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In Today’s throwaway society, there is absolutely no need to go out and purchase mulch material for your garden, unless it is for the particular aesthetic appearance, “The Look”, sake of the mulch material.

Were you aware that there are a number of mulching materials that you can obtain from around your own community that are free, and some of which can even be even delivered to you for nothing as well.

Impossible you might say. Well I mulch my gardens fairly heavily, and I never pay a cent for the mulch material. As a matter of fact, most of the mulch is willingly delivered to my home for nothing. As the former owners are only too glad to see the back of it, as it would cost them money, time and effort to find other ways of getting rid of it.

I also combine these outside sources of mulch with my own compost, weeds and other organic matter mixed through to achieve a great result in my garden, and so all that it costs me is time and effort.

So what am I talking about? While some of the below list is delivered free, other items I pick up myself, depending on time, circumstances, importance etc.

Grass Clippings from other people in the area or from lawn-mowing contractors.

Wood shavings from local wood turners and carvers, ( Do not use shavings from treated timber).

Small amounts of solid fill from friends who are excavating. This is to assist in raising garden beds, in my heavy clay soil.

Light prunings from shrubs which is shredded by me or put whole into garden

Heavier sticks and logs, which are turned into trellis, garden stakes, garden edges, seats, frames, log planters etc. while they slowly decay.

Newspaper, cardboard, non-rubber carpet underlay, and even carpet and carpet squares. Which is put under other mulch to prevent grass and weed regrowth

Animal manures sometimes mixed with straw from places like Racetracks and Showgrounds, Pony Clubs, Stables etc. I contact them well beforehand to see if any is available.

To this I also add my own weeds, throwing away some which can still be a potential problem, or burying them below the bottom most layer of mulch material to stop them regrowing.

Another item I add is any old potting mix from deceased plants or when repotting plants.

Being a fairly lazy gardener, I throw the material around a bit at a time, as they are available, and let nature mix them for me. On a couple of occasions I have received a bit too much wood shavings so these became path material between some of the garden beds, with a heavy underlay of newspapers. People even tell me that it looks and feels good underfoot.

Never put a large amount of fresh animal manure on any garden, as it will burn any plant around it. Be extremely sparing or let it age first for a few months before applying it to the garden.

I have been living in my new house for about fifteen months, and the mulch layer in all my gardens (there were no gardens originally), is about 10 cm or 4 inches deep. None of which I have paid for and little that I have had to even pick up for myself.

People are even starting to comment on how fast the plants in my gardens are growing in the local heavy black clay soils, and they are surprised when I tell them that I have never bothered to fertilise the plants. The reason for this is that the earliest laid mulch material, is now broken down into plant nutrients and is now feeding my plants as a plant nutrient soup aided by the soil life which has suddenly started appearing in my gardens.

Another benefit that has started to appear in the last few months is the arrival of insect eating wildlife into my garden. Predatory insects and birds are now visiting my gardens on a regular basis, where I saw none this time last year. Bees and butterflies are also starting to visit many of the plants, which have come into flower for the first time this year.

So what can you do to start locating your own supplies of free mulch material, well here are a number of suggestions.

Put a little sign near your gate, something along the lines of ‘Organic mulch required’, or ‘Lawn clipping wanted’. There are sure to be a number of local people who are currently throwing theirs away in your community or even local area. Never mulch solely with grass clippings as they form an impenetrable layer that air and water cannot get through. Always mix it with other things to stop it ‘thatching’, just like a roof over the soil.

See if you can get into contact with local people who are into woodturning and carving, or even local sawmills. And come to some arrangement about unpreserved wood shavings.

Check the local phonebook for local showgrounds/racetracks/stables etc, to find out if any have stable or manure waste to give away, for people willing to pick them up

In other words, start talking around the place that you are after mulch materials and they will soon start coming to you.

The only caution with using other peoples waste material is the chance that you might also import other peoples pests and weeds. I have rarely found it a problem because of heavy mulch on mulch routines. But it is possible.

One point being that when you first start applying mulch to your garden you may see some nitrogen deficiencies occur in some plants. This is because the organisms that are breaking down the mulch material are using up all the available resources of it during the initial breakdown. Once you have gotten past this time the old composted material provide more than enough nitrogen for future processes.

