In residential properties, front yards traditionally had two main purposes: to provide and highlight the entrance to your home and to create kerb appeal. But today, in addition to these two benefits, a well-designed landscape can now also improve the appeal of your home by accentuating or complementing its architecture.

To enjoy these benefits for your front yard’s landscape, here are some useful tips and ideas:

Consider the important elements that make for a good entryway design.

These three elements are vehicle circulation and parking, creating a beckoning walkway to your door, and accenting the front entry.

For driveways, the most commonly used materials today are concrete, exposed aggregate and bluestone since they durable, long-lasting, and easy to maintain.

For an appealing walkway, consider using pavers to line pathways and have them interposed with round stones (a popular landscape design today). You can also make sure your front entry complements your landscape by having it painted in the bright colours and putting some plants and flowers on it or close by.

    

 

 

 

 

 

Have a terraced garden.

Whether you have a small front yard or a huge one, it will benefit you greatly if it features some terraced plants since it will add texture to your lawn. Of course, you will have more spaces to use for planting.

When choosing your plants for your terraced planters, make sure they are colourful and bright, they have contrasting form and texture, and they are easy to maintain. Some examples of low-maintenance plants that you can consider (because they grow relatively anywhere in Australia) are spotted Emu bush and Kangaroo paw.

   

 

 

 

 

 

Fill your yard with flowers.

The best landscaped yards always find a balance by incorporating the right types of plants. However, planting colourful bloomers is always a sure-fire way to make your yard feel more welcoming and appealing. Go for bold, bright hues to make a bigger impact even if you don’t have a lot of space.

The NSW Christmas bush is one of the species of bright flowering plants that you should have in your home since they can grow anywhere along Australia’s East Cost. Albery’s Red is a common variety of this plant and blooms from early November up until Christmastime.

Darwinia oldfieldii also showcases a unique beauty with its compact red flowers and are ideal in the garden or a pot.

Everlasting daisies can be found anywhere in Australia and they are famous for their pink, lemon, gold, and white flowers. They are easy to grow as well.

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

Have a designated area for entertaining guests.

Lastly, you can give your front yard a more welcoming feel by having a patio on it. It is the perfect place to welcome and entertain guests. You can also decorate your patio with a skirt of flowers or a small hedge to help it look more intimate and enclosed.

You also have the option to cultivate the Happy Wanderer, a plant that has a variety of colourful flowers in purple, pink, or mauve, on the posts of your porch or near the walls. This plant suits most parts of Australia and often flowers throughout winter and spring.

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you put some thought and work into landscaping your front yard, you will have one that boosts both the appeal of your property and its market value.

 

Engaging children in activities all around the house is always a fun and rewarding way to spend the time. Not only will the whole family learn new things about their home, but there will also be plenty of opportunities for the children to exert their energy and demonstrate their creativity toward making simple items and performing easy tasks that could prove to be useful to the household.

The garden is one of the best places to start projects for the children to immerse themselves in. But while planting seeds and tending to flowers, vegetables and trees are common activities, there’s no reason to limit their projects to these. There’s always the option of making crafts, especially during the winter — it’s the best time to prepare simple supplies or accessories that can be used in the garden once spring rolls around.

Eager to get started? Here are some winter garden craft ideas for kids (and for parents) that everyone will be sure to enjoy.

Creating plant labels

If you’ve got seeds already sown, you’ll need a way to identify which plots contain which seeds. All you need are some popsicle sticks and markers or paint to write out the plant names and perhaps assign a specific colour for each plant.

Decorate pots and planters

Plants can thrive just as well in pots and planters as on the ground itself, and you can add a pretty touch to the garden by decorating them. Let the kids doodle on them or color them all over in their favourite colours.

Build a scarecrow

Vegetable gardens are highly attractive to birds, and you would want to keep them away to prevent damage to your crops — without harming the birds, of course. A scarecrow is a safe solution, and the kids will have fun making it, too. Just tie two garden stakes together to form a cross, surround them with straw stuffing, and dress it up with an old shirt, pants and a hat. Add details like buttons for eyes to make it look more lifelike (to the birds).

Create alternative planters

Many items that can securely hold soil can serve as planters for a garden. You and the kids can make pots from old newspapers moulded into pots, plastic soda bottles, or even gumboots.

Make a grass head

Help the kids draw faces on hard boiled eggs and scoop out their contents. The empty shells can now be filled with damp cotton wool and some grass seed. Remember to keep the wool moist; in two weeks, the eggs will have a healthy head of green grass “hair.”

If you and your family are too busy to take care of the garden chores, don’t hesitate to call in the professionals. Jim’s Mowing offer free no obligation quotes, just call on 0800 454 654 or book online.

Roses are hands-down the most loved flowers of all time. Their blooms are exquisite and their scent exudes pure romance. Perhaps what makes them even more special is that they have a reputati

on for being “fussy,” delicate and difficult to grow. The more effort you put into making them as healthy and beautiful as they can be, the more special they become.
But the level of difficulty depends on the variety; some varieties need more careful maintenance, while others will thrive even under the most relaxed method of care.

To keep your rose garden looking young and fresh, you may want to prune them on schedule. The months of June to August are the best months for pruning because these are the times when roses are in their dormant state. In Australia, many rose growing experts say that pruning your roses ready for spring is best done during July.

However, this isn’t an iron-clad rule. Your pruning schedule will still depend on the type of rose plant you have as well as the level of cold you have in your location during winter. Some exceptions include:

• Old-fashioned, banksias, weeping standards: Prune only after the main flowering
• Once-flowering varieties: As soon as they have finished flowering, usually late spring to early summer
• Climbing roses: Prune after blooming
• Roses grown in colder locations: Prune when it’s not too cold to protect new growth from frost damage

It should be noted that roses can still continue to grow even without pruning; after all, shrubs grow in the wild. But proper pruning practices can deliver the following advantages:

• It stimulates new growth, paving the way for a healthier, stronger, more lush and flowery garden.
• It allows good air circulation around each plant and facilitates the proper application of fungicide to help prevent fungus growth or blackspot, one of the most common and damaging rose garden diseases you can ever experience in your garden.
• It helps the plants to grow in a neater and more visually appealing form.

Effective pruning requires a good understanding of the growth process and preferences of the specific rose plants you are growing, as well as how the climate and soil conditions in your area impact their health. You’ll also need to be equipped with the right tools, including leather gloves to protect yourself from thorns, a pair of sharp and clean pruning shears, and a narrow saw.

Know-how of what to cut and how to cut (such as the angle and length) is, needless to say, absolutely important. Thick, spindly stems, dead and old branches and crinkly stems are the usual parts to remove. A 45-degree angle of cut, sloping away from the bud, is effective for encouraging good growth and stopping fungal disease. After each pruning, make sure to spray the plant with the right lime sulphur solution.

What you wouldn’t want when it comes to pruning your roses is to simply wing it without a solid knowledge of the process. When in doubt, ask advice from the experts or get a pruning and gardening specialist to help you out. Don’t hesitate to call the professionals at Jim’s Mowing on 0800 454 654 or book online for a free, no obligation quote.