Your own designer: site improvement from scratch

How to link landscape design with "engineer" and make a self-sufficient flower bed

When starting to transform the local area, the visual component is usually at the forefront. A member of our portal with the nickname Rov777on the contrary, he decided that the design of the site should be adjusted to the communications. Two more requirements are functionality and low maintenance. And although at first glance they are not the most compatible "Wishlist", everything worked out.

As it was

Rov777

FORUMHOUSE member

I share my own experience of landscaping a garden plot from scratch. What happened in the end only pleases the eye. Thanks to solid experience and design skills, I started from the fact that the site design should be integrated into engineering systems, such as: drainage, storm sewerage, starting from the drainage system, automatic irrigation, lighting plot.

Despite its apparent simplicity, in fact, everything is specific and requires detailed calculations and preparation, since what is buried underground must have 100% reliability and performance, Otherwise, everything will have to be dug up and redone, and this, with a finished design, is tantamount to the loss of everything project. Since the turned out clods of earth will completely destroy all beauty. And having fought enough time with weeds, I realized that the design of the site should first of all be functional and not cause a lot of hassle in cleaning and maintenance.

The original was a typical wasteland.

How did it become

Not by magic, but through careful planning, design and implementation, it has become a presentable courtyard.

In a forum thread that Rov777 opened in order to share experience, immediately passed the verdict:

• small marble dumping is the worst evil, a weedy breeding ground;
• the flowerbed will be clogged with foliage and debris;
• such a design immediately needs a separate gardener.

Perhaps if the improvement had been carried out without careful preparation, the accusations were justified. But not in this case - marble filling Rov777 chose deliberately, just to no longer fight weeds. As a substrate, he used dense agrotextile, which does not allow weeds to break through, and already on top of a layer of crumb, which additionally "presses" them (three tons, fraction 10-20 mm).

A garden vacuum cleaner in blower mode does an excellent job of cleaning, and although the nearby birch-oak forest is a constant supplier of foliage, the technique helps out.

In fact, the flower garden is the "tip of the iceberg" that is, the whole engineering system. Beneath it there is a drainage branch, and drainage of storm water from the roof, and cabling for street lighting and power supply of the drainage well. Moreover, other conditions are far from favorable:

• poor loam near Moscow, even taking into account the array of imported fertile soil;
• because of the invisible to the eye, but pronounced slope, along the site, during the period of snow melting, the river drifts from the forest in streams. If it were not for drainage, agrotextile and bedding, all imported soil would have simply been washed out.

The main positive observation of the past summer is that the flower bed is absolutely self-sufficient and does not require constant attention. Agrotextile, together with the filling, protects the root and maintains an optimal microclimate. Despite the hot weather and run-ins to the dacha on weekends, that is, the lack of any regular watering, everything "bloomed in a wild color."

Life hack for improving lamps.

Rov777

FORUMHOUSE member

I bought the lamps from the middle price segment, I immediately determined that the structure was flimsy, at the junction of the support and the lamp itself, it was immediately clear that at the slightest impact, all this would fly off. A garden lamp is influenced by many factors, children can corny when playing in the garden, you can accidentally hit with a shovel, recently you kissed it well with a ladder, did not fit into a turn. Therefore, to strengthen the lamps, in the foundation, I immediately poured a metal corner 50 × 50 mm by 3/4 of the length, I essentially put the lamps on this corner, filled the cavity with mounting foam. The result is a reliable bed, moreover, the foam does not allow moisture to rise from the ground and all the electrical elements of the lamp are dry.

A vacuum cleaner handles garbage, and pollution, as I noticed Rov777, perfectly washed off by rain and absorbed into the soil. Let the pristine whiteness in the future the crumb does not become, but a radical loss of attractiveness is not expected. The craftsman is absolutely satisfied with his engineering and design brainchild, he plans to continue to make only such flower beds.

Did it turn out nicely? Rate it like!

Our forum users on the part of decorating the pros - and their tracks are originaland garden decor variedand dry wonderful streams. The video shows how to make a cozy landscape on a difficult site.