Another thing to be careful of is not to bury or mulch up against the stems of wanted plants, as it may cause further problems for your plants in rot problems around the collar of the stems.

So get out there and talk around the community, find the contacts, believe it or not they will be as grateful as you to solve their particular problems of waste reduction. As well as that, you may start making some new friendships out of the deal; I know I have.

It does not matter whether you put your kitchen scraps in the compost or the bin, did you know that you could grow many of your favourite fruit or vegetables from those scraps. Indeed, unless your compost is very well matured you will find stray veggie seedlings may appear wherever you deposit the compost.

Take for instance those potato peelings, if it is a fairly thick section of peel with an eye (shoot), then you can often get these to grow into full potato plants. Another indication that a potato is only good for planting or throwing out is the colour. If the potato is starting to look fairly green on the skin then *DO NOT EAT*, as it is an indication that it is producing a poisonous substance common in the nightshade family to which it as well as the tomatoes, chillies and capsicums belong. You can also get sweet potatoes and taros to grow from sections of the tubers.

Have you ever tried to plant or thought about trying to plant the seeds from a particularly nice tomato, capsicum, chili, watermelon or pumpkin? While any plants grown from such seed may vary quite a lot from the parent fruit, you can still achieve fairly good results from them if you are on a tight budget.

The plants grown from seeds of many of your kitchen scraps will not produce fruit to the same high standard as the original fruit/vegetables because of the complicated interbreeding programs put into place by the big seed companies. However the progeny can give a very wide range of resulting offspring. But if you come across one or two particularly good plants in the resulting season, then reuse the seeds of that and always-in future pick the best fruit from the best plants for your future propagation material.

Though there are some veggies in the kitchen where it is not possible to grow them from the seed in the fruit. These are those vegetables where the edible fruit is still in an immature state and the seed is not yet viable. These fruit/veggies include the cucumbers, okra and squashes to name just a few. This is because the fruit when it reaches a stage where the seed is viable is just too big and coarse for human consumption.

If you leave the top of a pineapple out in a shady spot for a week or so during warm weather, then strip back the lower dead leaves. You may even notice some small juvenile roots already forming at the base of the plant top. One thing to remember with pineapples is that it is a species of bromeliad. And as such it requires the same moist but well drained growing conditions.

When the garlic cloves are starting to get a green sprout coming out of the top, it is a pretty good indication, that it might be a good idea to plant them out individually for a good harvest in about 8-10 months time of this fairly expensive herb plant.

Treat it like any member of the onion tribe, because they like moist, well drained soil and a fair amount of feeding during the growing season. Harvest as the tops are dying back. But let them dry out in a cool but airy place, before you try to use them back in the kitchen.

Another fruit/vegetable along a similar line is corn, try leaving a fresh, uncooked cob of sweet corn in a shady dry spot for a couple of weeks, then you can strip the kernels away from the cob and plant them. A quicker suggestion is to grab a handful of corn kernels out of a packet of popping corn, The only comment would be that corn grown from these seeds would not be as sweet or juicy as sweet corn, and in reality would be better dried and used as popping corn.

Why not try growing your own peanuts? Always only using the raw nuts, and only choosing those nuts, which are still whole and encased in the brown skin. Peanuts can be grown during warmer weather in most parts of Australia. One of the fascinating things about peanuts is that they are one of the only plants which flower set fruit and then bury and pre plant their own seed ready for later germination. Yes the peanut, which is dug from the ground, is actually a fruit buried by the parent plant, after flowering.

You can always grow your own ginger; all it takes is a section of the root, purchased from a greengrocer. Plant it in a well drained but moist soil. Allowing plenty of room for the plant to spread out. You can be harvesting your own ginger roots within about 8-12 months.

Whether you have got a long fence, chook pen or an unsightly shed to cover, why not try planting a choko. The Vine can be very prolific, as long as you keep the moisture and fertilizer up to it.

Though once it is established, it can be left to fend for itself, and will still produce a steady supply of fruit for the family. If you have a few dollars why not look at purchasing some of the heritage or heirloom seed ranges of Fruit and vegetables. Many seed firms as well as organizations like the Seed Savers Network have many fascinating and unusual varieties of plants available for the home gardener to grow.

