Landscaping for Dummies - Beckstrom, Bob

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Résumé :

Introduction?1

About This Book 1

Foolish Assumptions 3

Icons Used in This Book 3

Beyond This Book 4

Where to Go from Here 4

Part 1: Getting Started with Landscaping?5

Chapter 1: Designing Your Landscape: The Birth of Your Design?7

Starting with Dreams - Create Your Wish List 8

Gathering good ideas 9

Drawing within the Lines: Living with Practical Issues 12

Making sure you know where your property lines are 12

Verifying whether you need permits 13

Considering children and pets' safety 13

Addressing water issues 14

Designating storage areas 15

Site Analysis - Understanding What You Have 16

Drawing your site analysis 17

Knowing how much of your yard you can use 19

Walking through the space 21

Focusing on privacy 22

Knowing when you'll use your landscape 23

Designing a Low-Maintenance Landscape 24

Chapter 2: Thinking like a Designer?25

Achieving Unity, Blessed Unity, in Your Landscaping Design 26

Focusing on Repetition in Your Design 27

Playing with Color 28

Getting Some Rhythm 29

Adding D?cor to Your Design: How Many Pink Flamingos Are Enough? 30

Paying Attention to Hardscape 31

Keeping an Eye on the Details 32

The Goldilocks Theory: Choosing Plants That Fit 32

Layering Plants to Add Interest 33

Chapter 3: Forming a Working Plan: Getting Serious about Your Design?35

Knowing What's Already There - Making a Base Map 36

Ensuring you have the supplies to draw 36

Drawing your own base map 36

Overlaying Your Ideas 38

Putting Your Ideas on the Ground 41

Big deals: Designating space for large elements 42

Filling in the rest 42

Creating a Final Plan 43

Making a Shopping List 44

Step 1: List plants and determine their cost 46

Step 2: List and calculate the supplies 46

Step 3: Get hardscape estimates 47

Step 4: Make an itemized checklist 48

Step 5: Consider tools you may need to buy 48

Step 6: Take a breath 48

Getting Ready 50

Cutting your project into bite-sized pieces 50

Taking action before you break ground 51

Preparing your property 52

Doing It Yourself or Calling in the Big Guns 52

Part 2: Building Hardscape into Your Yard?55

Chapter 4: Taming Your Site?57

Focusing on Construction Basics 58

Looking at site challenges 58

Ramping up - a checklist 58

Understanding wood and its alternatives 60

Identifying tools and supplies 62

Keeping safety front and center 63

Grading Your Property 64

Laying Out Straight Lines and Shapes 65

Stringing lines - The hub and tack method 66

Stringing out the rest of a shape 66

Working with Slopes 68

Understanding challenges unique to installing retaining walls 68

Positioning a retaining wall 70

Installing a retaining wall 70

Chapter 5: Dealing with Water?75

Routing Water and Improving Drainage 75

Focusing on surface drainage 76

Installing subsurface drainage 77

Returning water to the land - rain gardens 78

Recognizing the Different Options of Watering Systems 80

Watering cans 81

Rain barrels 81

Hoses of all kinds 82

Irrigation systems 83

Chapter 6: All Things Fences, Walls, and Gates?87

Fabricating Fences 88

Knowing what to consider before beginning 88

Choosing fence materials 89

Building a basic fence 91

Working with Walls 101

Building a stacked stone ...

Biographie:

The National Gardening Association is the leading garden-based educational organization in the USA. Visit http://garden.org.

Teri Dunn Chace has more than 35 books in publication, including the 2016 AHS award-winner Seeing Seeds. She's also written and edited extensively for major consumer gardening/outdoor-living publications (Horticulture, North American Gardener, Backyard Living, Birds and Blooms) and is presently the garden-and-nature columnist for the award-winning Bottom Line Personal newsletter....

Sommaire:

Relax and play in your own private paradise