Blooming Good News

Ryton Gardens Heritage Seed Library

2011-10-17T05:05:00.000-07:00

I was interested to hear on BBC TV’s “Gardener’s World” about Garden Organic’s Heritage Seed Library at Ryton Gardens, Warwickshire. Garden Organic claims to be the leading organic growing charity in the UK and researches and promotes organic gardening, farming and food. The Heritage Seed Library aims to conserve and make available to their members vegetable varieties not widely grown.

As for my allotment (also aiming to be as organic as possible), I’ve been getting some more work done. I’ve found room to fit one more small bed into my half-plot, next to the compost bins, and as with the other beds, edged that with timber last week. Originally I thought this would be a “nursery” bed to bring plants on, but now I’ve bought one of those mini-greenhouses with the zip-up polythene covers, which I’ll keep at home for propagating seeds. Next year I’ll probably plant sweetcorn in the new bed, but for now I've transplanted some of my winter cabbage plants into it, to give the others more room.

The weather seems to have caused some confusion (not just because I covered vulnerable crops with fleece, only to find autumn turning back into summer). One of the cordon apples has blossom on it. I’ve also had aphid on my late broad beans (as well as the chocolate spot I previously mentioned), so I sprayed them with soapy water. They seem to look better. Anyway, it looks as though cool weather is on the cards this week, so maybe the seasons will get back on track.

I grew some globe artichokes in my flower border at home this year, and some of these I put in the permanent beds at the allotment. They make a striking ornamental plant, but now those I left at home are forming heads (a bit late, I think, but they were a little crowded earlier in the year). It’s difficult to know when to harvest them, not having grown them before. The only thing I have to guide me are articles on the Internet. All this vegetable growing is leading to new adventures in the kitchen.

Winter Preparation

2011-10-11T06:50:00.000-07:00

It’s been a while since I found time to blog - it’s been busy, busy at the allotment. After having some chillier mornings and covering the beds that need it with fleece, we had that very hot spell (well, what else can you expect?). It won’t be long, though, according to the weather predictions, before the covers are needed.

We’ve been eating well from our crops. The raab (great in stir fries) has now finished, and the pak choi is almost over. We’re trying to ripen the last of the tomatoes, still cropping various types of lettuce, and having delicious beetroot and turnip, as well as using curly and black kale, and Swiss chard as cut-and-come-again. Not bad, considering it’s only 10 weeks since we started digging and planting.

We’ve had lovely butternut squash, too, that I grew in a pot on the patio at home. These were great roasted with onion, potato and turnip, and also made delicious soup cooked with chopped ham, fresh ginger and cumin.

The shallots, garlic and onion sets I’d ordered for the allotment have just arrived, so I must get those in soon, once I’ve cleared enough space for them, keeping in mind my planned crop rotation for each bed. The plans are pinned to the back of my shed at the allotment, as a reminder, as well as my wife’s spreadsheet which shows what has to be planted, when, spacing, whether it needs winter-protection, and when it should be harvested.

My first sign of disease has begun to show on the late broad beans I sowed back in August. It looks like chocolate spot (I’m not the only plot-holder to find this, and we suspect it could have spread from common vetch, which I’ve seen nearby). So far it doesn’t look too bad, but I’ll keep my eye on it. I don’t think my plants are over-crowded, which can also make the condition worse, according to the RHS.

Well, enough of my hobby. I must get on with some “real” work...

Reptiles and more...

2011-09-19T07:19:00.000-07:00

Last week my wife and I decided to make the most of the sunshine and went to the New Forest Reptile Centre . We arrived just after it opened, with the sun just warming things up, so it wasn’t long before we saw lizards moving about, and later a grass snake, adder, slow worms and a green frog, sitting on a lily pad. It’s an excellent place with informative, friendly staff who are pleased to chat. It’s free, apart from a parking charge, with a woodland trail and picnic tables.

That was a break from the allotment, which has continued to flourish. We’ve been eating pak choi, raab, lettuce, tomatoes, turnip tops; and now we’re beginning to get full-size turnips. Eating what you’ve grown yourself is such a pleasure, and we’ve found it really makes you plan your meals more carefully.

The chillier morning and evenings reminded me that it’s time to prepare some cover for the more tender crops on the allotment, so I’ve been using some old plastic piping and fleece to make “tents” to go over some of the raised beds, and to raise up some of the netting, to try to stop the pigeons eating the brassicas. Other plot-holders have been doing the same, with various ingenious ideas. Some have put jam jars on posts, and spread fleece over that; others are using improvised mini polytunnels. I’ve got to tweak my covers a bit – the recent heavy showers have caused the fleece to droop between the plastic pipe.

As a bit of fun I painted the planned guardsman on our “sentry box” shed. He now looks after over our plot when we’re not there.

I’ve had to take a bit of time out to tidy up my garden at home – although not too much. As I blogged before, autumn tidying shouldn’t be too thorough.

Fruit Trees Arrive

2011-09-04T03:24:00.000-07:00

Well – a lot seems to have happened since my last post. It’s amazing how quickly things have grown – we’ve already eaten thinning from the salad crops, and enjoyed a stir-fry using some of the young pak choi; the tomatoes have been ripening too. I’ve also cut some turnip tops and black kale to use as greens.

I built the first fruit frame, ready for the plants I’d ordered. I dug out deep post-holes (I found some clay about a spade-and-a-half’s depth – I’m a lot luckier than some of the plots, which have clay near the surface), and put in sturdy posts, bracing them with angled timber. I then stretched 3 wires, 60cm apart, between the posts using straining eyebolts, and tied canes to the wires, 75cm apart, at an angle of about 60 degrees. Three types of apple arrived, and these were planted at an angle, so that the stems could be tied to a single cane. These are termed “oblique cordons.” Cordons are simply a single stem which bear fruit on short side shoots.

I’m going to have another frame the other side of the plot, and will eventually have pears and plums too. I also prepared another frame for later planting of cane fruit (raspberries and vertical cordon gooseberries) and in the centre of this planted a goji berry – supposedly a “super fruit”. It’ll be interesting to see how it does, anyway. Along with the trees I previously planted in my front garden, we should be well-supplied with fruit.

A deer (seen in the field one morning) had been in one of my permanent beds, where I’ve planted some globe artichokes and broad beans, so I stretched wires across to deter it. We’ve also collected some more CDs and stretched them across in front of that bed, and taken some clanky wind chimes there, which may frighten it off. The Parish Council are reportedly going to add another deer fence on another side of the field.

Allotments Grand Opening

2011-08-23T04:32:00.000-07:00

Last weekend saw the grand opening ceremony of our allotments. This included the unveiling of commemorative plaques, cutting of a ribbon and the planting of two apple trees by a representative of the trustees who donated the land. Part of the funding for the allotments came from the New Forest National Park, under their Sustainable Development Fund and Lottery funding. I worked on my plot for the rest of the day, finishing off the rest of the permanent beds, which just leaves the fruit strips left to do. I transferred some strawberry plants from home, which had a lot of runners, which I’ve also planted, to make the full quota of plants required. They looked a little stressed yesterday when I was there, but hopefully the overnight rain will have perked them up.

Some farmyard manure was added to the permanent beds, and I plan to transfer some artichoke plants from home this week.

I sent for some mail-order plants last week - Onion Senshyu Yellow, Onion Sets Radar, Shallot Griselle, Garlic Vayo (hardneck type), Radish Mantanghong F1 Seeds, Broad Bean Luz De Otono Seeds, Broad Beans (Vicia faba), Asparagus Gijnlim, Asparagus Dariana F1, Goji Berry, Apple Redlove Sirena, Apple Paradis Lummerland, Apple Paradis Idylla. That’s when I began to realise that setting up an allotment isn’t exactly a cheap option – but eating your own produce in years to come must be more satisfying than buying commercial stuff from the supermarket.

We ate our first crops at the weekend – the thinning from the salad beds, which were delicious, and a couple of aubergines, from the plant that we’d bought, and brought on. Next year I hope I’ll raise all my own plants.

Having started a compost bin off, I made a lid for it, using part of an old tarpaulin, stapling it to the back of the bin, and securing it at the front with cup hooks, through the tarp’s eyelets. Manufacturers of cup hooks note: I’ve found a new outlet for your product, having used them all round my timber frames for securing netting.

National Allotments Week

2011-08-11T03:44:00.000-07:00

How appropriate that this is National Allotments Week. Allotment sites are encouraged to open to the public – sorry, but there’s not too much to see on ours yet, although several sheds have appeared, and raised beds, as well as a little planting.

This is my plan showing the six rotational and three perennial beds, and planned fruit strips.

I was planning on some thornless blackberries here, but there are plenty of wild ones next to my plot, so I think raspberries and a cordon of pears, maybe minaret apples and/or standard gooseberries would be a good idea. A friend has donated some rhubarb to go in one of the perennial beds, and I’m planning some strawberries, and asparagus and both globe and Jesusalem artichokes here. I’ll continue to grow potatoes in pots at home, which have always been successful, but I’ll probably also grow a few early salad ones as part of my rotation. Here’s an update on what we’ve done this week.

There are now six beds with frames round, all dug-over, and more plants in situ. Just for this year, since it’s late in the season, we’ve bought some plants from a garden centre, as well the ones I grew at home. These include an aubergine, sweet pepper, sweet potatoes, sprouting broccoli, kale and leeks. I added lime to the brassica bed, so fingers crossed. Wood chip or bark, I think, would be more suitable for the paths between the beds, instead of gravel. It’s cheaper, and will look more in keeping.

All these framed beds now have netting over them. Cuphooks around the timber hold this in place, and allow for easy access. Where the beans, chillis, aubergine and tomatoes have grown taller, I’ve rolled the netting back to leave the bed just partially covered. Many of the seeds we planted are coming up well – salad & stir-fry crops (which will have to be thinned soon), beetroot, carrots, parsnips, turnips and onions.