Of course once you have various plants growing in your veggie garden don’t forget to keep some propagating material back ( whether it is root sections, seed or divisions), for future plantings. Also you should think about letting certain plants like lettuce, parsley and basil go to seed, for planting later. I regularly have to weed my lawns around the gardens for rouge seedlings of the above plants. Such spare seedling weeds are easily replanted or swapped with other gardeners for plants I don’t yet have, or given to school and/or charity plant stalls. It is useful to have weeds that other people want and are willing to pay for.

While it usually not a good idea to try and propagate most of the tree fruit, simply from a time perspective and again because the results can also be very variable. It is still interesting to try even if you only end up getting a pot plant out of the results. It is possible to grow the seeds of such trees as mangoes, citrus, avocado, apple, pear, etc. While the fruit of some species simply have no viable seed at all eg, bananas. There is however a few, which readily lend themselves to home propagation eg, pawpaw (papaya), tree tomatoes, unroasted coffee beans, etc. I remember as a child, accidentally germinated a coconut palm, from throwing the mostly eaten out shell onto a garden bed for a few months.

Another suggestion for those of you out there, who are visited by birds to your garden, why not take a handful of birdseed and plant it out in an out of the way section of your garden. These bird friendly plants like Sunflower, oats, sorghum, etc, can be a real bonus for many native birds to supplement their diet. Many of the seeds in any packet of birdseed are very viable.

When my kids were younger and I was showing them such wonders, I used to have trouble convincing them that I could not do similar things in growing and multiplying with a variety of items of importance to them at the time, from toys to chocolate, lollies and even coins.

Singapore Botanical Garden, lying over 52 hectares, is among the largest botanical reserves in the world. Having millions of plants, a visit to the Gardens is a productive experience for anyone interested in nature. Sir Stamford Raffles, the founder of modern Singapore, established the Botanical Gardens in 1822.

Divisions of Botanical Gardens
Botanical Gardens in Singapore has been divided mainly into four parts: Orchid Garden, Evolution Garden, Ginger Garden and Rain Forest.

Orchid Garden
Orchid Garden is the most visited attraction in the Botanic Gardens. It is located on the mid-western side of the Garden. Lying over a hilly landscape on three hectares, the Garden has approximate 1,000 plant species and 2,000 orchid hybrids.

Evolution Garden
Evolution Garden, lying over 1.5 hectares, is located in central part of the Botanical Gardens. Touring the garden, one could know about the evolution of plant life on our planet. Latest entry to the Gardens, it has rapidly grown in popularity.

Ginger Garden
Ginger Garden occupies one hectare of the Gardens. It is located next to the National Orchid Garden, having the plants related with ginger family. A gift shop and a restaurant here take care of the needs of the tourists. One can also enjoy picnic in the waterfall here.

Rain Forest
A tropical rain forest within city limits is a unique entity in Singapore. The six hectare rain forest is quite dense. Another rain forest within Singapore city is Bukit Timah Nature Reserve.

More Botanical Gardens Attractions
Attractions in the Botanical Gardens don’t end with the options given above. One could visit more attractions like Saraca Stream Walk, Palm Valley, Sundiaal Garden, Sun Garden, Botany Center, Green Pavilion, and Bandstand Area. One can also visit three pretty beautiful lakes, namely Symphony Lake, Eco Lake and Swan Lake. Shaw Foundation Symphony Stage on Symphony Lake organizes entertaining musical concerts.

Reaching Botanical Gardens
Several local buses are available for the Gardens, particularly from Holland Road and Bukit Timah Road. Alternatively, one can also hire taxis to reach there.

Chandigarh is known as the garden city. It has a lot of gardens around the different section of the place. See some of them here.

Chandigarh is India’s well constructed city. Its architecture is world class and unparalleled, and offers a good quality of living conditions. This place is a dream project of Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru and Le Corbusier. This is the very first planned city in India. It was rightfully named the “Beautiful City” because it is not just rich but also prosperous of spic and span and green nature. It definitely lives up to its branding.

The Chandigarh is also known as the Garden City of India. They have a wide collection of garden plants all well maintained. Cleanliness greatly adds beauty to the surroundings. The locals love to be in touch with nature and the cosmos and they manifest this by keeping their environment clean. The Chandigarh was even proclaimed the World’s Rock Garden and the Largest Rose Garden in Asia. Because of this, Chandigarh has always been in the list of favorite spots to visit around the world.

