Rock or desert garden themes combine well with cacti, and during flowering season, the garden can transform into a brilliant showpiece. Cactus gardens do best if they are small, a suggested size might be 500-1000 sq feet in which there’s enough space for you can plant various species of cacti, both small and large. Cactus plants require little watering, but make sure your irrigation is excellent.

Set up a cactus garden

Mark out your garden perimeters, and dig about a foot deep and remove the top layer. This layer needs to be replaced with desert soil to mimic the cacti’s natural habitat. A low rock wall is not necessary, but it enhances the look and feel of the cactus garden. Beautiful rocks can be purchased or gathered, and after that cemented together to form the wall.

After planting, the surface of the cactus garden bed can then be covered in small pebbles and enhanced with boulders to divide up zones. Sandstone make excellent boulders. Other ideas:

• Footpaths overlaid with fine gravel and lined with bricks or rocks are great, as are reflexology footpaths
• Planting date palms, Juniper, or Joshua trees help provide shade; many cactus gardens just don’t have any shade at all
• Fountains, ponds, gazebos, and even birdbaths give your cactus garden an “oasis feel”.
• Special walls made from bamboo can be added to create reading or relaxation areas.

Many cacti species are much easier to care for than other regular plants. The large species need full sun and well drained soil. Some examples are Carnegiea (Saguaro cactus), Cephalocerus, Espostoa, Ferocactus, and Echinocactus. Smaller cacti can be planted in pots and then place in the soil which helps for easier handling when they need transporting; some suggested species are Coryphantha, Echinopsis, Lobivia, and Gymnocalycium. Plant them about a foot apart, and for larger species, about 2 feet apart. Other suggested plants that can be mixed in with cacti include Longwood Blue Bluebeard, Autumn Joy, Red Bottlebrush, Apache Plume, Aloes and Geranium.

For watering, you can manually water or use a drip irrigation system. Newly planted cacti should be watered VERY little, because their roots may rot. Only after more than a month later, when new roots start to become active, can you water more thoroughly. Even then, let the soil dry fully, before the next round of watering. Reduce watering during autumn and feed the cacti each month during spring and summer. As a general rule of thumb, feed well during warm weather, and taper off the feeding during cool weather.

After your cactus garden has settled down, it really doesn’t need much monitoring or maintenance. That’s part of the beauty. A cactus garden can be so much more rewarding in terms of creativity and flexing your aesthetic sense, to see how far it will go.

Clever use of hedges and wall climbers will provide a nice habitat for insects, and small birds to take shelter in. A small pond with logs and rocks around the bank works great in attracting moisture loving fauna, like frogs, skinks, and dragonflies. Mature trees are definitely the best micro habitats for most types of garden fauna.

Bees are one of the most welcoming sights to any gardener. They play such an important role in helping plants to cross pollinate. Over the past few years, reports surfaced that bees were declining for some yet unknown reason. Some attribute this to something called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD); the fact is they have declined a great deal. So, bees need all the help they can get. One of the ways to help the bees is to make your garden as bee friendly as possible. Basically, most flowery plants attract bees, like buttercups, ivy, roses, sunflowers, geraniums, snowdrops, and clovers. Another plant that seems to attract bees is the common dandelion.

Birds can be attracted by the use of specialized bird feeders and birdbaths. Place the bird feeders and birdbaths in safe spots away from marauding cats. Berry bushes and figs which routinely set fruit are like magnets for birds, so plant them if you want to have a lot of birds around. A bird that can be a nuisance though, is the crow. Some birds will prey on your choice fruits and seedlings, so enclose your fruit trees with wire meshing to keep them out.

Remember that creating a more wildlife friendly garden means facilitating ecological cycles that will run on its own quite smoothly, if only nature is given a helping hand. For example, by encouraging insects to breed in your garden, it will attract the birds, which in turn, will keep the numbers of the insects in check. Many species of insects in turn prey on the small plant pests, like aphids for example.

A more ambitious plan if you have a large garden is to create wildlife friendly zones where you let them grow “wild”, while at the same time, maintain more “cultured” zones. Work with what you have. Smaller gardens will have to make do with striking the right balance between creating key habitats for wildlife, while wisely managing this process sustainably. A garden that is friendly to both man and beast is an exemplary garden indeed.

Good quality soil is either slightly alkaline or acidic. Acidic soil is anything measuring less than pH 7, and alkaline soil is anything above pH 7. If your soil is too alkaline, try adding peat, chelated minerals, or acidic fertilizers. If the soil is too acidic, adding lime can help. Soil pH is easily measured with a good soil test kit, so make sure you have one handy on hand.

Here is an easy way to figure out what kind of soil you have. While no substitute for a reliable soil test kit that can test for pH, it can give you a brief idea on your soil type. First, fill a quart jar with 1 quart water and 1 teaspoon of water softener. Add soil to the jar until the water level rises up to the lip of the jar. Screw on the cap on the quart jar and shake the jar as vigorously as you can. Now watch the soil particles settle, starting first with the largest particles, to the smallest. The soil will settle into layers. Equal bands of sand, silt, and clay mean that the soil is loamy. A thick layer of sand indicates sandy soil, and a thick layer of clay indicates clayey soil. Loamy soil is considered the ideal soil type.

