Landscaping is, more often than not, all about what plants you choose to bring into your outdoor space. From the type of grass you have to which trees and what groundcover, there are thousands of even basic choices. The following three landscaping ideas can help you make your space more appealing to spend time in.
Plant Decorative Edibles
Growing food is an easy way to introduce new vegetables into your diet. Growing them as ornamental plants with an option to be eaten can also create a low-pressure situation. You don’t have to eat them, and you still get the benefit of a beautiful garden if you don’t like them. Ornamental and edible plants are also, sometimes, a way to skirt some HOA restrictions on vegetable gardens.
- Choose Brightly Colored and Flowering Vegetables – Lettuce varieties like “Lolla Rosa” lettuce, with deep ruby-red leaves, and red-veined sorrel, a plant with tender leaves when young and a chartreuse leaf veined in deep red when mature, are places to start.
- Opt For Decorative, Flowering Vines – Peas vine quickly and produce a sweet, fresh scent as well as small flowers. While most pea flowers are white, “Sugar Grey” peas have bright pink and ruby flowers.
- Create an Herbal Tea Garden – While the benefits of drinking any herbal tea are far from proven, there is evidence that suggests drinking any kind of warm tea can improve overall relaxation.
Plan a Garden Nook
The average American spends approximately 90% of their time indoors. While there are many benefits to spending time indoors, being outside can help improve your overall well-being. This means lower blood pressure and a boost to the immune system for many. However, without proper planning, spending time in your yard, especially by yourself, can be a challenge.
With the right spot, it’s possible to create a nice, shaded garden nook. Ideally, your nook will be covered to provide sun protection and a little privacy. Trellises and screens filled with vines is a quick way to provide these things in as little as one growing season.
Grow More with an Indoor-Outdoor Garden
If you’re in the southern hemisphere, or even the southernmost third of the United States, your gardening variety is already almost at its peak. However, if you’re based in Maine, or looking up Columbus houses for sale, you might realize you have fewer options than you would like.
However, there is a way around that and it combines the up-and-coming trend of exotic houseplants with the principles of container gardening. All you need to do is choose which warm-climate plants you need to grow, find a big enough pot, and be sure to keep them trimmed down to an appropriate size.
For example, this is a wonderful way to grow an indoor lemon tree. You can trim it and train it to stay small. Placing it outdoors during the warmest months of the year will ensure its health and, eventually, convince it to produce a small crop of lemons.