Rock Garden Chandigarh

This is the premier attraction in Chandigarh since 1958. It was created by Nek Chand Saini. This was formed out of the urban waste materials found in the city. These urban wastes include tin cans, bottles, plates, broken plugs and saucers. These materials were formed into beautiful textures and patterns. There were many materials were formed out of these wastes. The place has series of chamber but the first phase is a small canyon. The place has broken ceramics of human and animal form.

Chandigarh Botanical gardens

There were two botanical gardens in the place – Botanical Garden of Punjab University and another one between Rock Garden and Sukhna Lake. These botanical gardens are the main attractions of the place. The Punjab University Botanical garden is a place full of cacti and succulent plants. It has both evergreen and exotic plants. Lotus flowers are also abundant.

The Botanical garden between Rock Garden and Sukhna Lake has rare species of plants and pools of small lilies. This is a big garden with a total area of 88 acres. There is one botanical garden still to be developed up to now. It also grows trees that offer medicinal value and indigenous species of plants.

Chandigarh Bougainvillea Park

This is one garden where you can find all varieties of bougainvillea flowers. This was created in 1976. There are 65 varieties of bougainvillea in this place. This also has creepers that contain collection of arches, pavilions, bowers and arcades. This place has been famous because of the bougainvillea show held here annually.

Fitness Trail and Flower Garden

This is created mainly for physical fitness in 1965. Now it has been transformed to a very beautiful garden, with many gorgeous seasonal flowers to see. There are also wonderful sculptures adorned throughout the area that adds to the relaxing ambiance. This garden offers scenic beauty with the natural combination of physical exercise and beauty.

Garden of Fragrance

This is another garden that draws a big number of guests everyday. It offers plants with sweet fragrances and aroma. It houses varieties of jasmine, Haar Shingar, motia, Raat ki rani, demask roase, Champa and mehndi. This place has a nice picnic spot for you to enjoy. People can do work out in here because there are also tracks placed in the garden.

Chandigarh is definitely second home to nature lovers.

Mohali is the capital of Punjab, adjacent to Chandigarh. It was named after the eldest son of Guru Gobind Singh called SAS Nagar or Sahibzada Ajit Singh Nagar. Mohali continuously develop its priceless attractions including the fascinating Gardens of Mohali.

Mohali is the 18th district of Punjab, India, adjacent to Chandigarh. It is located west of Chandigarh, Rupnagar district at the north and Fategarh Sahib and Patiala in the south. The fast urban growth and attractions of the city has made visitors from locals and foreign lands praise the majestic Gardens of Mohali.

Below are some popular gardens to visit in Mohali:

Pinjore Garden

Pinjore Gardens is also called the Yadavindra Gardens. It is one of the most popular resorts that lie at the foothills of the Shiwalik ranges. Pinjore is a religious and ancient historical place located 20 kilometers from Chandigarh and 14 kms from Panchkula. Pinjore houses a Japanese garden, mini zoo, plant nursery, guest houses, picnic lawns and the beautiful Mughal Gardens.

Pinjore has been associated with the five Pandava brothers of the Mahabharatha epic. People believed that the Pandavas stayed in this place during their exile. Pinjore nowadays bears some images of the past.

Baisakhi or spring festival is held at the Yadavindra Gardens in April. Moreover, programs for the Mango Festival are arranged in June and July. The gardens have sheltered walks with a cool atmosphere. Fountains are switched on and lights brighten up the place at night during weekends. The doorway end structure is like a disc of an open-air theater. The outer wall is stiff and has all around dieter pavilions that house the zoo. The entire garden is surrounded with arched balconies, fountains, watercourse, flowerbeds, terraces, limpid pools and monumental gateways.

The seven terraces of the garden has a magical descending effect and the green Himalayas rises up that sheer over the walls of the white buildings of Kasauli hill station. Its watercourse showcases a never-ending bubbling music from terrace to terrace.

The garden was designed by architect Nawab Fadai Khan, the foster brother of Emperor Aurangzeb. The garden was built on a classical Charbagh pattern with a central water way, Sheesh Mahal or the palace of glass, Rang Mahal and Jal Mahal (the palace of water). Pinjore Garden was restored by Maharaja Yadavindra Singh of Patiala.

