If you have a friend or relative that is an avid gardener, there is no more thoughtful gift than a garden gift basket for a holiday, birthday or anniversary present. At first, you may seem overwhelmed when shopping in your garden center or on the internet. There are a few things to consider when trying to find just the right "flavor" for your garden gift basket to give to the people who love to play in the dirt, so t speak. First you must determine how much you want to spend for the garden gift basket. After you have the dollar amount, walk through the aisles of the garden center to see what items are available. Of course, you could also do an internet search to see what the most popular tools and gadgets are selling. You will be surprised at the range of goods that are available from the inexpensive to the extravagant. Keep in mind that you will want to get quality products that will last so your friend or relative will have years of enjoyment. If your gardener is [more..]

Aesthetics Recently, one of the most popular backyard designs is adding a water pond or a fish pond to the yard. These projects, however, can only be achieved in sprawling and huge yards that has walkways and large areas. But if you are really certain to have your own fish pond and yet you do not have a large back yard, there are design ideas that can be incorporated to hopefully place your pond in it without having to take up too much space and dominate your yard. Let your pond serve as the focal point of your back yard. Place it in the middle or in one corner of the yard if you have a small space. Make it appealing to the people walking around the house. Location If you wish to place it in the corner part of the yard, raise the pond a little higher so that the fish will seem as a surprise to the visitors. But if you want to place it in the center, it is best if you place the pond at ground level or a little above [more..]

Nestled away in the hills of the beautiful island of Sri Lanka, one will find the truly wonderful Botanic Gardens of Haggala which was initiated as a cultivation project in 1861. 10 kilometres off the Badulla Road, in chilly Nuwara Eliya the gates open up to a wonderland of colourful marvels in the midst of the hills of tea plantations. The name of this wonderful attraction is Haggala Rock which means the â??Elephantâ??s jaw rockâ?. Hovering over the gardens and the forest reserve at astounding heights of 2, 200 meters, the rock is truly a grandiose sight. High above sea level, at an elevation of 1,745 metres the gardens cover a region of 28 acres, which is bountiful with the workings of a Garden of Eden. With many of the attractions found in tiers across the grounds, the colourful flora seems to resemble cascading rainbow waterfalls. Also, moving further inwards, visitors will be able to take in the breathtaking views of the Uva Valley along with the mountain ranges of Namunukula and Madulsima. The focal attractions of the Haggala Botanical Gardens include the likes of [more..]

Located in the Central Province of Sri Lanka, the Royal Botanical Gardens of Peradeniya is one of the most frequented tourist attractions in the city of Kandy. Managed by the Division of National Botanic Gardens of the Department of Agriculture, Sri Lanka, Peradeniya Botanical Gardens is best known for its magnificent collection of orchids. The park is also home to an amazing variety of medicinal plants which are used in local Ayurvedic practices. A number of spices are also seen at this park along with a number of aquatic plants and other beautiful blossoming plant varieties.   Royal Botanical Gardens of Peradeniya is one of the best places to spot endemic birds such as the Sri Lankan hanging parrot, the brown-capped babbler and the Ceylon small barbet. Common residents of the park such as kingfishers and woodpeckers can be seen with relative ease while sighting a visitor such as the white bellied fish eagle is a rare occurrence which many have not had the pleasure of experiencing. More than 80 species of butterflies also call the Royal Botanical Gardens of Peradeniya their home. The sheer amount of flowering [more..]

Some individuals enjoy bird watching but prefer to do their bird watching in their back yard. Below is some advice on attracting wild birds to your back yard. Firstly it depends upon having wild birds in the general area where your house is located and then you can attract then to your backyard. The method used to attract the birds will depend upon what is the diet of the bird. If the bird is a nectar feeder e.g. bananaquits or hummingbirds, then large flowering plants will attract them. Hummingbird bills are perfectly adapted to the various types of flowers that they feed on, so different types of flowers will attract different hummingbirds. Some hummingbirds have especially curved or elongated bills that allow them to feed on special flowers, eg the White-tipped Sicklebill hummingbird whose downward curving bill allows it to draw nectar from heliconias. The Ruby-Topaz Hummingbird has a short and slightly decurved bill that is suited to feeding on the flowers of the ixora shrub. The Blue-tailed Emerald has a short bill that is suited for feeding on the Hibiscus flower. [more..]

  Designing planting beds can be a bit overwhelming if one does not know a lot about plants, their habits, sizes etc. When getting ready to design a bed, do some research first. Hit some local nurseries and check out lots of plants. Read the tags and ask questions. An independent nursery will usually be able to provide more information than a big box store. You will need the dimensions of the bed you are creating. A mix of evergreen (plants that do not lose their leaves) and deciduous (plants that lose their leaves in the winter) shrubs. Adding in some perennials or grasses will add color and interest. Plantings should have symmetry and balance. It is most visually pleasing to plant in odd numbers and carry the plants across the bed. Planting one shrub here and another there makes for a mis-mash. Our eye relates well to symmetry and reads naturally from side to side. Balance is the key to a good landscape design. This does not mean all the beds have to be filled with the same material, however, carrying one or two [more..]