Apparently rabbits are a nuisance in the adjoining (established) allotments, as I guess pigeons will be from the surrounding trees. Hopefully the netting should give some protection. We’ve also hung old CDs on string to try to deter the birds. More worrying is the deer which someone saw in the field early one morning. Although deer-proof fencing has been put around three sides, it seems the tall hedge hasn’t deterred them on the fourth. The parish council is aware of the problem, so maybe something can be done.

Also this week I received the small compost bin that I’d ordered online. Some people have made their own out of pallets, but this one was so reasonably-priced, it seemed I could use my time more profitably concentrating on the digging and the plants. Now all I have to do is remember to keep all the kitchen peelings. If anyone knows a good source of well-rotted manure around these parts, please let me know – especially if it can be bagged or delivered!

Work starts on the Allotment

2011-08-02T03:40:00.000-07:00

There was excitement in the air the first day I was able to get into the allotments. Someone had beaten me to it, and there was already a shed and a compost bin, made out of old pallets, on one plot. Other people were there to look round, some to get digging, and others, like me, to start marking thing out. It was good to meet some of the other villagers, and it seemed as though it could be a whole other social opportunity once things got established.

My first job was to interpret the design I’d worked out on my CAD system. The rudimentary dimensions I’d been given for my half-plot were more-or-less the same, but the orientation was different. Having done this I marked out the beds with pegs and string, and put down weed-suppressing membrane on what will be the paths between (eventually to be covered with gravel).

I’ve planned six rotational beds (10’ x 4’), three perennial/permanent beds (6’ x 4’) and some fruit strips (2’ wide).

On the second day a friend helped me put up a small shed. This came with a bright orange stain, and has been called a sentry box by some that have seen it. This has given me the idea of painting a guardsman on the front of it...but there’s a lot of work to be done before that. Watch this space.

We then began digging the beds, ready to get some of the plants I’d grown at home planted and some of the seeds that can still be sown this late in the year. I edged two of the dug-over beds with timber, and will eventually do the same for the others. Last weekend we were able to plant dwarf beans, chilli plants and coriander. We also planted salad-leaf and stir-fry leaf seeds, for succession planting, and some carrot, onion, turnip and beetroot seeds. Blood, fish and bone was used as fertiliser. The timber edging has enabled me to put netting over the beds, to deter pests.

Digging has been a bit of a pain, since the ground was previously pasture, and was only turned over by machine. This has meant tedious removal of clods of grass. Some plot-holders have put down carpet and plastic to kill off grass and weeds but I wanted to get on and plant. “Little and often” will be my mantra, I think, until I can get everything up-and-running.

We’ve bought some plants from a garden centre to enable us to grow leeks, aubergines and peppers this season. Next year, I hope, I can get sowing early, and have a full year’s, home-produced crop.

My New Allotment

2011-07-15T09:33:00.000-07:00

It’s an exciting time in our village, with the development of allotments in a field not far from here. Championed by the parish council, a local landowner was persuaded to donate the space, and we’ve been watching progress with interest. It’s taken a time to get the suitable planning permission, and then toilets and car parking. A water supply had to be installed too; but at last we've been told we can pick up the keys to the gates.

The National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners has a lot of information, from legislation, creating a new allotment site to specific growing tips, such as handy hints for new gardeners or first steps to allotment gardening.

So I’ll be blogging about the allotment in the coming months. I’ve already ordered a little shed. Watch this space to see how things go, and about our successes and (possibly) failures.

Save Those Trees!

2011-02-01T03:32:00.000-08:00

I was interested to see that Boris Johnson has pledged to plant 10,000 new trees in London by March 2012. He said that: "Thanks to these trees, streets across London are leafier, more pleasant places to live in." However, according to CABE, the government’s adviser on architecture, urban design and public space from 1999 to 2011, trees in our streets are more important than just looking nice. They offer food and living spaces for birds and other wildlife, and moderate temperatures through the shade from their canopies.

According to the Natural History Museum urban trees help to clean the air and soil, counter noise pollution and absorb carbon. Their website gives details of the urban tree survey, a three-year study of trees in parks and gardens across the country to find out what trees are growing where, and how the tree population is changing.

The Woodland Trust has also been studying the value of urban trees, including the reduction of flooding and asthma rates to the list of benefits. Their report can be seen here.

The London Tree Officers Association is organising a conference called Trees, people and the Built Environment in Birmingham, 13-14 April 2011.

Knobbly Veg

2011-01-24T04:20:00.000-08:00

Delicious. Magazine is running a campaign to get supermarkets to sell vegetables in all shapes and sizes, instead of the perfectly uniform, shiny sort which are at present graded as “class 1” by the EU. Class 2 vegetables, while tasting just as good, are consigned to food processing or animal food, which leads to a lot of waste.

The “We Love Knobbly Veg” campaign is being supported by The National Trust, which sources much of the less-than-uniform vegetables for their cafes and restaurants. They have also been encouraging people to grow their own “knobblers” in the “Food, Glorious Food” campaign.

Delicious. Magazine has a knobbly veg gallery on its website, and also a template that can be downloaded to send to MEPs in support of the campaign.

Biodiversity: Making a bug hotel

2010-11-03T07:09:00.000-07:00

Around this time last year, I wrote a piece on the benefits (to wildlife) of not doing too much in the way of autumn garden tidying, and earlier this year I wrote about 2010 being the International Year of Biodiversity and how easy it is to contribute in our own gardens – so I thought you might like to see one of my own humble efforts – “The Crawl Inn”.

The Crawl Inn is a “bug hotel” – a place in the garden, loosely constructed from debris, intended to provide habitat for over-wintering of creepie-crawlie and buzzing insects. Most of these are highly beneficial to our gardens – either directly (e.g. pollinating insects and those such as ladybirds & lacewings which are predators for the less-welcome visitors like aphids) or indirectly (through forming part of the food chain for other insects, small mammals & birds).

Making a bug hotel is really easy, and it costs almost nothing, as well as being great fun for the kids! There are excellent instructions on the “buglife” website, and a Google search for “bug hotel” will also provide a multitude of examples and instructions for making shelters with varying degrees of “style” & ornamentation from all sorts of materials.

My own version was made as follows:

Gather the materials –
Some plastic mesh (about 1m x 1m), 3 lengths of timber batten about 1.2m (4’) long and a piece of exterior (marine) plywood about 450mm x 350mm (18” x 14”), plus some twist tie and a staple gun.
Position one of the battens about 75mm (3”) from the end of the mesh, with the end of the batten flush with the edge of the mesh.
Use the staple gun to tack the mesh onto the batten.
Repeat this with a second batten at the other end of the mesh, then with the third batten roughly in the middle of the mesh.
Roll the mesh to form a cylinder with the battens on the outside. Use a few strands of twist tie to join the mesh together between the 2 outer battens.
Take the tube to the spot where you want the bug hotel – ideally where it’s not exposed to cold winds and where it’s partly shady & partly sunny.

Hammer the long ends of the batten into the ground to make the cylinder self-supporting. It doesn’t matter if there’s a gap at the bottom between the mesh & the ground – that will give room for small mammals to use it too!

Start to fill the tube with materials to make the hotel’s accommodation –
dry dead leaves;
broken bricks & paving;
dead stems & twigs from plants;
short lengths of hollow bamboo cane (use an offcut of plastic pipe or part of a drinks bottle to hold them together as a tight bundle);
pieces of wood with various-sized holes drilled in them;
short lengths of tree trunks or branches – especially with rough or flaking bark, large stones, etc.

Almost anything will do – the objective is to create cracks & crevices and hollow spaces of different sizes to suit a whole range of creatures.

Once the tube is full, use the sheet of plywood to add a “roof” to keep the hotel rooms dry. This could be just placed on top of the tube, with bricks or large stones to weight it down, but I simply drilled a couple of holes at diagonally opposite corners then threaded some twist tie through these and secured it to the plastic mesh.

If you’re going to position your hotel on solid ground (e.g. paving), you’ll need to cut the battens the same length as the width of your mesh – hammering timber through the patio just won’t work!

My finishing touches were to print off the name of my hotel “The Crawl Inn” and a “Vacancies” notice, together with the “helipad” landing sign, make them waterproof by laminating them in plastic, then using the staple gun to fix them to the battens & roof.

To quote from the buglife website “A bug-friendly garden is a wildlife-friendly garden so if you want a garden filled with life, you need to look after your bugs.” – so, what are you waiting for ... get cracking on your own “B&B for Bugs” before winter sets in!

The Japanese Garden, Van Nuys, LA

2010-09-13T07:28:00.000-07:00

Another garden from my US trip was one we just “happened” on while staying overnight in Van Nuys, en route to Santa Barbara. The Rand MacNally map mentioned “Japanese Garden”, so we just had to investigate. It turned out to be a revelation, not only because of its integrity as a garden, but also for its conception as an engineering project.

Designed by Dr. Koichi Kawana, it is a 6.5 acre authentic Japanese garden. Dr. Kawana created more than a dozen Japanese gardens in the USA. What is surprising is that this one is part of the Tillman Water Reclamation Plant (yes, a sewage works!) which provides reclaimed water to much of the San Fernando Valley. Donald C. Tillman, City Engineer, had the idea for the garden, and continually pressed for its funding, until it was granted in 1979.

The garden includes a dry Zen meditation garden (karensansui), a wet strolling garden (chisen) and a tea house.

It was peaceful and tranquil on the beautiful day that we were there, and well worth a visit if you’re anywhere in LA. Please check the opening hours carefully, however, before you make a long journey.

The Getty Centre Garden

2010-08-06T07:46:00.000-07:00

The Getty Centre is a modern art museum, opened in Brentwood, Los Angeles, in 1997.

It has a spectacular setting – perched on the Santa Monica Mountains foothills, overlooking Bel Air, Beverley Hills, Westwood, Century City and the San Diego freeway climbing through the mountains.

Although the campus is striking modern architecture, and the museum holds impressive collections of Western art from the middle ages to the present day, it was the garden which enthused me most.

The central garden was designed by American abstract-expressionist and installation artist Robert Irwin in 1992-97, working with the Getty foundation and with architect Richard Meier and landscape architects Spurlock-Poirier. Irwin, who was part of California’s “light & space” (minimalist) movement of the 1960s, described the garden as

"a sculpture in the form of a garden aspiring to be art"

aiming to provide the visitor with an experience of sights, sounds and scents, with design components selected to emphasize the interplay of light, colour & reflection.