Rose Garden

Rose Garden is one of the largest gardens in Asia with thousands of rose species. It was named after the former president of India, Zakir Hussain. The garden started last 1967 under the guidance of Dr. M.S. Randhawa, Chandigarh’s first Chief Commissioner.

The 30 acre of land contains more than 17,000 plants with 1,600 roses and 50,000 rose bushes. Some of its varieties are hybrid and very rare. It also consists of medicinal trees like the harar, bel, bahera, and yellow gulmohar. The rose garden is a popular venue for the annual rose festival which is celebrated with more than 20,000 visitors. It is held during the end of February or beginning of March. There are contests, competitions, stalls and cultural shows that delight tourists.

Rock Garden

Rock Garden is a splendid work of sculpture in Sector 1 of Chandigarh. The forty acres of land is located between the Capitol complex and Sukhna Lake. The foundation was held by Nek Chand, the road inspector of Chandigarh engineering department.

This garden is very unique because of its art objects made by urban and industrial waste. It uses discarded fluorescent tubes, broken chinaware, auto parts, mudguards, handle bars, broken glass bangles and building clays, coal and waste. The discarded materials was use to create sculptures of soldiers, palaces, temples, women, monkeys and village life.

The Rock garden showcases an open-air exhibition hall and is separated by tunnels, turns, twists and gateways. It is also enhanced with pools, waterfalls and a theater. The garden was run by the Rock Garden Society and even appeared on the Indian stamp in 1983.

The gardens of Mohali can truly be appreciated by visiting, walking through it and studying its meaning for global concerns.

For many gardeners in the U.S. the winter is a down time because the ground is frozen and covered with snow. A popular alternative is for garden and gardening lovers is to take a midwinter trip to the world’s most famous gardens. This article will take you to some of most famous gardens in the world.

The first stop on the itinerary is the Far East. Japan has long been famous for its Zen or “Japanese Style” gardens. These gardens feature carved stone lanterns that are hundreds of years old, along with stones and plants arranged to maximize the Zen of the garden. Most gardens in Japan can be found near Buddhist temples often surrounding them or leading up to the Temples from the busy streets. Kenroku-en, Kairaku-en and Koraku-en are the three great gardens of Japan. Kenroku-en located in Kanazawa, Ishikawa, Japan, is an old private garden developed from the 1620s to 1840s. It is open year-round during daylight hours and famous for its beauty in all seasons; an admission fee is charged. The garden is located outside the gates of Kanazawa Castle where it originally formed the outer garden, and covers over 25 acres. The garden is home to the oldest fountain in Japan and is lovely to visit in the winter.

The next stop on the journey is the garden made famous by Monet, the Garden at Giverny. Claude Monet noticed the village of Giverny while looking out the window of a train he was riding. He made up his mind to move there and rented a house and the area surrounding it. Some of his most famous paintings, such as his water lily and Japanese bridge paintings were of his garden in Giverny. Monet lived in Giverny from 1883 until his death in 1926. He and many members of his family are interred in the village cemetery. Today the garden features hundreds of plants, flowers, and trees along with the famous bridge that has been restored to its original condition.

The final garden to visit is one of the gardens designed by the one of the true experts in gardening. Gertrude Jekyll (1843- 932), was an influential British garden designer, writer, and artist. She created over 400 gardens in the UK, Europe and the USA and contributed over 1,000 articles to Country Life, The Garden and other magazines. In 1908, when she was 65, Jekyll was asked by Charles Holme to design the garden for one of his houses at Upton Grey in Hampshire. Gertrude Jekyll drew plans for the four and a half acre garden. On this chalky, sloping site she designed one of her most beautiful gardens. It includes many features of a typical Jekyll garden, but on a rather smaller scale than most of her commissions. To the west of the house stands the Wild garden. Grass paths wind from semicircular grass steps through rambling, species roses, to a small copse of walnut trees and wild flowers, beyond which lies a small pond. Some of Jekyll’s original drifts of daffodils remain at the end of the Wild Garden, still in the drifts she designed. This is one of the finest private gardens in the world and well worth the drive from London.

We hope these gardens have inspired you to get and travel this winter and would love for you to send us pictures that you have taken from other gardens across the globe. To read more gardening articles please visit http://www.no-crank.com.

