Free garden ideas can be had when visiting local fast-food restaurants or highway rest stops. Created to be maintained with little extra care on a low budget, beginners are encouraged to take notes. Similar plant ideas are especially dependable for a first-time gardener.
Keeping gardens looking good, where high foot and tire traffic is constant, is a challenge no matter how green, or professional, a landscaper’s thumb. Whether it is a fast food restaurant selling its umpteenth burger or a roadside stop-over kept by a state forest service, the budget and the environment are challenges much the same as gardeners face at home.
Successful gardeners habitually search out planting beds wherever they travel. Beginner gardeners will find easy ideas at common places; consider carrying a journal to record plantings found. For gardeners unsure of plant names, photos taken with a phone or point-and-shoot camera will help with asking assistance at local garden centers.
Landscaping Lessons from Fast Food Restaurants
Budget and time drives the design and plant choices for landscaping around fast food restaurants. Lining flowers around the curves of fast-food drive-ins have to be some of the toughest environments for plants. Imagine what the pretty petunia blooms are feeling sitting in direct aim of idling cars, their motors pouring exhaust out the tailpipe.
Plants used are inexpensive and easy to find. Chided for its overuse on the grounds of businesses the Stella de Oro daylily has been maligned over the years. But say what you will, the common daylily has proven its worth, not only surviving but thriving in tough environments. Stella de Oro has a yellow flower on a short plant and is an inexpensive perennial. New gardeners will find it a worthwhile bright color and repeat bloomer, which will last much of the summer.
Lately, a frequently seen plant is the Knock Out® rose. It was developed in Wisconsin for some of the toughest environments rosarians face; frigid winters and hot humid summers. But the Knock Out® rose has proven itself in tough growing conditions around the United States. This is valuable information for gardeners who want to try a rose bush in their own garden but have been afraid of failing. Knock Out® rose bushes are found with red, pink or yellow flower colors, in single and double blossoms.
Interstate Highway Rest-stops with Roadside Plants
Rest-stops, relied upon by travelers to refresh and replenish along interstate highways, are also used by states to brag, that includes about their natural environment. Along with maps and chamber of commerce public relations styled posters, visitors will frequently see a mixture of native plants and wildflowers on the grounds.
Whether new to the hobby of gardening or new to a state, these locations may be excellent places to get basic first-time ideas on what grows well. Like the landscapes around family restaurants, there is a limited budget to expend time and money on upkeep. The long distance between roadside rest-stops makes grounds maintenance, including the gardens, a challenge.
Hot Dry Environments for Gardens
No matter the state or region, most gardens at fast food restaurants and other roadside stopovers have some characteristics in common; exposure to full sun, made doubly hot surrounded by concrete or asphalt and car and truck exhaust spewing into the plant’s surroundings and a reliance on less frequent garden care.
Gardeners are well known for exchanging plant ideas and making friends with neighborhood gardeners, a beneficial habit for those new to the hobby. Commonly visited public places like shopping malls, fast food restaurants, banks and beyond the city limits; landscaped public parks and roadside stopovers are replete with suggestions, too.
Russ Frederico says
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Check it out: russfrederico.blogspot.com
Peter Barker says
These are absolutely gorgeous, especially the Food Restaurant planting. It is so good to see that there are no less people, who would still spend a lot of time in making their place look good, while others run fast to compete with the world.