It certainly struck me as a garden fully intended to work with the Getty Centre’s architecture.

Views of the white travertine buildings act as abstract sculptures backing the varied textures and organic forms of the landscaping & planting.

The garden occupies a natural ravine between the Museum and Research Institute buildings, covering an area of about 3 acres (1.25 hectares) which forms a small part of the overall 110-acre landscaped site. The garden entrance is a tree-lined walkway of angled herringbone stone paving which criss-crosses a stream as it cascades down through the ravine.

At the top end, the stream is contained within granite tile sides, creating a V-shaped wide rill, with large, irregular-shaped granite boulders in the stream bed where the water swirls over and around them. As the stream descends, and the path winds back & forth over herringbone timber bridges, its texture changes to granite sets and then to granite “tile on edge” with wide stone steps forming the banks between bridges. The stream eventually crosses a large terrace before falling as a short stair-cascade into a circular reflecting pool which holds a labyrinthine round-topped Azalea hedge growing about 75cm above the water surface.

Surrounding this pool are terraces of mixed planting, flanked by low Corten steel retaining walls and compacted gravel paths which ramp back & forth in long arcs between levels, following the style of the stream path and the lines of the pool and water parterre.

The central terrace, between the stream path and the pool, features Bougainvillea-clothed rusted steel “mushrooms” that create shady tree-like shapes with seating beneath their cover. Corten steel is again used to form organic, curvy retaining walls between the planted beds and the gently mounding grass lawns that stretch beyond to the campus buildings. Carved into the terrace is designer Irwin’s motto “always changing, never twice the same” – a key feature of the planting design which includes over 500 species (no, I didn't count them all!) to ensure variety & succession.

Clearly, there was no shortage of funding in the development of this garden (which took almost 2 years to construct in 1997-97), nor for its subsequent upkeep, with quality materials & craftsmanship evident in both the hard and soft landscaping. I did find it inspirational and could see how some of its features could be emulated on a smaller scale – with the water maze reminding me of my own design ”AQUA ZY Garden” from my college days!

Linked to the central garden is a small sculpture park – but I was disappointed with this.

Not so much in the artworks themselves, but with their setting – they seemed, to me, to occupy a piece of “left over” ground, with no thought to the background or direction of (natural) lighting.

Perhaps some additional softscape design could improve this!

The Getty Centre is at 1200 Getty Centre Drive, Los Angeles, and is free admission (though it does cost a few dollars to park) all year, except for Mondays & holidays. For more information visit www.getty.edu/visit/ and www.getty.edu/visit/see_do/gardens.html

Hello again - I'm back!

2010-08-06T03:51:00.000-07:00

If you're one of the thousands of people who depend upon my weekly posts for your entertainment (!!!), my apologies for the gap - I've been on holiday.

You may recall my quip earlier this year that "I shouldn't be here" when my holiday plans were scuppered by the Icelandic volcano ash cloud which closed down UK air space a few minutes before our flight was due to leave - we were actually on-board, had heard the safety talk, and were planning our in-flight movies, etc. Well, this time we made it. We had almost 4 weeks doing a fly-drive trip out of Los Angeles, through the Mojave desert to the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas before heading back to the Californian coast at Santa Barbara and back to LA. I guess the 2100 miles we drove, and the flight itself, puts me in something of a carbon debt, so I need to get planting even more trees!

I must praise the ALK "CoPilot Live - North America" sat-nav app on my iPhone which only cost me £12 and faultlessly guided us around for free - the maps are loaded onto the iPhone, so it doesn't need a data connection after the initial WiFi connection (free at MacDonalds or Starbucks!) to let it get its initial bearings. "Park'n Find" was also useful for helping us back to our hire car in the huge parking structures at theme parks (we did "Universal Studios") and the large hotels in Las Vegas & Hollywood.

As well as the varied natural terrain, including US National Parks, between cities, we did get to see a few gardens along the way, so over my next few posts I'll cover some that I hope will be of interest.

Meanwhile, those clever guys at Google Blogger have been busy releasing a bunch of new features, so I've given my blog a "makeover" including a new layout/style, shifted some of the gadgets around on the right-hand side, added a bit more about me to the profile description (sorry it looks a bit messsy, can't find how to "justify" it) and moved the Facebook/Twitter "share" buttons to the new share facility beneath each post - so it's much easier for you to share individual articles you like via email, Facebook, Twitter, Google Buzz, etc. I've also added the "instant feedback" buttons (funny/interesting/cool) so you can just click these if the fancy takes you.

Hope you like!

Designing a small garden - part 4

2010-07-02T11:47:00.000-07:00

This is the 4th (and final!) part of my thoughts on the design of small gardens theme.

The earlier parts are the 3 posts immediately before this one, and can be reached by clicking on these links ...

Part 1 - introduction to why small gardens need designing;
Part 2 - lose the boundaries, borrowed views & landscape, using 3 dimensions;
Part 3 - keep it simple, maximise space usefulness, optical illusions;
Part 4 follows - keep it interesting, growing for the table and utility issues.

7. Keep it interesting:

A garden space planted entirely with unchanging, neatly clipped, evergreen hedging can be a tranquil place to relax, but it will lack the seasonal changes which I think bring vitality to a garden.

A very small garden may not be able to sustain too many changes in form – rounded, conical, arching, cylindrical, horizontal-tiered, vase-like, etc – without becoming too “busy” and seeming cluttered, but changes of texture and leaf colour can add enough variety to ensure it’s not a boring space. Restrained use of flower “fireworks” and foliage changes can create seasonal highlights that keep the interest going.

If you’re using a small tree, try to get value from it with blossom, leaf colour changes and berries – take a look at Amelanchier, Sorbus or Euonymus – or try one with interesting winter bark, such as the Paper-Bark Maple (Acer griseum). Click here for more information on keeping your garden interesting through the winter.

A tree will also provide food and/or habitat for wildlife to add interest to your garden, especially if you allow some of the “hidden corner” beneath it to be old branches, dry dead leaves, or a “bug hotel” made from old bricks, straw, branches, etc contained in some wire or plastic mesh. These will certainly help support insects, birds and maybe frogs/toads or a hedgehog. This year is the International Year of Biodiversity - my post on this explains more about the importance of gardens to wildlife, and how to attract it to your space.

Don’t forget the value of the view out to your small garden from indoors – especially the night-time view, where “nightscape” lighting will be much more economical to achieve than in a larger garden! Click here for more information on garden lighting.

8. Growing for the table:

A small garden is unlikely to give you scope for a regular vegetable garden, but you can still produce some food – espaliered fruit (apples, pears, cherries, kiwi) grown against a sunny house wall; dwarf fruit trees in patio containers (peaches or nectarines); window-ledge containers for herbs, salad crops or stir-fry leaves; potato barrels, strawberry planters or tomatoes in hanging baskets.

Follow these links for more information on window ledge planting and edible flowers.

9. Utility issues:

Practicalities also need to be considered. Unless it’s a small front garden we’re addressing, you’ll probably need a washing line of some kind. Rotary lines are economical in space and can be removed out of the way when not required. Another discreet option is a retractable pull-out line with the spool fixed to the house wall and the extended end hooked onto another wall, well-fixed post, or (perhaps) a strong tree branch.

Waste bins / wheelie bins may need to be accommodated, but could be out of sight behind a hedge or trellis screen.

A compost bin is still a good idea, even in a small garden. If there’s not space to hide a conventional bin (ideally, a timber structure with air gaps rather than a closed plastic composter) there are ornamental “bee-hive” types – just Google “bee hive composter” for retailers.

Unless your garden planting is exceptionally drought-tolerant, plants will need watering in hot/dry periods, especially those in containers & hanging baskets. This is much less work in a small garden! A small garden also makes it very easy to include irrigation for patio containers/planters, hanging baskets and inset borders using a solid-walled hose from the water source taken around the periphery, with smaller tubes punched into the hose taking water to adjustable micro-sprinklers in the pots. These drip-irrigation systems from “Hozelock” are readily available at garden centres and DIY stores, are relatively inexpensive, and can be easily automated with a battery-powered timer at the water tap. Even better, but more expensive, are automatic solar-powered pumps attached to rainwater harvesting butts, such as “WaterWand”.

For collecting rainwater in a smaller garden, there are unobtrusive wall-mounted slimline butts such as the “Prestige” from waterbuttsdirect and others.

That’s the end of my article on designing a small garden - you can reach the other parts via the links at the top of this post, or by scrolling on down through my blog.

If you’re inspired by these ideas to have a more adventurous attempt at designing your small garden – great! If you’re daunted by it and would like some professional help click here to get in touch!

Designing a small garden - part 3

2010-07-02T01:58:00.000-07:00

This is the third part of my thoughts on the design of small gardens.

The other parts can be reached by clicking on these links ...

Part 1 - an introduction to why small gardens need designing;
Part 2 - lose the boundaries, borrowed views & landscape, using 3 dimensions;
Part 3 follows, covering keep it simple, maximise space usefulness, optical illusions;
Part 4 - keep it interesting, growing for the table and utility issues.

Here goes ...

4. Keep it simple!

In a small space it’s best to stick to simple, bold shapes – definite circles, rectangles & arcs, rather than serpentine, organic shapes which need space to allow one’s eye to follow their sweep. If the plot is an odd shape use the “lose the boundaries” approach, as described in part 2 of this series, to re-shape it so that the space within the planting has simpler, more definite geometry. This also makes it look thought about when compared to a patch of lawn or gravel “left over” from the shape of the other features.

Don't try to cram in too much - if each direction that you look in has several focal features competing for your attention, there's no restfulness and the whole thing becomes cluttered and feels cramped. Try to keep the main functional spaces open with low-level planting and features.

In similar vein, avoid too many variations in materials - “less is more”. Using the same basic surfacing throughout (i.e. the deck / patio / paths) will unify the space and make it seem larger than one which has timber & paving & gravel & brick & stone & concrete & grass, etc. This works in much the same way that having the doors open and the same flooring throughout a small house can make it seem larger.

