Beautify Your Home With Flowers

Nothing is more beautiful than home grown plants. Flowers, plants and herbs make an excellent addition to any size home. From homes with yards large enough for gardens to simple flower boxes on decks or patios, gardening is rewarding. The basics of growing plants are actually quite simple, so starting a garden isn't as daunting a task as you might believe, especially if there are resources like software available to help you plan.

The first, and perhaps most important step, is deciding what you to grow. Unfortunately, it is this step that often overwhelms new gardeners. Plants and flowers only thrive under very specific conditions. Climate zones, sunlight, irrigation and soil conditions are just the start. Gardeners must also decide to plant annuals or perennials or even a combination of the two. Almost all flowers are annuals and will need to be replanted on a yearly basis.

As you can guess, new gardeners can literally spend hours researching plant and flower varieties only to discover that what they bought simply won't thrive. Maybe the plant isn't hardy enough for the climate or perhaps it was simply planted in the wrong place. Planning how to plant these flowers together generally requires tons of charts and almanacs, but simple software can make the process much easier.

Instead of trying the trial and error method, it's always a good idea to utilize software designed to help gardeners not only layout their gardens, but to choose plants, flowers and herbs that have the best chance of growing harmoniously in their gardens. Some gardening software provides an encyclopedic knowledge of designing a garden, along with the ease of being able to upload pictures and dimensions to get a good idea of available space.

Garden Design software may have a database of thousands of plants, which provides detailed information regarding the requirements for each plant as well as basic care and watering information. The design function allows gardeners to design a new garden or to import pictures of their existing space. Even better, users can drop and drag pictures of their plants, flowers and herbs, ensuring thorough coverage and allowing the user to visualize the end result of their planting.

Knowledge may very well be the gardener's best weapon. Finding all of the information regarding plant and flower species in one concise location has never been easier. From landscape design, to plant selection and even irrigation plants, garden design software is a powerful design tool and source of information.
Whether you are new to the world of gardening or have years of experience, you are likely to find that knowing what plants will thrive where is the hardest part of planning a successful garden. Be sure you are planting 'smart' by reviewing the latest information on your favorite flower and herb varieties. Who knows, you may find several new favorites in the large database.

Putting in a garden is rewarding, relaxing and fun. Start your project out right by learning all you can about the plants, flowers and herbs you plan to plant.

Take the right way Use Flowers

"Flowers, according to these beautiful verses, are only useful as objects to delight our senses. They are only beautiful forms in nature--their highest use, their beauty and fragrance."

"I think that is what Mrs Howitt means," replied Grace. "So I have always understood her. And I cannot see any other use that flowers have. Do you know of any other use, cousin?"

"Oh, yes. Flowers have a more important use than merely giving delight to the senses. Without them, plants could not produce fruit and seed. You notice that the flower always comes before the fruit?"
"Oh, yes. But why is a flower needed? Why does not the fruit push itself directly out from the stem of a plant?" asked Agnes.

"Flowers are the most exquisitely delicate in their texture of all forms in the vegetable kingdom. Look at the petals of this one. Could anything be softer or finer? The leaf, the bark, and the wood of the plant are all coarse, in comparison to the flower. Now, as nothing is made in vain, there must be some reason for this. The leaves and bark, as well as wood, of plants, all have vessels through which sap flows, and this sap nourishes, sustains, and builds up the plant, as our blood does our bodies. But the whole effort of the plant is to reproduce itself; and to this end it forms seed, which, when cast into the ground, takes root, springs up, and makes a new plant. To form this seed, requires the purest juices of the plant, and these are obtained by means of the flowers, through the exquisitely fine vessels of which these juices are filtered, or strained, and thus separated from all that is gross and impure."

"I never thought of that before," said Agnes. "Flowers, then, are useful, as well as beautiful." "Nothing is made for mere beauty. All things in nature regard use as an end. To flowers are assigned a high and important use, and exquisite beauty of form and color is at the same time given to them; and with these our senses are delighted. They are, in more respects than one, good gifts from our heavenly Father."

"Oh! how I do love the flowers," said Agnes; "and now, when I look upon them, and think of their use as well as their beauty, I will love them still more. Are they so very beautiful because their use is such an important one, cousin Mary?"

"Yes, dear; I believe this is so. In the seeds of plants there is an image of the infinity of our great Creator; for in seeds resides a power, or an effort, to reproduce the plants, that lie concealed as gems within them, to infinity. We might naturally enough suppose that flowers, whose use it is to refine and prepare the juices of plants, so as to free them from all grosser matters, and make them fit for the important office of developing and maturing seeds, would be exceedingly delicate in their structure, and, as a natural consequence, beautiful to look upon. And we will believe, therefore, that their peculiar beauty depends upon their peculiar use."