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• Walk around your neighborhood. Look at other gardens and yards that you admire.
• Evaluate your own land. Where are the problem areas, such as poor drainage, do you need to consider? You’ll want a deign that moves water away from your house. Think about how much sun/shade your land receives (and when) because this affects plant choice. Consider your climate and soil type.
• Think about the style of your house. Is it formal or informal? Your landscaping shouldn’t compete.
• How do you plan to use your landscape? For kids’ play, for gardening, for outdoor entertaining? Do you need to create different spaces for different uses? 
• How much space do you have? Walk around your yard and make a simple sketch to get a sense of scale.
• How much time do you have to maintain your landscape? Be as realistic and not overly ambitious. Are you going to take care of your landscape by yourself? Are you planning to hire someone? Are you at home during the summer when the garden will need lots of care and maintenance?
• Make flowers incidental, to supply color and finish. The lawn and the mass plantings are the main pieces of the plan. Flower sparingly.
• Avoid plantings that might grow and block the windows and light. At the same time, use plantings to hide less desirable parts of your home.
• Consider position carefully. Far more important than the right choice of plant is its correct position with reference to other plants and to structures.  
• Fill a scrapbook with ideas. Include magazine clippings and photos and colors that you can reference at a nursery or with a contractor.

Olmsted’s principles demonstrate that we all have different philosophies, likes, and dislikes for our home landscape. Take time to dream and plan, especially during the winter months. Then, as the earth warms, walk outside your front door.

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A soil’s texture is determined by the mineral particle sizes it contains. Sand, silt, and clay — the mineral particles in soil — are derived from rock broken down over thousands of years by climatic and environmental conditions (rain, glaciers, wind, rivers, animals, etc.).

The ratio of particle sizes affects the amount of pore space — the space between the mineral particles — and therefore the amount of air and water a soil can hold. It also affects other characteristics. The smaller the soil particles, for example, the more they bind together when wet. Thus, clay soils can be sticky and difficult to work. They drain poorly and have less pore space for air, so roots may suffer from a lack of oxygen. However, clay soils are often rich in plant nutrients. In contrast, sandy soils can drain water too quickly for healthy plant growth and tend to be low in nutrients, but they are easier to work. Adding organic material can offset many of the problems associated with either extreme.

While there’s no such thing as a perfect soil, different plants grow best in different types of soil. Most common garden plants prefer loam — soils with a balance of different-sized mineral particles (approximately 40% sand, 40% silt, and 20% clay) with ample organic matter and pore space. However, some plants grow better in sandy soils, while others are well-adapted to clay soils.

To encourage butterflies to reside in your garden, it’s best to include food sources in the form of host plants for caterpillars and nectar plants for butterflies. А butterfly’s wish listalso includes sunny open spaces, shelter from the wind, and fresh water. It’s also crucial to opt for using native plant varieties in your garden, as these will be the most beneficial to the butterflies and caterpillars in your area. 

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What comes up in your no-mow patch depends very much on what you start with. If, like me, your lawn is old, rather weedy, and probably hasn’t encountered weedkillers or fertilisers for years, a bit more conscious neglect could transform it into a thriving mini-meadow.

This is because the average lawn is usually home to what many would describe as weeds. Shift your perspective slightly and, like a botanical version of the ugly duckling story, many of these so-called weeds will grow into lovely wildflowers.

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Last week Monty Don tweeted that a drought in Herefordshire was always welcome simply because they never have one there. The division between the prevailing climate in the west, and that in the east, effects our regional culture and traditions. It is not a coincidence that livestock fare the best where the grass grows greenest (it is well watered in the west country) and that the dry east, known in the old days as “corn country”, is favourable for arable or fruit.

Beth Chatto’s garden was a fruit farm before she converted it into a garden. Fruit trees are deep rooted, and unlike cattle have no need of lush, green, fast-growing grass. In fact, fruit trees view grass as a competitor. That is why we clear the area immediately adjacent to the base of their trunks, or let smaller livestock scratch around among them. What fruit trees need is sun. Rearing livestock is converting grass into food; here in the east we tend to farm light and air.

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Even now, nudging into my forties, I still regularly hear people say “you’re a gardener? Aren’t you too young to be doing that?” While I increasingly enjoy hearing the words; “aren’t you too young?”, the idea that “this” should only be enjoyed by an older generation both amuses and grates.