5. Maximise the usefulness of space:

Do you really need that bit of lawn?

OK, you need a flat surface for practical usage like sitting and dining spaces, as well as the aesthetic purpose of balancing the planting masses, and a change of texture from deck or paving can add interest – but that can be achieved with gravel or slate chips or, better still, with a pebble/cobbles mix to give more interesting variation in texture - perhaps planted through with small ornamental grasses or perennials around a focal point boulder, bird bath or sculptural piece.

Grass is quite poor ecological value and takes a lot of chemical & water input to remain a good lawn throughout the year – as well as a lot of work.

It can become really tedious to get a mower out for a very small lawn!

In a small garden you may still have distinct areas – dining/BBQ, sun-lounging, shady seating for reading, chatting & socialising. You might achieve this with a very simple rectangular shape which has some parts “cut away” – this adds interest to the shape & sub-divides it to create the various functional areas. The cut-aways could be features such as a firepit or BBQ, herb bed, raised planter, water feature, etc.

If the space is really small, consider using “built-in” features, rather than free-standing ones, to keep the space open for movement and allow you to bespoke the size & scale of the features.

If the plot is long & narrow, or short & wide, setting the main rectangular shapes diagonally, rather than parallel to the house, can increase the apparent length of the shorter dimension. A long, narrow space can also be made to seem less like a corridor by using planting or trellising to partially separate sections of the length into “rooms”, perhaps with views framed through archways to focal features in the next room, so creating the “what’s down there?” added interest.

Do you really need paths connecting the areas, or could a path be “suggested” along the edge of a shape or by stepping stones? When planning the arrangement, remember that a narrow strip encourages brisk movement along the line, a wider strip is still “directional”, but allows a more leisurely pace of transition – whereas a squared (or circular) shape suggests a lack of movement, i.e. a resting place such as a patio.

If you have a flat, or shallow-pitched, garage, shed or house extension, why not consider a green roof (click here for more information) to add more planting space & ecological value?

6. Exploit optical illusions:

This is a biggy!

The directional effect of shapes described above can also work with materials, such as the laying patterns for brickwork / paving and especially for decking. The human brain is always looking for patterns and the eye will tend to follow linear features – so a deck with boards running across the line of sight will emphasize the width of the space, whilst having the boards running with the line of sight will emphasize its length. This effect is seen in clothing design, where striped vs. hooped patterns complement different figures.

Laying deck boards diagonally can make a much more interesting scheme, especially if combined with a change to the opposite diagonal on a split-level deck – and can serve to direct the eye to a focal feature. It’s also practical in that boards are cut obliquely to fit the edges so, if they aren’t perfectly square to the adjacent building walls, there’s no “run out” gap which looks dreadful.

Using horizontal linear timber strips instead of conventional square or diamond pattern trellis for screens also has this directional aspect and can “stretch” a short boundary.

In this example, grooved deck boards are used to give the same effect, and also provide unity with the decked surface.

Other optical “cheats” can be made using mirrors to create false windows or doors in walls which can add apparent depth and provide that “what’s through there?” appeal.

In this picture they are used in a semi-formal arrangement to break up a dark, unattractive boundary and add the impression of depth beyond.

They also work really well when the mirror edges are concealed by other planting, or within false framing (e.g. “perspective” panels), and the reflection from the mirror is another part of the garden space, not the viewer – i.e. ensure the mirror is angled slightly. A large mirror, perhaps with ivy trailing over it, at the back of an arch can make it appear deeper – more like a pergola offering a walk-through to another part of the garden space.

Mirrors will always need to have a rigid surface to mount them on, both to protect them from cracking and to prevent movement in the wind - so a free-standing mirror needs at least 12mm marine-ply backing, attached to well-fixed posts. If the reflection is to be seen from some distance away (e.g. from inside the house), make sure it’s very optically flat – slight ripples in the glass produce only minor distortion when seen from a few feet distance, but give a “hall of mirrors” nightmare when seen from 20 or 30 feet!

Another optical trick is using a series of vertical poles where the gap between them reduces along the run, and/or, the poles themselves reduce in height & thickness. This produces a very exaggerated perspective which makes the depth along the run look much greater. If you use this beware of the distorted look when viewed from the opposite direction!

Wall murals may not provide realistic illusions, but can certainly improve the view of a close, uninteresting, neighbouring wall.

Making good decisions with your planting can also help in this optical illusion field.

Bright colours such as orange, yellow & red “advance” – i.e. they seem to jump out at you, so the object appears closer – useful for “shortening” that long, narrow, corridor space. Conversely, muted colours such as blue, mauve, silver/grey and pale green “recede” – making the object appear further away. The effect of colour also changes with the daylight – oranges, reds and yellows “sing out” at dusk, especially when there’s a good red sunset.

Texture has similar visual properties – small-leafed plants provide a “bland” uniform texture which recedes, whereas large-leafed plants with a more open, architectural form advance, making them good focal points. Judicious use of these characteristics, blending in a few advancing features against a receding background can give a greater sense of depth to the view and add to the illusion of space.

The other parts of this series can be reached by scrolling through my blog, or by clicking the links at the top of this post.

Thanks for persevering!

Designing a small garden - part 2

2010-07-01T12:31:00.000-07:00

This is the second part of my thoughts on the design of small gardens.

The other parts can be reached by clicking on these links ...

Part 1 - an introduction to why small gardens need designing;
Part 2 follows, covering lose the boundaries, borrowed views & landscape, using 3 dimensions;
Part 3 - keep it simple, maximise space usefulness, optical illusions;
Part 4 - keep it interesting, growing for the table and utility issues.

Following on from my introduction about why small gardens still need to be designed, here are my first 3 guidelines for anyone who wants to do the design themselves, or to understand some of the thinking that a professional designer will do for you:

1. Lose the boundaries:

Some people think that having borders planted with medium-tall shrubs would “shrink” the available space and feel claustrophobic, but such planting can hide the walls / fences so that the boundary no longer exists – and if there’s no visible boundary your imagination will let you perceive the space as being bigger, not smaller. This can work particularly well if your neighbour (on the other side of the wall/fence) has planting which is taller than your own ... which leads on to ...

2. “Borrow” outside views & landscape:

If there’s a fabulous view outside your garden, you don’t need me to tell you it's OK to break the first guideline and not to hide it – instead, you can organise planting & features to minimise the barrier (fence, etc) between your space and the view, and to “frame” the view to enhance the feeling that it’s part of your visual space. In the classic large estate gardens, the usual device for separating the formal gardens from the pasture land or deer park beyond was the “ha ha” – a wall which is at ground level on the viewing side (formal garden) but which is at the edge of a ditch on the pasture side. You probably won’t be able to do this, but the principle of a near-invisible boundary could be achieved with basic post and wire mesh fencing.

Of course, great views don’t have to be the rural idyll – cityscape views can be sensational too – especially if there’s some interesting architecture, maybe a river, bridge or city park, or even some kinds of industrial architecture to look out on. After all, that’s one of the reasons why rooftop gardens are popular with city dwellers.

If you’re part of a suburban estate, with nothing worth looking out on, your “views” will need to be within your garden space and you’ll probably want reasonably high walls or fencing for security & privacy – but you may still be able to “borrow” bits from outside your space.

Does your neighbourhood have trees that you can “adopt” by visually linking them to your plan? Concealing the boundary fence using shrubs or small trees within your garden to sweep the eye up to the neighbouring trees will bring them into play as part of your scheme.

3. Use 3 dimensions:

As just noted in guideline 2, pay attention to the vertical space.

Use a small tree (or, if space permits, a group of small trees, or a multi-stem tree), with under-planting, in as deep a border as you can make, to gain maximum use of planting space. With the exception of very thirsty trees such as Poplar and Willow species (which are far too big for a small garden anyway), a tree that’s of a size to be in scale with your garden is unlikely to cause damage to modern 1-metre depth foundations – but, if you’re concerned about the proximity of a tree to your house or garage, get some professional advice from a qualified designer, tree surgeon or tree nursery.

If a tree isn’t possible, use pergola or screens to support climbing plants, to add a shady spot or to create depth through the light and shade patterns. Make use of tiered pots or planters to gain height and attention for smaller plants.

Please scroll through my blog for the other parts of this series, or use the links at the top of this post.

Thanks for dropping by!

Designing a small garden (1)

2010-06-30T13:15:00.000-07:00

This is the first part of my thoughts on the design of small gardens.

The other parts can be reached by clicking on these links ...

Part 1 - Follows and is an introduction to why small gardens need designing;
Part 2 - lose the boundaries, borrowed views & landscape, using 3 dimensions;
Part 3 - keep it simple, maximise space usefulness, optical illusions;
Part 4 - keep it interesting, growing for the table and utility issues.

In social conversations, such as when chatting about "what do you do?", I sometimes get the reaction “oh, my garden’s too small to need designing” – but I beg to differ!

I do this based on 2 axioms:

firstly that the most successful way of designing a large garden is to link together a series of smaller, human-scale, self-contained areas – often referred to as garden “rooms” – an approach used in the classic English gardens at Hidcote and Sissinghurst. The design of the garden as a whole is about the location, shape, proportion and flow of these smaller spaces and the routes which connect them – but the character of each smaller space is unique, so the task becomes one of designing a series of small gardens;

secondly, even with a small garden, you’re as entitled as anyone else to desire an outside space that’s beautiful, enjoyable, restful, productive, property-enhancing, ... and so on.

Obviously, a small garden has a certain sense of scale and doesn’t provide the opportunity to have large trees, massed shrub plantings, swathes of bulky ornamental grasses, a wildflower meadow or an extensive pond – features that may well be used as part of the overall landscape between the garden rooms in larger estates – but that doesn’t mean they are free of design challenges. The training & experience of a professional garden designer can help to get the best from a small space in terms of usefulness, adaptability and adding value to the property.

