Garden design

Perhaps you’re a nature buff, as most gardeners are. Consider a woodland, shade or wildflower gardening. These specialty gardens offer special appeal and are a low-maintenance way to grow a variety of native plants and flowers.

1. Woodland gardens – Woodland plants and wildflowers can be grown anywhere using native species or those sharing similar traits. Simply mimic their natural habitats.
2. Shade gardens – A shade garden can fill dark, vacant areas with bright, beautiful plants. In fact, many plants not only tolerate shade but also thrive in it.
3. Wildflower gardens – Wildflowers can be grown in sun or shade depending on the plants and climate. These gardens can include prairie gardens as well, filled with a variety of native grasses.

If you enjoy tropical appeal, these gardens are also easy to create. Many common gardening plants have tropical origins or characteristics such as:

• Geraniums
• Impatiens
• Begonias
• Elephant ears
• Cannas
• Caladiums

Houseplants like dieffenbachia, palms, pothos, and croton can also be included.

Maybe water lulls your inner garden passion. A water garden can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be or as space will allow. These may include:

• Small water ponds
• Streams
• Waterfalls
• Container water gardens
• Fountains

Water garden

Water garden plants take several shapes and forms as well, including anything from oxygenating plants to water lilies and cattails, many of which can also be used for creating bog gardens. Bog gardens house a variety of moisture-loving plants and are also easy to create.

Water is an important part of Japanese gardens and may be represented in the form of subtle features, such as basins, or merely suggested ones like raked sand. Japanese gardens focus on detail with a respect for everyday objects found in nature.

Paths, groups of stones, specific plants, lanterns and wooden or bamboo structures (such as fences or bridges) are also common. Unlike most other gardens, emphasis is placed more on simplicity rather than an abundance of plant life.

If your passion is to save the environment, specialty gardens can range from xeriscape gardens to rain gardens and wildlife gardens.

Xeriscape Gardening

Xeriscape Gardening – Xeriscape gardens use low-maintenance, drought-tolerant plants that grouped together to form natural-looking landscapes, which conserve energy and water. There are numerous plants available, from annuals and perennials to grasses, shrubs and trees that will thrive in a xeriscape setting. Xeriscapes can be found in any style including rock gardens and desert or succulent gardens.

• A rock garden provides gardeners with the opportunity to combine both shade and sun-loving plants in the same space. Rock garden plants should be chosen according to the climate and growing conditions within a given area. Many perennials, low-lying shrubs, bulbous plants and annuals thrive in a rock garden setting
  Desert and succulent gardens can be created by adding a variety of cacti, succulents, ornamental grasses and other drought-tolerant plants to the garden.
• Rain gardens not only protect the quality of water but also welcome wildlife. A rain garden is a naturally shallow or dug out depression in the ground designed to catch rain that would otherwise turn into runoff; and with the addition of native plants, a rain garden can be an attractive landscaping feature.

Wildlife gardens

Wildlife gardens can welcome an array of animals, such as pollinators, or simply a particular type, such as butterflies.

• A pollinator garden includes a diversity of flowers that attract a multitude of birds, butterflies, beneficial insects and small mammals responsible for pollination.
• A butterfly garden includes a variety of shrubs, fruit trees, herbs and flowers.
• Permaculture gardens are also environmental and wildlife friendly.