No matter if they are urban or rural, all gardens benefit from preplanning and design. This doesn’t mean just knowing where you want your garden, but the overall design of the garden. Today, gardening can include everything from vegetables to flowers to lawn care. Carefully planning what you want, and where you want it, beforehand will help you get the most from your garden.

Planning Your Garden

To begin, measure and draw a plan of your yard and/or garden as it is now. Your plan should include the placement of your house, driveways and walkways, property boundaries, trees and shrubs, and utility services. Using graph paper, draw everything as close to scale as possible.

What Is Your Garden’s Purpose?

Make a list of everything you want to have in your garden area that you consider essential. This could include a vegetable plot, fruit trees, or flower borders. Once you have your basic essentials listed, move on to your “wish list.” Your wish list would include items such as a water feature or a potting shed. Put the items in your list in the order of their importance. Now, place a piece of tracing paper over your original garden plan drawing and draw in your essential and wish list items. Divide your garden plan into zones such as public area, surface area, and private areas.

How Much Space Will You Need?

Everything that you want in your garden plan may not fit in that area that you have available. You may have to make decision about which features are the most important to you, or how to incorporate them differently (like in containers). Think carefully about how much time you will have to devote to your garden’s maintenance and care. Eliminate those things that you know you will not have time for.

What Kind of Garden Do You Want?

There are many different types of gardens that you could have. Besides having vegetables and fruits growing in a certain area, you may also want one of the following types of gardens.

Kitchen Garden. If you don’t have the space or a large vegetable garden, you may want to plant a kitchen garden. This type of garden is usually planted close to the house where you can harvest the plants easily. However, you need to make sure that it is not so close to the house that it does not get adequate sunlight. Plants in a kitchen garden are usually those that are easy to plant, maintain and harvest.

You may want to have an ornamental garden. An ornamental garden and either be formal or informal and is characterized by having plants or shrubs rather than flowers. Some people prefer to use ornamental gardens for their private outdoor rooms.

If you live in a rural area, a Wildlife Garden may be an appropriate choice for you. A wildlife garden will usually include a water feature, tall grasses, and lots of flowers and fruits. This is the type of garden that small critters, butterflies and birds will be drawn to.

Your Final Plan

Your final gardening plan should include those items that you consider essential to your garden and those on your wish list that will fit in your gardening area. By now, you should have all of these features drawn in on your graph paper. Take a good look at your plan to make sure that all of your flowers, vegetables, lawn, and other features are placed in areas that are most appropriate: where they can get the best shade and sun and are aesthetically pleasing.

Now, following your plan, start putting your garden together. It doesn’t all have to be done in the same day. In fact, it’s best to take it slowly and create one area at a time. This way, if you find that some features would really fit another place better, changes can be made before planting.

Japanese style gardens are very popular due to the beauty and serenity they offer. The concept of these gardens is to provide a place where one can be relaxed and calm. When designing a Japanese style garden, it is important that the plants and rocks meld together in the landscape; and the design of the garden itself must be well thought out.

Did you know that there are several different Japanese garden styles to choose from? Even though there are different types, you have the freedom to meld two or more different types together to make your own unique combination. However, you should have enough room in your yard to be able to do so. Here are the different styles for you to choose from if you are going to plan a Japanese style garden.

Island and pond style gardens are gardens with a centralized pond that is large enough to either have a boat go across or one in which you can stroll around the edge of the pond. This type of garden is designed to where all plant life, as well as rocks and other features, can be seen from the pond area. The elements as well as the plants are blended into the landscape beyond the garden itself. Small islands are also created within the pond with a small bush or tree to serve as a focal point and small bridges can also be built from the shore, to the island and back again.

Primarily used by Buddhist monks within their temples, the Zen garden is comprised of various size boulders, small and big rocks, gravel, and/or sand. Occasionally, they can also have one or two plants consisting of a shrub or tree. The rocks of a dry landscape Zen garden are very carefully positioned and consists of unique shapes and sizes; often representing islands. The sand and the gravel represent water and raked into various patterns. The Zen garden’s goal is to help clear the mind of the viewer as well as aid in contemplation and meditation without distractions. The garden is to be viewed from a single focal point and is not entered into other than to rake the gravel.