Besides high clay content in the soil, hardpan is also a cause for poor drainage. While hardpans can be natural, man made hardpans caused by construction or renovation activities are a more common occurrence, especially in small gardens in new housing estates. Depending on how deep the hardpan is and how practical it is to carry out, plowing, drilling, or laying a new raised bed can all be carried out.

Soil salinity can be a problem in certain areas. Salinity in soil can reduce plant growth, stunt seed germination, and result in a condition called salt burn – yellowed leaves that look like they have been burned. Excess salinity can be tackled by draining the soil well, but you’d need to make sure your soil is capable of this.

Nutrient deficiencies are a common soil problem too. Oftentimes, it is the case of a lack of the basic soil nutrients – the NPK nutrients.

Basically, most types of plants will grow even in less than optimal soil conditions, but when you find your plants not growing as well as they should despite having adequate rainfall and sunlight, and agreeable climatic conditions, the problem is most often the result of some soil problem. Fix your soil problems – and watch your plants thrive.

One of the first shrubs to awaken in spring is the pussy willow (Salix discolour) which when their furry grey catkins appear, is taken as the first sign of spring. The moment the first warm spring spell arrives, prune a few of its branches and take them indoors into your living room. You can then observe the silvery catkins sprout from their brown husks close hand. After a while as it gets warmer, yellow pollen appears, giving the catkins a golden hue.

If you keep the stems in water, they will soon sprout leaves and roots. These you can plant outside in your garden, and it helps that the pussy willow is able to thrive in dry soils, contrary to most other willows, which prefer wet soil near riverbanks.

Viburnums are small shrubs belonging to the honeysuckle family with pretty flowers that are popular with some gardens. Korean spice viburnum (Viburnum carlesii) has tiny florets which are pink while in bud and unfold to white, which are highly fragrant. Place a few blossoms on a window sill to dry them out, shred them up, place them in a pouch or handkerchief, and then slip it into a drawer. The fragrance given out is what gives Korean spice viburnum its “spice” name, and not anything culinary related. Sucker growth should be pruned after the flowering cycle.

Japanese quince (Chaenomeles japonica) is spring shrub that blooms with clusters of flame orange flowers all along its spiny branches. It’s a favourite among bonsai lovers and also makes a great spring addition to the garden. Japanese quince bushes set a foot apart in a row grow into a nice flowering hedge. Also worth growing are the hybrid quinces, sometimes referred to as cydonias, which are beautiful and hardy.

In general, flowering shrubs are for those who want masses of flowers without having to do too much work. These shrubs should not require much pruning at all; the only times you “prune” them would be when you gather their blossom heavy branches. Some flowering shrubs make good hedges and others as screens. If your place is really small, grow a single shrub specimen for a more dramatic accent, but make your choice wisely.

Mold, algae, fungus, or mildew are a frequent problem for greenhouses. Because greenhouses have to as sealed up as possible, any gaps will soon build up mold or mildew on the surface due to the high moisture or dampness in these spots.

Cleaning the mold, fungi, or algae off your walls is a task you will need to do every so often. If not, they can spread, and may infect plants and may also get into your lungs when you breathe (through spores). Not only are they unattractive, they can be hazardous to your plants or your health. It really depends on what type of mildew or mold you’re dealing with, but cleaning them every now and then is good practice.

Keep the surfaces of the greenhouse as dry as possible. Use an old sponge or cloth to wipe the damp areas periodically, and use a mildew spray to kill any built up mildew. You may need to use an improvised sponge attached to a solid wire to get into crevices and clean them.

The floors need to be cleaned sometimes, too. Depending on the build, greenhouse floorings can be wood, cement, gravel, fabric carpeting, or just plain dirt. The floor needs cleaning, as mold, weeds, mud, and decaying plant matter can build up easily on the floor.

Some greenhouse roofs are made of plastic or fiberglass material which will gradually turn a darker shade due to microscopic mold, or heating from the sun. This will reduce the amount of light that can pass through the roof, so you may have to consider replacing it. This degeneration occurs with glass roofs too, making them more brittle, although they may take longer to deteriorate; perhaps a decade or so.

Newer greenhouse friendly polycarbonate materials have been introduced in recent times which are longer lasting, retain heat longer, and do not grow opaque or fade or over time. These panels can last for decades, but the caulking sealant that binds them together definitely still needs occasional repair work in the form of recaulking. You would need a good caulking gun and a scraper to replace the caulk.

Another area that needs maintenance is the area between the panes, where condensation can build up and cause algae and mold to grow. You would also have to clean these areas, although not as often as you would with glass. Also, the polycarbonate panes can be damaged by steep changes in temperature, or thick ice, or falling branches, and so would require replacement. So, that is why the best greenhouse designs are modular plans.

There are many good greenhouse designs today that are eco-friendly and have a modular plan. Besides the above, there are other things to consider if you really want to keep your greenhouse in tip top shape; there’s also the watering system to consider. Make sure the piping system is adequate. Maintaining a greenhouse is not so easy, but in return, a greenhouse provides immeasurable benefits and enjoyment for any serious gardener.