If you fancy having a go yourself at achieving a more attractive result than the “2-foot-wide flower border around the fence with a randomly-shaped grass lawn alongside the builder’s patio” that’s often the norm for small suburban gardens, the other parts of this article will give a series of guidelines that will help you get there. You can easily reach them by clicking on the links at the top of this post.

Remarkable Renderworks by Daniel Jansenson

2010-06-01T04:38:00.000-07:00

Renderworks is a “bolt-on” option to the Vectorworks computer aided design system from Nemetschek, of which I’ve previously written (see Residential Garden Design and Animations). Once a 3D model has been developed with Vectorworks, using the Renderworks component brings presentation images of the design to life - by adding textures to the surfaces of objects and creating depth through the lighting tools which give both general illumination to the scene and modelling to the highlight/shadow details.

Daniel Jansenson prepared this book for Nemetschek as part of their tutorial series. He is well-qualified for this, being an architect in private practice, a long-time Vectorworks user and a teacher of both Vectorworks and Renderworks. He’s also author of the earlier eBook “The Renderworks Recipe Book”.

Remarkable Renderworks is sub-titled “An Introduction to the Basics”, but – although it does indeed serve to help novices get to grips with Renderworks – it’s not a Vectorworks primer and, as stated in Daniel’s introduction, the manual is “intended for the Renderworks user who already has some experience with Vectorworks”. That said, I find it to be more than just a primer for Renderworks too – it has value as both revision & skills enhancement to those who already have some familiarity and experience with the Renderworks software.

Format and content ...

In common with other tutorial manuals from Nemetschek, the book is an excellent, A5-sized, spiral-bound, format - which lets it fold flat and occupy minimal desk space when working at a computer. It has some 33 chapters, or topics, which guide readers from the simplest forms of rendering through to the use of built-in (default) textures, creating your own custom textures, and applying textures to specific types of 3D objects. From here it goes on to explain lighting types and effects, for both interior & exterior scenes, before concluding with a treatise on the system’s capability to produce supremely realistic images via the Custom Renderworks & Custom Radiosity tools - and the trade-offs between ultimate realism and image processing time. Throughout the book there are high quality colour images of screen segments which make it very easy to follow through the exercises that are used to provide the tutorial.

Exercises and Software Versions ...

The exercise files are provided on a CD-ROM which accompanies the book. Although there’s no mention of software versions, as a newly published tutorial it is, naturally, designed to work with the current software, i.e. Vectorworks/Renderworks 2010, and the files are 2010 format – so if you have a prior version you will not be able to use them. Pre-2010 users can still get some benefit – anyone with Vectorworks experience can easily re-create the early chapters' exercise files. For later chapters, with more complex exercises, it may be more effective to just follow the principles and apply them to some of your own work – but note that there are significant changes and improvements to the tools and methods of working in the 2010 version which the tutorial is based upon.

At first, I was disappointed that the exercises did not represent a journey through a real-life project - being instead a series of mainly unrelated, simple, abstract models. However, after working through the book, I now recognise how well these are used to describe & teach the concepts – something which may have been more difficult to achieve, and perhaps more confusing, in a real-life example. It’s also worth saying that Renderworks is applicable to Vectorworks Fundamentals users, as well as those with Design-series options such as Architect, Landmark and Machine Design, so using abstract examples makes it more universal as a tutorial.

The more complex forms of light rendering are most appropriate to building interiors and the exercises are based on this. There is a chapter on exterior scene lighting, though this doesn’t add much to Tamsin Slatter’s excellent book on Residential Garden Design.

There are some improvements I can suggest for the next revision ...

There’s little reference to the wide range of (non-default) ready-made texture libraries which ship with the Vectorworks/Renderworks software, so you may be left thinking there’s a lot of work you have to do for yourself, which may not actually be the case.

As a garden designer, I’d have liked more information on using Renderworks to show exterior schemes in both daylight and “nightscape” scenes and some discussion of the effects / limitations of lighting used with the ”Image Props” that represent planting in 3D models.

My major criticism is the lack of an index, which limits its usefulness as a reference work. It is possible to skip-read chapters (which are only about 5-6 pages each) after skimming down the Table of Contents for a topic of concern, but it’s a tedious way of working and (unlike Tamsin’s book) the CD-ROM doesn’t include a searchable PDF version of the manual.

Conclusions:

Would I recommend this book? Yes!

Who would benefit from it? Anyone who already has enough Vectorworks experience to build 3D models and who wants to leverage their investment to produce, or improve the quality of, their design presentation images – whether they’re working in the field of architecture, interiors, or, like me, landscape/garden design.

Where can you get it? From Nemetschek.

Steve Rice, Blooming Good Gardens, Southampton, UK

Concrete Jungle: biodiversity through school gardens

2010-05-28T07:55:00.000-07:00

Concrete Jungle is a new initiative to encourage schools to plant flowers and grow vegetables to create wildlife havens in their grounds. I’ve blogged before about the International Year of Biodiversity of which this campaign is a part. Concrete Jungle has been developed by Cool It Schools, a global programme for young people, encouraging them to do something about climate change. There’s a downloadable teacher’s pack with suggestions for developing a garden, and lesson plans and ideas to interest students.
I was particularly interested in this, since I’ve been developing a wildlife garden with a school which has now made real progress. After I set out the plot a group of volunteers set to with enthusiasm, and its hoped that the project will be completed this year.

Once schools have signed up with the Concrete Jungle campaign they can register the dimensions of their garden and use the site to show the progress they are making.

Birds in the garden

2010-05-17T03:49:00.000-07:00

We've been having fun watching the birds on our feeders lately. One blackbird took a while learning how to get to the fat ball: approaching it from various angles he failed to get a grip; then he hovered alongside it, grabbing a bite before he fell back onto the ground; finally he learnt to land on the fat ball itself, and was able to nibble away easily.

The collared doves and blue tits have also been avid feeders.

If you feed the birds, don't forget to clean the feeders regularly to prevent disease. See the RSPB website for more information.

A great day out...Blashford Lakes

2010-05-04T06:43:00.000-07:00

Sadly unable to get away on holiday, due to volcanic ash, we had the opportunity to explore some places closer to home, and discovered Blashford Lakes, near Ringwood. The weather that week was lovely – a real taste of summer.

The lakes are flooded gravel pits, managed by The Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust for the benefit of people and wildlife. There are 8 km of pathways round the reserve, most of them wheelchair-accessible, with hides for viewing the wildlife on and around the lakes (ramps also make the hides accessible). We had a wonderful time wandering through the woodland, and sitting in a couple of the hides, trying to identify the water fowl from the useful posters displayed on the walls. We saw goldeneye, coots, Canada geese, and swans, as well as a couple of scuttling rabbits on the bank. We also enjoyed watching the whirling house and sand martins nesting in the man-made walls alongside one of the hides. Diaries are left for visitors to record what they saw on particular days, and it’s fascinating to look through and discover what was seen at different times of the year.

I recommend taking a picnic – there are benches at frequent intervals along the trails, and picnic tables outside one of the education centres. We omitted to do that at first. Having arrived in the morning and liking it so much, we went off to buy food, and then came back for the afternoon. There are guided walks, talks and family events throughout the year, and courses for adults, including topics such as wild flowers and photography.

You can visit the lakes free-of-charge, although we were so delighted, we left a donation, since it’s a charitable concern. Although there are car parks, the Trust recommends walking or cycling. Blashford Lakes can be found two miles north of Ringwood on the A338 Ringwood-Salisbury Road, New Forest OS Map Grid Ref. SU 151 079.

Rain Garden Success

2010-04-19T02:01:00.000-07:00

I shouldn't be here blogging. I should be in California, but I think something went wrong with the translation when we asked the Icelanders to "please give us back our cash"!

Back in August last year, I blogged the article on Rain Gardens which I'd written for my local newsletter. I've just written a follow up piece to say how the garden "performed" through the winter, so here it is:

As we’ve now come through the winter and spring is with us at last, I thought you might be interested to know how it got on. Well, I’m pleased to say it’s good news! The rain cups looked terrific, both in gentle rain – when the water trickled and splashed through - and in heavy downpours – when it formed a solid column through the centre of the rain cups. The rain cups also had another practical use – in light rain or drizzle, when it wasn’t easy to tell whether it was raining or not, a glance through the window at them would readily give the answer, as directing the run-off from part of my bungalow roof through them “magnified” the rainfall effect. In heavy / sustained rain, the rill and rain garden do flood, as intended, covering the cobbles and (apologies to residents in Peterscroft, etc for “rubbing it in”) the ground beneath the rain garden is sufficiently permeable to allow this ponding to infiltrate and clear in about 6-12 hours after the rain stops.

So the mechanics of the rainwater collection and dissipation work fine, but what about the rain garden plants – how did they cope with continual flooding?

Once again, I’m happy to say, mainly successful. All but two of the species have come through and are now re-growing strongly. The ones which failed are a Verbascum (which I didn’t really expect would survive, and only included as a pretty summer plant with height) and a Hebe (H. carnea ‘Varigata’) which isn’t showing any signs of life, and was probably a poor choice – even though I’d planted it at the edge where it was less prone to flooding. Maybe it was the frosts rather than the wet which did for it? The successful plants, which “baked” through the end of summer last year, and survived the flooding of the winter, are: Calamagrostis acutiflora, Campanula lactiflora ‘Loddon Anna’, Carex ‘Evergold’, Cornus alba ‘Aurea’, Hemerocallis ‘Crimson Pirate’, Hypericum inodorum ‘Magical Red Star’, Pennisetum ‘Red Buttons’, Philadelphus ‘Belle Etoile’, Physocarpus ‘Diabolo’, Rudbeckia fulgida ‘Goldsturm’, Sambucus ‘Black Lace’, Sedum ‘Xenox’ and Tradescantia ‘Sweet Kate’. I can’t guarantee that these would always survive in extreme conditions, but you might like to investigate them if you have difficult areas to plant.