A Japanese tea garden is good choice for a garden that is either incorporated within a larger Japanese garden style or in average sized yards and it is a popular one to create. It consists of two gardens; one being an outer garden and another being an inner garden. The outer garden consists of the entry gate and is less formal in planting with a stone path leading to the inner garden. Visitors to the tea garden go through a second gate where a water basin, called a tsukubai, is located and used in the tea ceremony itself. The inner garden consists of a stone path that flows through it and formally placed non flowering plants. A small building where tea ceremonies take place sits at the end of the inner path.

A stroll garden is made of various paths that lead the visitor through interesting turns and new sights. Landscapes that are found in nature are usually the focus of these gardens and are often recreated in miniature form within the garden itself. Large yards of at least an acre are required to create these gardens with interesting views.

Do you want a Japanese garden but have a small yard? A Courtyard garden just might be the perfect solution for you. These gardens work especially well in yards that are very limited in space and are enclosed by a brick or stone wall or wooden fence. It is simple in design and can be observed from inside your house or enjoyed outside if it. Courtyard gardens consists of few plants, perhaps a tree, small water feature, often times a dry stream, or other simple elements.

The most important thing to consider when planning a Japanese style garden is to determine what you wish to achieve with it. Be sure to do some research on the subject and decide what you want to do with it before you start.

The Loire Valley in France is a superb delight for garden enthusiasts. Not only can you admire the spectacular chateaux and sample fine French cuisine and great Loire valley wine, tourists can also marvel at some amazing gardens. The whole valley is now a world heritage site listed by UNESCO.

Chateau Villandry is a gem and a must see for any one with a vegetable patch in need of some inspiration. Chateau Chaumont on the banks of the Loire River holds a spectacular international garden festival every summer. Peony and rose lovers should visit the botanical gardens at Orchaise west of Blois.

Chateau Villandry owes its fame to the exceptional terraced gardens which sit on three levels and include a water garden, an ornamental garden and an ornamental kitchen garden. Eight gardeners work at Chateau Villandry full time, and plant about 60,000 vegetables and 45,000 plants in its gardens each year. Villandry is a dynamic place, the site of many activities such as the “Vegetable Garden Days” in September, the summer festival, special exhibits and workshops with the gardeners from the chateau.

The gardens at Chateau Villandry are an imaginative twentieth century re-creation of a 16th century renaissance castle garden. The moated Chateau dates from 1536 and had a formal garden in the eighteenth century. The existing garden dates from the years after 1906 when it was purchased by a Spaniard, Dr Joachim Carvallo.

He purchased the property and poured an enormous amount of time, money and devotion into repairing the castle. Inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement, he wished the garden to have a sixteenth century character. He created what many people believe to be the most beautiful gardens anywhere in the world.

The gardens are split into several parts: a maze made from 1,200 beech trees, a kitchen garden with aromatic herbs and vegetables, an ornamental flower garden near the castle, a children’s garden with a play area, a water garden with a pond and a greenhouse garden.

An arbour of grape vines leads to a great parterre, designed as a Garden of Music. The Garden of Love is o nthe other side of the canal. Symbolising the moods of love, it looks rectangular from the chateau but is actually trapezoid. The love garden has its colourful flowers and heart-shaped box hedges laid out with square beds illustrating “Tragic Love”, “Fickle love”, “Tender Love” and “Insane Love”. There is also the beautiful water garden with its lawns and pool of water.

But the real treasure at Chateau Villandry is the ultimate vegetable garden. It is It is bordered by espaliered apple trees, drooping pear bushes and standard roses which symbolise the monks who once tended the first medieval vegetable gardens and laid out in nine squares. Villandry is a vegetal feast, with zigzags of crazy-growing leeks, blocks of autumn pumpkins, beds of yellow and green peppers, big purple cabbages and mounds of celery all replanted twice a year with a brilliant eye for the colours of the changing seasons.

In 1934, Chateau de Villandry was designated a monument historique. It is still owned by the Carvallo family, and open to the public. It is one of the most visited castles in France. In July afer dark the gardens are lit by over 2000 candles and this beautiful vision of the gardens is accompanied by baroque music played by musicians wandering throughout the gardens.

