant, and it will help repel aphids, carrot root fly, peach tree borers, and cucumber beetles too.

Garlic is another wonderful, all natural repellant for your garden too. The flavor of garlic can be abosorbed by other plants though, so don't plant it near any vegetables that might taste bad with a hint of garlic flavor in them.

Lemon Balm is another wonderful, all natural herb which works excellently as a repellant for a variety of things. You can sprinkle lemon balm leaves throughout your garden to repel a number of different bugs and pests, and you can even rub the crushed leaves on your skin to prevent mosquitoe bites too.

Tags: Natural Pest Control, Organic Gardening

Creating a container based water garden is a wonderful way to get your very own water garden started, without needing much space at all to do it in. It's also easy, quick, and fairly inexpensive to create as well.

Container water gardens can be made as small or large as you'd like them to be, but keep in mind that the larger your garden is, the more space you'll need for the water garden container to be placed. On the opposite end of the equation though, if you create your water garden too small, you won't have much room for some of the gorgeous water loving plants you'll start finding out about.

Many people create container water gardens in half barrel sized gardening containers, because these are readily available at most discount department stores. Often they come with a liner included too, which is something you'll need for creating your water garden. If the flower container you've chosen to use doesn't have a liner included though - and the container is also not waterproof - you'll need to buy a liner that will fit into that container you've chosen.

Now, water garden plants have their roots submerged below the surface of the water level even in a container garden, so they need special soil that works well in that wet environment. The plants you buy will often come in that soil already, but you'll usually need to buy some sort of pebbles or peat moss that will be placed on top of the soil before you submerge your plants. This material will help hold the soil in place instead of letting it float out into the main water area of your garden.

Once you've chosen a container and liner to create your new water garden in, place it where you'd like it to reside because it will be heavy once you've gotten the garden created. Put the liner into your container according to instructions, then fill it up with a water hose. Let that sit for at least twenty four hours or so, to be sure that there are no leaks. This sitting time also allows the chlorine to evaporate from the water too.

The next step is to create "shelves" on the bottom of your container. Stack pieces of bricks on top of each other, or turn an old plastic garden container upside down and put a brick on it to keep it from floating up to the top. The stacks of bricks and containers are what your new water loving plants will sit on to make sure they're at the growing height they need.

Some water loving plants will need to have their leaves only at the surface of the water, and the rest of the plant will be fully submerged. Other water garden plants however, need to have their soil base at the surface of the water instead, so you'll need to sit those plants onto some type of shelf or raised surface.

Your new water garden will also be much more interesting if the plants are not all the same height. When you choose plants for your garden for instance, try getting one which may grow two to three feet tall at maturity, and one that only grows a foot or so. Then get one which floats on the surface of the water, and another which will cascade over the side of your water garden container too. These varying heights and sizes will make the garden much more attractive and appealing.

Once you have your container and shelves ready, now you simply need to put a bit of pebbles or peat moss into the top of each plant container that you'll be putting into the garden, then submerge the container into the water and sit it on the shelf you created for it.

Once you have all your new plants in place, you now have a beautiful self contained water garden to enjoy to your heart's content!

Tags: Container Water Garden