Another part of the change to my front garden was laying a decked pathway to a small decked sitting area in the “alcove” of the bungalow. For this I used “Millboard” composite decking - which has the look of old oak boards but is, in fact, manufactured from waste hardwood and recycled plastic. This has the advantage of being very long life, doesn’t warp, split, rot or fade and, unlike timber decking, is very non-slip. It’s also claimed to be a low-energy manufacturing process and, as the boards don’t need any oil or chemical treatments, seemed to me to have fairly good sustainability credentials. The purpose of the small sitting deck, which faces to the west, was to allow us to glory in the late afternoon / evening sun after it’s left our back garden. Once we’d overcome our initial reticence at being “on display” in the front garden, we found it to be a really good social feature – with people passing by stopping to chat and neighbours joining us for a cuppa or glass of wine.

We’ve recently completed this feature with a copper and stainless steel screen panel at the edge of the sitting deck. I commissioned the panel from my designer-blacksmith neighbour, Colin Phillips, having designed it myself based on part of some gates which Colin had previously made. You can see the genesis of this on my last blog post.

The final piece of redesign for this section of my garden was stripping away most of the lawn to give wider borders around the rain garden and decked path. These were very successful last summer - with flowers such as Borage, Nasturtium and California Poppy providing nectar sources for bees and butterflies. I’ve now added a series of “Minarette” fruit trees (Cherries, Gages and Plums) and a small standard Cherry. I know that it wouldn’t look good to protect these with netting in my front garden, so I reckon to share any crops with the birds – part of my contribution to International Year of Biodiversity!

If you’ve not heard of the latter, 2010 has been designated “International Year of Biodiversity”, by the United Nations, to call attention to the accelerating decline in biodiversity – mainly through human activities such as industrial monoculture food growing, pesticide usage and destruction of habitat. The retention of diverse flora & fauna throughout the world is vital to the human species, as much as to other living creatures, as we depend upon networks of other plants and animals for our food, energy and medicines. To find out more about “IYB” and how you could help please visit my previous blog piece

Using Vectorworks to Montage Designs & Photos

2010-04-01T09:00:00.000-07:00

I've found that I can exploit my skills with Vectorworks to combine designs with photo images, making it much easier to show a designed feature "in situ" when it's not appropriate to develop a full design model.

As part of my garden designs, there’s almost always some form of structure required to provide a specific function – for example “built-in” tables & benches for a deck; planter-walls to help define a shape; a pergola over a pathway to frame a view and give vertical planting support; a gazebo to stop and take in the views and to act as a focal point itself; or a screening panel to enclose an area or separate it from another space with different character.

All of these items are part of the overall design concept, which is unique to that property, and will therefore “belong” to the garden even if they are made from widely-available component parts.

Sometimes though, either for practical reasons such as specific dimensions, or aesthetic reasons like needing a particular material / texture / form / etc, only a bespoke piece will work. Often this will be a timber or masonry construction, but I’ve also designed using plastics, ceramics and metals.

One recent example was a small screen panel which I commissioned from Colin Phillips, a designer-blacksmith.

The screen was needed to finish off the return edge alongside a small decked area which you can see in this picture.

I wanted to tie in with the terracotta colour of the alcove wall and the copper rain cups, so I decided on a series of randomly-sized copper & stainless steel sheets set inside a black steel framework – in a kind of “Mondrian meets Rennie Mackintosh” style.

The basis for this was taken, with his permission, from part of some gates pictured on Colin’s website.

I thought it would be interesting to show how I took this through to the finished piece – all done using the Vectorworks CAD package, with Windows Photo Gallery to crop pictures – not even a hint of Photoshop!

First step was to copy the website picture to the Windows clipboard and paste in into a blank Vectorworks layer, which I then exported back as a JPEG image.

Next, I cropped the central bit of the gates, shown above as a black rectangular frame, using Windows Photo Gallery and imported this back into Vectorworks. I then used the Vectorworks “edit – duplicate” function to copy it, and shifted the duplicate sideways to create the rounded base shape with asymmetric left & right sides shown under the original picture of the gates. With these images selected, I used the “modify – scale objects” function to re-size the pictures so that the vertical dimension matched my requirements of 2 metres.

I could then trace over the image to get the basic “ladder” form that interested me before deleting the photo images of the gates and working on to produce my final design.

Once the design was completed, I imported the original photo of the deck area to another layer, again used “modify – scale objects” to resize it - using the brickwork alongside the screen position as a measurement guide - and duplicated the screen design onto this layer, moving it around to superimpose it in the correct position.

Finally I cropped this layer, using a viewport, and printed it to show my client, before commissioning the piece.

The final picture is the finished install of the custom-made screen.

Sport Relief

2010-03-21T07:52:00.000-07:00

I just spent an unusual but worthwhile Sunday, taking part in the Sport Relief Mile (well, three miles, actually) challenge, joining thousands of other people raising money for worthy causes both here, and overseas. My three mile route took place round the parks in Southampton where there was a wide diversity of participants: all ages, serious athletes, able-bodied, disabled. Some ran, others walked; one woman using a walking frame took her own time to complete the course. Take a look here:

Thank you to everyone who sponsored me. If you haven't done so, but would like to, please go to this link.

What iPhone Apps do you use?

2010-03-14T10:06:00.000-07:00

As anyone who knows me personally will vouch, I’m a big fan of the Apple iPhone. I’ve had an “original” since they first became available in the UK, but have recently upgraded to the latest iPhone 3Gs. What makes the iPhone so special & valuable to me is the wealth of free, or really cheap, add-on “apps” that can be downloaded from the iTunes app store to bring extra functionality to the device, as illustrated by this picture from the Apple iPhone website.

If you’re considering a “smartphone”, here’s my personal recommendations:

iPhone built-in basics (other than making and receiving phone calls!) are:

Calculator - has lovely big "keys" for normal mode and includes the scientific calculator with trig functions just by turning the iPhone sideways. Valuable aid on site surveys (see Clinometer below)

Calendar - I use this for all my appointments, and would be lost without it. Thankfully, syncing with the PC (which I do at least once a week) backs up the calendar into MS Outlook. I also rely on the calendar alert facility to remind me of appointments, but this is a really weak aspect of the iPhone - the alert signal is pathetic and you can't customize it like you can with the clock alarm. Please sort this one out Apple!

Camera - not the best phone/cam on the market, but adequate, and really useful when out doing site survey/analysis.

Clock - I set different wake-up alarms for normal weekdays and weekends, as well as repeating alerts for other regular items like my networking meetings. I like being able to customise the alarm signal - wish the calendar alert allowed this. I also use the stopwatch timer when I'm rehearsing presentations and the countdown timer when I'm cooking!

Compass - standard app on iPhone 3Gs, excellent for surveys (especially if the sun's not out) and gives you the geographic Eastings/Northings reference too, so you can determine the sun sweep properly in your designs.

Contacts - I love the direct touch link to make a call or email and to go to Google maps from the address, but it does seem lacking in having no ability to group contacts into personal friends, family, social groups, business contacts (colleagues, clients, suppliers, etc). I cheat by using "keywords" in the “Company” field - I can then use the search facility on these keywords to short-list what I’m looking for. Maybe there's a good app out there for this?

Email - one of the essentials of any "smartphone"!

iPod - of course, keeps me entertained on those trips out to client sites, whether music or some of the great podcasts available from the Beeb.

Maps - direct link to Google maps - useful for finding clients & suppliers, though I've now got CoPilot – see below.

Safari - the web browser is the 2nd smartphone essential. The iPhone's ability to have many open web pages, and to fill the screen by tapping & pinch-zooming is simply brilliant.

Additional apps which I've added:

Classics, by Andrew Caz & Phill Ryu - excellent free set of 23 (current count) classic/kids novels to read when you've a spare moment. Good user interface.

Clinometer, by Peter Breitling - 2 really good uses of the iPhone accelerometer - a brilliant spirit level, and the angle measure - which is great for measuring heights of buildings, trees, etc during a survey. You need a horizontal distance measure to the object (I have a Leica Disto laser for this) then use the iPhone’s scientific calculator for the tangent of the angle read from clinometer.

Convert Units, by Free the Apps - although I'm generally OK with imperial / metric linear measures, it makes area, volume and weight conversions easier and saves googling how many square meters in an acre!

CoPilot Live UK & Ireland, by ALK Technologies Ltd - now I've upgraded to iPhone 3Gs, with the GPS facility, this is a really cheap & very effective SatNav - especially teamed with a windscreen mount and a charger-cum-FM-transmitter to get the speaking instructions thru the car radio, and play the iPod at the same time. I also got CoPilot Live NA (North America) at a bargain price of £12 over Christmas, ready for my next USA trip.
Dictionary.com, by Dictionary.com - for those moments of word blindness!

Discover, by mAPPn Inc - one of several "USB" stick apps that let you up / down load files between iPhone & PC. Let's you carry around MS Excel, MS Word documents, PDFs, etc.

ECB Cricket, by the OTHER media - useful when you're out if, like me, you're a cricket fan & don't always have a radio handy. Better still, Tunin.FM (or iCarRadio lite as it's now called) so you can listen on R5live Sports Extra - even without a WiFi link.

Elevation for Real, by homedatasheet.com Inc. - if knowing altitude is important to your site.

Flashlight, by John Haney Software - sometimes helps, so I keep it at top left of my home screen - so it’s easy to find.

Google Mobile App, by Google Inc - let's you search the web just by speaking into your iPhone. It's amazingly accurate providing there's not too much background noise, and great when you've got dirty hands from handling soil, etc!

Identify Tree, by Christoph Duyster - an app for doing what it says on the tin, using leaf & bark as identifiers. A bit limited in its repertoire, but it was very cheap!

iPhone.tvcatchup.com - not an app, but a web portal that streams live Freeview TV channels, even allowing you to pause them – but, as with all video, draining on battery charge, and streaming video’s not very good without a WiFi connection.

Keeper Password & Data Vault, by Callpod Inc - if you're anything like me, you'll have zillions of card pins, web account logins and all sorts of other "secret" data to keep track of. This provides a much more secure way of storing things than making up fictitious people in your contacts list!

Met Office Weather Application, by UK Met Office - a better weather app than the builtin one, but can be slow.