An international garden festival takes places every day during the entire summer, on the grounds of the Chateau de Chaumont. Gardeners from all over the world produce outstanding gardens around a central theme, using nature and art together to create the contemporary effects.

Lasting six months from late April to mid-October, some 25 gardens at Chateau de Chaumont take a different theme each year – from water, vegetables and weeds to more conceptual poetry. The Garden Festival at Chaumont drawing international teams of architects, artists and stage directors as well as gardeners and landscape designers.

The theme for the festival for 2007 is mobility. Last year it was play and most of the exhibits were highly interactive and a delight to the young and to the young at heart.

The botanic park at Orchaise boasts over 2,000 plant varieties from around the world ranging from water lilies to blooming cherries. It is especially well known for its beautiful array of peonies and roses.

The Loire Valley can not help to inspire gardeners. Even Mick Jagger gyrating lead singer of the Rolling Stones, is now garden enthusiast at his preferred second residence near Amboise. He got Alvilde Lees-Milne to lay out a marvellous formal walled garden at his 15th century chateau and he has now become completely part of the garden, knowing every single thing about all the plants, the flowers, and the way the fruit trees are espaliered.

Botanical gardens are places where a enormous variety of plants are developed, usually for scientific purposes. Not all botanical gardens are open to the public, but the ones that are serve as a great educational tool, as you will be able to study many different plants up-close. While research certainly takes place on these plants, a botanical garden also serves as a place for conservation, keeping these plants protected in the process.

Here are some of the best botanical gardens in the world.

1. The New York Botanical Garden is one of the most well-known botanical gardens in the world. Situated in the Bronx borough of New York City, this garden sits on 250 acres and contains 50 gardens and plant collections. It was founded in 1891 and it acts as the region’s leader in research and plant collection. The New York Botanical Garden has also remained as international leader when it comes to research. If you ever are scheduling a trip to see one of these gardens, this would certainly be a place to keep in mind, as they contain some of the best collections of plants in the entire world.

2. The Missouri Botanical Garden is also very popular in the United States. Located in St. Louis, this particular garden is known for having some of the finest botanical research around. There are also a number of horticultural displays and education programs geared toward training people everything about botanical gardens.

3. Denver’s Botanical Garden is one of the top-rated gardens in all of the United States. This is a very exceptional garden because of where it is situated – the western part of the country. Therefore, by visiting this garden you will get a quick look at some plants you will not find in many other places, especially back east. Visually dazzling and essentially a work of art, this botanical garden has been around for over 55 years and has served as both an eye pleaser and an educational tool.

Those are just three of the most popular botanical gardens in the United States. These gardens can be found all over the world and each one has something different to offer. While these are usually used for conducting research and other learning purposes, one really can look at a botanical garden as a work of art. Beautifully designed, you must visit one in your lifetime; it is guaranteed that you have not seen anything like it, and surely you will not leave disappointed

Here are some of the place where you can see the gardens of the world.

1. Florida contains two gardens that are considered gardens of the world. There’s Leu Gardens as well as the Fairchild Tropical Garden. Leu Gardens is in Orlando, while Fairchild Tropical Garden is in Miami. Both gardens enclose over fifty acres of rare and beautiful species of plants and flowers.

2. The Ness Botanic Gardens is one of the gardens in the world in Liverpool, England. It was been added to by exotic plant hunters since the nineteen hundreds and is even part of Liverpool University’s work.

3. In Russia, there are two gardens of the world. There’s the Botanic Garden of the Irkutsk State University, which isn’t usually open to the public since it’s primarily used for the University’s work, and then there’s the Petrozavodsk State University Botanic Garden, which seeks to work together with other gardens of the world to boost its variety and also add to the variety of other gardens.

4. There’s even one of the gardens of the world in New Zealand, where they have the Christchurch Botanic Gardens, which is home to many acres of trees, flowers and shrubs. When you arrive, you become the master or mistress over all of these acres, and you will love the many walkways, bridges, and shady rests that are available to all who visit.

There are several other gardens of the world, and they are all beautiful and unique in their own right. If you truly love nature and would like to view exotic species and varieties of plants and flowers, and much more, visit one of the gardens of the world near you or begin your travels to all the corners of the world to visit gardens of the world in other countries and states. You’ll love what you see and you’ll love how the power of nature overwhelms you as you likely have never felt before.