Thankfully things are starting to change, with a growing number of initiatives designed to create a greater awareness and fostering a fun connection with the natural world. Grow Wild’s Youth Takeover exhibition launching this Saturday (June 24) and running until July 9 at Summerhall in Edinburgh is a great example. It’s part of Grow Wild, the national outreach initiative of Kew Gardens that is the UK’s biggest-ever wildflower campaign. Young artists between the ages of 12 and 25 were asked to outline how they would highlight through art the plight of wild flowers and their native meadow habitats (97% of which have been lost since the 1930s), and the bees, butterflies, and other insects which rely on them for food. The resulting artwork, which covers everything from poetry and embroidery through to sculpture and steel band music makes for a vibrant wildflower homage.

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It’s perfectly possible for a beginner to successfully grow a good crop of apples, pears, plums, cherries, figs, apricots, peaches, nectarines, raspberries, grapes, kiwi berries, blackberries, blueberries, currants, gooseberries, and strawberries in a small space.

Just read that list again – it’s pretty impressive. Short of bananas, citrus and avocado, I reckon most people would be happy with that as a substitute for their usual supermarket fruit aisle. We garden writers bang on about helping bees – collectively these crops produce thousands of flowers just begging to be pollinated. Will they look pretty? Of course! How many of us would gladly grow an ornamental cherry or crab apple in our garden? Then why not grow a tree that delivers not only the blossom and autumn leaf colour, but a bumper edible crop to boot? The architectural foliage of a fig, the autumn leaf colour of a grape, cherry or blueberry, the billowy blossom of an apple, peach or blackberry – it’s all there for the taking, along with a massive trugful of delicious bounty.

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1 Give your plants a lift
Removing lower branches from trees and shrubs (sometimes called ‘crown lifting) can make them look a million dollars. It can improve their shape, make them look ‘cleaner’ and also help air circulate around the plant as well as creating opportunities to plant underneath them. Target branches that are touching the ground or spoiling the shape of the plant and remove them back to their source. Make sure your cutting tools are sharp and leave a clean cut.

2 Top dress your pots
Scrape away the top 5cm of compost from the tops of pots of established plants. This will remove weeds, moss and dead leaves. Then replace with a layer of fresh compost or a decorative mulch and then water the compost, unless it is already saturated. If you come across any stubborn weed seedlings or deep-rooted perennial weeds, use a thin bladed weeding tool or a garden knife to get them out.

3 Smooth the cracks in your patio
Use a patio weeding tool or even an old, rusty pair of secateurs to scrape away moss and weeds from the cracks in between your paving slabs. Once removed, fill in any gaps between the paving with a mix of three parts sharp sand to one part cement, and a little water to moisten the mix. Push it down the cracks with a pointing trowel, then smooth the surface with the trowel or an old piece of cut off hosepipe.

4 Fill gaps in pots with instant color
Freshly planted containers may contain lots of bare earth while you wait for plants to mature. Instead of putting up with this empty scene, fill gaps with temporary colour by planting violas or primroses. These tough and brightly-colourful plants will provide colour for as long as you want them too.

5 Make a new flowerbed
Most gardens have a bit of lawn to spare so dig some out and add some new plants to improve your garden. Cut into the area of turf you wish to remove, using a spade. Then insert a turfing iron or a spade horizontally into the turf to lift it up. Make cuts along the length of the area you are lifting, so that you move manageable pieces of turf at a time. Dig over the ground to loosen it up, and then add some new plants. Check the heights and spreads on the labels to make sure you will have enough room for the plants once they have matured.

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Lemons are more cold-sensitive than all other citrus trees. Due to this cold sensitivity, lemon trees should be planted near the south side of the home.

Lemon trees need protection from frost. Growing them near the house should help with this.

Lemon trees also require full sunlight for adequate growth.

While lemon trees can tolerate a range of soils, including poor soil, most prefer well-drained, slightly acidic soil.

Lemon trees should be set slightly higher than ground. Therefore, dig a hole somewhat shallower than the length of the root ball. Place the tree in the hole and replace soil, tamping firmly as you go. Water sufficiently and add some mulch to help retain moisture.

Lemon trees require deep watering once weekly.

If necessary, pruning may be done to maintain their shape and height.

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During winter, its leaves remain green and its flowers do not show. Lantana is commonly used to cover planters. Generally, this type of Lantana does not grow much. It can be pruned frequently and has the facility to recover easily.

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