Milebug Lite, by Izatt International - I use this for logging my business trips – the free Lite version only holds 10 trips so it has to be emailed (so I can load it to a spreadsheet on my PC) when it’s full, but it does the job. Now that I've upgraded to the iPhone 3Gs there may be apps which can use the GPS to track trips rather than having to enter details?

Park’n Find, by Affinicore Inc - probably the best "where did I leave my car" app for those times when you're out in a strange place, or at a trade show / exhibition, etc.

Project Tracker, by collabtools - one of the many project tracking tools. I find this one really easy & useful, using a new project for each current client, and task headings such as travel, client meetings, survey/site analysis, draw up survey, concept design, design detail, construction/specification, planting design, etc. As I have the separate To-Do app, as well as the inbuilt calendar app, I haven't found a use for PTracker’s voice notes, todo list, etc

Ruler, by DAVA Consulting - a very simple measuring tool for those occasions when you've forgotten a ruler - would be even better if it let you specify a scale, so it became a scale ruler to read off plans!

SketchBook MobileX, by Autodesk Inc - an app which lets you draw / paint sketches on the iPhone, including overlaid onto photos. Can be useful for helping to convey ideas to a client on-site - providing you've become fairly proficient with it!

To-Do List, by Concrete Software Inc - one of many apps in this area. I used the free one for 2 years and have now upgraded to the "pro" version.

Toilet Finder, by BeTomorrow - can help with pressing needs when out & about, but database has some strange anomalies!

Travel News, by DirectGov – road and public transport live update. Can be useful when making long trips, but desperately slow.

Tunin.FM iCarRadio lite, by Mobilaria BV - gives you Internet radio channels even without a WiFi link when you're out & about – but beware of running down your battery!

Tweetdeck for iPhone, by Tweetdeck Inc - as a fan of Twitter, it's good to have this with me when I'm out & about.

WifiZone@UK, by WeesWares - database showing nearest WiFi locations. Occasionally useful.

What apps have you installed that help professionally, or with personal organisation?

Time for Spring Cleaning!

2010-03-05T07:09:00.000-08:00

Back in the autumn last year, I made a plea for not tidying up your garden, because of the advantages that gave to wildlife, etc. Well, at last there are signs of an emergent spring and with this weekend promising to remain dry, the ground should be firm enough to work on, so it’s now time for me to get on with that work!

I’ve already pruned the trees (Acer capillipes, Amelanchier and Euonymus europaeus) that I need to keep under control in my limited space earlier this year, so my list of tasks is

start with pruning my few roses back to a good open frame;
hard pruning (“stooling”) those shrubs whose purpose is coloured winter stems (Cornus species) and fresh foliage (Physocarpus, coloured-leaf Spiraea);
clearing the dead stems & foliage of the ferns, perennials and non-evergreen grasses;
wire-rake over the crowns of my hardy Geraniums to take out all the dead stuff and give them space for the new growth to breathe;
dig out a Miscanthus grass which has outgrown the space available and looks out of balance with its neighbouring plants. I’ll probably replace it with a less dense grass such as Pennisetum ‘Red Buttons’ - I have another one close by at the edge of a rain garden I made last year - and fill the space around it with some contrasting low-growing perennials such as Heucheras – you can get such an amazing range of foliage colours in them, I’m a big fan;
move a “lollipop” Bay tree into a larger pot that I got last weekend – partly to give it a bit more weight – it’s been blown over several times in the recent gusty high winds. I can re-use the smaller pot for a Carex ‘Frosted Curls’ which is in need of extra space;

I won’t tackle the Penstemons (which need hard pruning to stop them getting woody) yet, nor the back-to-framework pruning of the Buddleia, nor any of the evergreen shrubs, as it would encourage the new buds to break and it’s still too cold & frost-prone for sappy new growth to do well. Give it a few more weeks until late March/early April (at least in my neck of the woods!).

Then it will also be time to sow some annual flower seeds to provide more nectar for bee foraging (one of my contributions to International Year of Biodiversity) and to get my spuds (which are chitting nicely indoors) out into the spud-bin and large pots that I use on my sunny deck.

Happy days!

How Sustainable is Your Garden?

2010-02-24T07:50:00.000-08:00

The UK government recently launched a new approach to food production over the next 20 years (The Food Strategy), including the aim of greater sustainability in our food supply. In the Guardian report of (Environment Secretary) Hilary Benn’s speech to the Oxford Farming Conference he is quoted as saying:

"Food security is as important to this country's future wellbeing, and the world's, as energy security. We need to produce more food. We need to do it sustainably. And we need to make sure what we eat safeguards our health ...We know that the consequences of the way we produce and consume our food are unsustainable to our planet and to ourselves ...We know we are at one of those moments in our history where the future of our economy, our environment, and our society will be shaped by the choices we make now." He said consumers, rather than retailers, should lead by buying "greener" food, wasting less and growing more of their own.

Interestingly, the imperial war museum is staging an exhibition this year about how we Brits coped with food shortages during WW2, including grow-your-own, eating seasonal produce and recycling. Perhaps with the current revived interest in these areas, we can learn from the experience of our grandparents?

Sustainability is also prominent in this year's Gardener's World Live Show, with the announcement by NS&I (National Savings), the show sponsors, of the winning entries for their “Growing Gardens Today” competition.

So, growing your own food is a sustainable choice in your garden, and sustainability is “a good thing”, but ...

What exactly do we mean by sustainable?

A short while ago my local group of the Society of Garden Designers (Southampton Cluster Group - contact me for more information) were pleased to have Rosie Yeomans, a tutor in garden design & horticulture at Sparsholt College, and one of the presenters on Radio 4's "Gardeners' Question Time", lead our discussions on the subject. Rosie defined it very succinctly as “creating and managing a garden with as little input as possible”.

Aspects of sustainability from our discussions can be summarised as:

If you’re a gardener:

garden organically – reliance on input of fossil-fuel-derived fertilisers & pesticides is not sustainable; use natural barrier methods to protect crops, not poisons;
multiply your own plantstock from cuttings or seed – join a gardening club – swap with friends, family & neighbours;
use mixed-species hedging, and allow natural undergrowth to develop, rather than keeping it "clean";
conserve natural resources – compost your waste in a heap, rather than a plastic bin, of at least 1 cubic metre (they need air & water to work, and space to work around them) and use it to feed your soil; mulch to preserve moisture, suppress weeds & maintain soil structure;

Design decisions:

change as much lawn as possible into more productive green space – meadows, shrubs & trees will give much better habitat / environmental benefits and need far less input;
plant sensibly to fit the local climate & garden microclimate - avoid wasting resources on plants that don’t really belong – whether “native” or “exotic”;
manage your rainwater, don’t flush it down the drain! Food crops, especially, need a high water input, so consider the movement & storage of rainwater in your design; use whatever elements of the rainwater chain you can (green roofs, rain cups/rain chains, storm-water planters, permeable surfaced paths & patios, rain gardens, swales, ponds & bog areas. You can see more rain garden information on my website .

The HESCO garden at the 2009 RHS Chelsea show, includes a short video clip describing how rainwater is managed through the features of the garden

If you have a pond, be careful what you plant in it, and especially what you do with any excess plant growth (or even water from emptying it) to prevent alien species from escaping into the natural environment where they can become invasive & destroy native ecosystems - for more information see the "Be Plant Wise" campaign endorsed by celebrity TV gardener Charlie Dimmock.

Materials choices:

reuse existing hard landscape materials, so far as possible (eg using old paving as a base for a utility area such as beneath a shed);
recycle materials where they can't be reused (eg breaking up old concrete or paving for use as part of the hardcore sub-base beneath new hard landscape);
use reclaimed materials for new features, if possible (eg old stock bricks for garden walls & paths);
use recyclable materials for new components (eg avoiding pressure-treated timber, which can't be chipped & composted at the end of its useful life);
use locally-sourced materials to minimise transport energy input;
use sustainably-managed resources (e.g. FSC-approved timber, alternatives to peat, etc);

The subject of sustainable materials used within a garden design is a tricky one.

Take, for example, decking - which is still an extremely useful & popular surface material in some contexts, despite the "yesterday's fashion" connotations. There are basically 3 "flavours" of decking:

cheapest is pressure-treated softwood, which is relatively low energy to produce, usually comes from European, FSC-certified, sources where the forests are managed sustainably and shipping the timber to us doesn't need huge transport energy. But pressure-treatment uses non-sustainable chemicals, which prevents the timber from being recycled at the end of its 20-year-or-so lifetime. It probably also needs regular chemical re-treatment to keep it sound and looking good.
hardwood, which is more expensive, but lasts longer - it doesn't need chemical treatment (except, maybe, for a plant-derived oil), is relatively low energy to produce (though the trees grow more slowly, so can't be replaced as quickly), but it mainly comes from tropical forests, so has high shipping energy and the forest management may not be FSC-assured. We certainly don't want to lose rain forests, but hardwood timber, without chemical treatments, has the advantage that it can be recycled at the end of its (much longer) lifetime.
composite, which is manufactured from waste hardwood and recycled plastic, into boards that have the look and feel of hardwood timber, but which don't require any treatment for an extended lifetime, and won't rot, warp, split or splinter. They require energy to manufacture, but can be low transport costs (made in the UK), and have sustainable credentials through their use of otherwise waste materials and their long, treatment-free lifetime. They may well be the most expensive initially, but perhaps comparable when lifetime costs are considered.

Sustainable, or "green", building materials is an extremely complex area!

For more information click here

There are many more elements to sustainability and, not surprisingly, it’s strongly linked to many of the topics I’ve previously written about:

the fight against climate change
helping to save the bees, and generally improving habitat for wildlife
maintaining bio-diversity

Further information on sustainability in gardens & landscaping can be found here

If you'd like help taking further sustainable steps in your garden, but aren't sure how to go about it, call in a professional - me! http://www.blooming-good-gardens.co.uk/

If you enjoyed reading this article, and would like to subscribe to my regular updates, but aren't sure how to do it, click here

Report on UK Ponds

2010-02-08T03:37:00.000-08:00

I just had to say it’s a shame that, according to a recent report by The Centre for Ecology and Hydrology and Pond Conservation, 80 percent of ponds in England and Wales are in poor or very poor condition. Apparently, ponds are more important for the protection of freshwater biodiversity than previously realised.

