Landscape design

Many gardeners struggle with their property’s shaded areas. True, turfgrass won’t grow in heavy shade (anywhere with less than 6 hours of direct, full sun), but there are many plants which prefer either partial or even full shade. All it takes is a shift in your landscape vision for shaded areas to go from thin, unthrifty turf to the healthy restful gems of your landscape.

Evergreens, both trees and shrubs, enliven the winter landscape, providing form, texture and color during a time when our landscapes are sparse. If your landscape is too bare and brown right now but you don't have room for a new tree, consider the addition of evergreen shrubs – there are many great options from which to choose.

Common evergreen shrub species used in Nebraska landscapes including yew, juniper, and arborvitae. Less common types include dwarf forms of pine, spruce and falsecypress.

Growing grass is almost impossible in the heavy shade created by mature trees and many gardeners struggle with the best method for managing this difficult area of their landscape, but it is possible to have attractive plantings in these shaded locations, while still preserving the tree's health. Here are a few tips for creating a beautiful shade garden underneath your trees.

Maybe you have dreamed of creating a small wildflower garden in your landscape? If so, a great place to start is with an dryland prairie garden. Not too tall, but full of color and wildflowers! Just make sure the site you chose is in full sun- to perform at their best these plants require full sun at least 6 hours or more a day.

Your yoga classes, meetings, and concerts are canceled. Theaters are closed. The kids are out of school and you’re being encouraged to stay home In this time of Covid-19, here are a few suggestions to cultivate something good from the National Garden Bureau. Written by C.L. Fornari, GardenComm member.

Looking out your window in January, the predominant colors you’ll see are shades of brown, gray, and, if we have snow, white. Evergreen trees and shrubs provide some relief, but the view is still pretty neutral. An excellent way to brighten the dead of winter is to plant trees and shrubs that possess colorful fruit or bark, or plants with interesting shapes. Take a look at your winter landscape now, and decide if spring planting this year should include plants for winter interest.

An old horticulture practice of controlling plant growth in a flat plane against a solid surface or trellis has merit in today’s smaller landscapes. This is the art of espalier, pronounced ess-PAL-yer, or ess-PAL-yay. The word espalier is French, but is derived from the Italian word spalliera meaning “something to rest the shoulder against.” The technique of espalier is not the same as that of topiary, which creates a free-standing, 3-dimensional plant pruned to a decorative shape. Espaliered plants have only two dimensions, height and width, and most commonly have a support structure.

We often get carried away when looking at plants in the garden center or plant catalogs. A particularly attractive plant is so tempting, we buy first then try to figure out where it will survive in our landscape. As a result, gardeners often end up with a mish-mash of plants with different growing requirements, which they try to and fulfill in their landscape beds.

What’s the difference between a new gardener and an experienced one? The experienced gardener has killed way more plants - or so the saying goes!

Even armed with a substantial amount of knowledge, gardening is still a highly trial-and-error venture. Sometimes that’s on purpose, as gardeners try new plants in their gardens. Sometimes it’s an accident, when a plant that should grow in a particular site just won’t, no matter what you do.