Welcome!

First, I would like to apologize in advance for any delay or inconsistency in delivery of this newsletter. The spring and summer months are way busy around here and may or may not keep me from putting this out in a consistent manner.

Thanks for understanding.

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IN THIS ISSUE
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o Landscape Tips - Creating a radius point

o Garden Tips - Proper watering

o And Another Thing - This section may or may not have anything to do with landscaping OR gardening. But you may find it interesting.
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LANDSCAPE TIPS - Creating a radius point

On our last project, our client was very taken by the method we used to create radius in her landscape. Actually, I think she was more intrigued by it's simplicity.

So I figured that this may be of interest to you as well and may be something that you can use in your design work.

If you're designing on paper or computer screen, it's important to use exact scale such as 1 inch equals 8 feet or whatever. And it's also important to use fixed radius when using circles and curves in your design.

Design can and should be flexible. However, having fixed starting points can save a lot of guess work and messed up projects. From a landscapers point of view, there's no difference in home and landscape designs. You need a good blueprint.

But how do you get those circles and curves in your design from the paper to the ground in exactly the same place, shape, and size?

First, we design on paper or screen using a compass or radius tool and keep track of exact distances and points. This will be our reference when we get outside.

Once we're outside, we'll construct a large, simple compass using a pivot point (screwdriver or stake), a string, and a marking tool.

The rest of this example is online since we have some photos and diagrams to explain the detail. Please be patient while this page loads. Go to:

http://www.the-landscape-design-site.com/landscapeprojects/radiuspoint.html

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GARDEN TIPS - Proper Watering

This is basic and elementary but still good to know.

Knowing how and how much to water is not only vital to the optimal health of your plants, but will also save you time, money, resources, and energy.

Most people don't realize how much water plants actually use. During high heat and low humidity, a large mature tree will use over two hundred gallons a day. That's surprising.

Smaller plants use less but the fact is that water is vital.

You can accidentally spray your plants with herbicide, over or under fertilize them, or hit them with the weed whacker, and they will survive. Let them go dry for an extended period of time just once, and they could be stunted forever or die.

No rule applies to all plants. However, for lawns, most garden plants and trees, a good rule of thumb is to supplement rainfall until your plants have received one inch of water a week.

In order to measure this accurately, you can place wide top rain guages or even one gallon coffee cans throughout the watered areas. Make a one inch mark on the containers. Once they reach an inch from either rain, sprinkler, or both, you can empty the containers and start over.

Plants like deep watering rather than frequent shallow waterings. Water on the top few inches of soil is wasted by evaporation and plants never get a chance to use it.

Top growth of your plants depends on a continuous supply of deep water because roots will dig deep into moist soil creating support for more growth. This is really important for large trees in windy areas.

In flower beds, automated drip or flood irrigation is the most efficient and trustworthy way to ensure your plants get enough deep water. Most people don't have the time or patience to hand water all of their plants efficiently.

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AND ANOTHER THING - Tankless Water Heaters?

Usually, by the time I hear about something new, it's not new anymore. In this case it's been around for over two decades.

I really did think I'd stumbled on to the neatest things that noone had ever seen. A water heater without a tank. One that heats the water you need only as you need it.

I'm sure that you and most everyone that's reading this has heard of tankless water heaters or even already own one. But I hadn't.

So for those of you (like me) who've never heard of these, I thought I'd mention it here.

I did a little checking into them and discovered that they have indeed been around for over 25 years. I also discovered that the U.S.A. is one of the few countries left that still use tank type water heaters.

Most other places have caught on to the energy and money savings that tankless water heaters have to offer. Anyway...they're worth checking into.
If you want to find out more go to:
Tankless Water Heaters
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That's all for this issue.

If you have questions or comments, feel free to email me at: steve@the-landscape-design-site.com

See you in a week or two with the next issue,

Steve Boulden
S&S Designed Landscaping,LLC

DIY Plans, Projects and Resource Directory

DIY Plans, Projects and Resource Directory