Pond Conservation is a charity for creating and protecting ponds and the wildlife they support, and they have a Million Ponds Project which aims to create a network of new ponds across the UK. These new ponds will have clean water which, the Pond Conservation website says, is important, because most countryside ponds are damaged by pollution. Making new, clean ponds is the simplest way of protecting freshwater wildlife. Pond Conservation gives advice on creating new ponds, or how to make a donation.

The Centre for Ecology and Hydrology is the UK's Centre of Excellence for integrated research in terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems and their interaction with the atmosphere. Their website describes their scope as: “Working in partnership with the research community, policymakers, industry and society, we deliver world-class solutions to the most complex environmental challenges facing humankind.” Their press release on the ponds reports can be seen here. They report some positive signs for water habitats, such as “improvements in the quality of headwater streams, an increase in the number of ponds, a reduction in phosphorus in soils and recovery in some soils from the effects of acid rain”, but also negatively on the degradation of ponds in England and Wales.

The British countryside has around 50,000 man-made and natural ponds, according to this report, including the heathland ponds of the New Forest (close to where I operate, so of particular interest to me). Hampshire has over 20,000 hectares of low heathland, more than any other county in England, providing a diversity of habitats for many species of plants and animals.

The bogs and wetlands of the New Forest (which contribute to the National Park’s designation as a Special Area of Conservation) may be either year-round ponds, or simply wet areas, but both support a wide range of wildlife. Makes me realise I’m privileged to live so close to such a special area.

A Year of Biodiversity

2010-01-19T05:48:00.001-08:00

The UN have designated 2010 “International Year of Biodiversity” in recognition of both its importance to all life on Earth, including the human species, and its increasing loss – mainly due to human activities such as deforestation, industrial monoculture food production, habitat pollution and climate impacts. The website declares the designation “is a celebration of life on earth and of the value of biodiversity for our lives. The world is invited to take action in 2010 to safeguard the variety of life on earth: biodiversity.”

“Why is it so important?”

Humans are but one animal within the Earth’s diverse flora & fauna, however there is one huge difference between our species and all others – we have the ability to protect or destroy the natural diversity. We depend upon the networks of other living species for food, fuel, health & wealth. Whether your belief in how this arose is through Darwinian evolution, or in the design of nature by a creator God or gods, there is no living organism on this planet which does not perform some service to others, and it is to our own detriment to endanger these networks – whether deliberately or unwittingly.

“Yes, but what good can I do?”

The main International Year of Biodiversity website urges us to do just one thing towards biodiversity, and gives a huge list of what we might pledge to do - from creating a wildflower meadow, planting a window box, not mowing part of our lawns, applying for an allotment, tackling Japanese Knotweed see here for more information on this), to encouraging bats.

The UK’s IYB website, hosted by the Natural History Museum, explains how we can all get involved. There’s information on saving the British dormouse; how to build a bug hotel in the autumn to help insect over-winter; joining in with the Big Wildlife Garden (more of this below); looking for lichens; enemy invaders (helping to monitor non-native species of ladybirds) and counting banded snails as part of Evolution Megalab, being run by the Open University, supported by the Royal Society.

The Big Wildlife Garden

Natural England are running this campaign which recognises two major aspects - the important part gardens play as habitats for many species, and that gardening in a wildlife-friendly way can increase the diversity of plants and animals. This is a topic I’ve alluded to several times here, such as growing fruits in my front garden, growing veggies in window boxes, and (not) tidying the garden for winter.

You can register your own garden here as part of the Big Wildlife Garden and gain points for the things you do to encourage wildlife - even just leaving a patch of nettles (which hosts 40 species of insects, including some of our most colourful butterflies) - building up your score towards Bronze, Silver, Gold and Green award levels. There’s an online forum too, to share ideas from other organisations.

School Wildlife Gardens

Of particular interest to me is the competition for the Big Wildlife Garden School of the year since I’m involved with a local infant school to develop just such a garden. Schools must work their way to Green level, and then send in an article and photos of their wildlife project. Judges will choose regional winners, as well as an overall national winner.

Biodiversity - join in – whatever size space you have!

Biodynamics - mysticism or good sense?

2010-01-08T03:48:00.000-08:00

Over the Christmas break I heard a couple of items on the radio about biodynamics, a gardening philosophy which treats the Earth as a dynamic, living organism which is affected by other elements of the universe – in particular the sun, moon and planets. The theory originated from ideas by Rudolf Steiner in 1924, as a response to farmers who had noticed a deterioration in the quality of crops produced using chemical fertilisers.

The USA-based Biodynamic Farming and Gardening Association describes biodynamics as a “unified approach to agriculture that relates the ecology of the earth-organism to that of the entire cosmos”, whilst the UK Biodynamic Association describes the aim thus “to revitalise nature, grow nourishing food and advance the physical and spiritual health of humanity. Each biodynamic farm or garden is conceived of as an organism with its own individual qualities and diversity of life. Reliance on home produced compost, manures and animal feeds is a key objective and external inputs are kept to a minimum”.

It’s a philosophy that encompasses ideas such as planting (and harvesting) by the phases of the moon, and the lunar cycle as it travels through the zodiac, and is a natural progression from organic gardening, according to writer and biodynamic/organic farmer Tom Petherick in an article for The Telegraph. He also states that both Tesco & Marks and Spencer recently revealed they use the cosmic calendar to decide when it’s best for critics to taste their wine ranges!

I’d heard about biodynamics before, when Mark Rendell, a designer friend of mine, gave us a talk on the subject, and his own experiments with it based on Nick Kollerstrom’s book “Gardening and Planting by the Moon”, at a Society of Garden Designers meeting. However, I hadn’t realised that it was so widely used around the world – as well as the UK there are organisations in Australia, Canada, India, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, and the USA.

Biodynamic vineyards have also been developed in many areas of the world, with growers claiming to have improved the health of their vines.

The Elysia Garden, designed by Andy Jones and constructed in 2007, claims to be the only biodynamic garden open to the public in the UK. It’s part of Garden Organic, Ryton, (previously the Henry Doubleday Research Association, HDRA) an organic growing charity.

The Biodynamics emphasis on “spiritual” values, however, is a cause for some controversy in some circles, and I suppose it could be dismissed as “mumbo jumbo” by sceptics. However, it’s an interesting topic, well-founded in ancient belief systems which pre-date our dependence on ever-decreasing fossil-fuel-based industrial agriculture, and I see no harm in finding out about something that has so many supporters. Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it, I guess.

Are you eating your garden?

2009-12-31T09:42:00.000-08:00

Some time ago I wrote a piece about my new social front garden and how, in the summer, it became a focus for cups of tea with neighbours, and chats with passing strangers. Now I’m hoping the interest will increase, since I’ve planted some fruit trees – a line of columnar plums, greengages and cherries (minarettes and duo-minarettes from the Ken Muir mail-order nursery) alongside my decked path, leading up to a standard cherry “Merton’s Glory” on the dwarfing rootstock “Gisela” from the same supplier. In between the trees, I’ve planted Blueberry and Bilberry bushes in large meshed bags which are buried in the ground and filled with a mix of soil & ericaceous compost. The intention of this is to provide the berry bushes with the acid conditions they enjoy, whilst keeping the soil around the trees a more neutral pH. As this is my front garden, I’m hoping not to resort to netting to protect the fruit from birds – I’m quite happy to share some of the produce with them, but I’d like some reward for myself too. We already have an Amelanchier tree in this garden which produces edible berries as well as being very decorative – though I’ve never yet managed to beat the blackbirds to the crop!
.

Eating flowers ...

.
Many ornamental plants are also edible.

Obvious things are the culinary herbs – we grow various species of Thyme and Oregano in our Purbeck stone planter wall (these will also grow readily in rocky crevices or gaps in paving, etc), Rosemary in small bush form (keeping it compact and fresh by clipping back after spring / early summer flowering), Sage in several colours, Bronze Fennel in the very dry places, Chives in moister places and Apple Mint (in a pot to stop it being invasive).

Less obviously we grow Borage - the leaves can be used like spinach and the very pretty cucumber-tasting flowers used in salads or to decorate desserts or drinks; the peppery leaves and flower petals of Nasturtiums (cleaned of aphids!) are great in salads or sandwiches where I use them in place of watercress. Rocket is a very common ingredient now in “gourmet” salads. Daylillies - Hemerocallis, NOT Lillium species which are poisonous - can be deep fried, or used in desserts; Lavender flowers are also sweet & fragrant in savoury dishes & baking.

Most of these aromatic plants are also nectar-rich, providing a food source for bees as well as ourselves, so doing a valuable job for the environment generally, as discussed in my earlier blog posts here and here .

Do please be careful – some flowers are poisonous or can affect allergy sufferers – for more information see these recipe sites:

http://whatscookingamerica.net/EdibleFlowers/EdibleFlowersMain.htm http://www.recipes4us.co.uk/Edible%20Flowers.htm and http://homecooking.about.com/library/weekly/blflowers.htm or just Google “edible flowers”.
.

Sustainable gardens ...

Sustainable gardens expert, Mark Laurence has some great ideas on urban living and sustainability that he calls “whole systems” thinking - including green roofs which I've previously blogged about - and green walling. What I find most interesting are his ideas for growing foods – the edible landscape - where most of the plants in a design can be used as edible crops.

Mine is a small garden, and the potential for expansive cropping is limited, but if you have a larger space available, an article in the Telegraph by Bunny Guinness explains about forest gardens, first pioneered by Robert A de J Hart in the sixties.

The edible playground garden, which won an award at Chelsea in 2008 was created to encourage schools to build their own vegetable garden. There’s more information on edible school gardens here.

.
Encouragement from the top?

Even the American president is “on message” - growing crops at the White House !

Lastly, I can’t leave this topic without a mention of my Twitter friend, Tracey, whose blog Norfolkkitchen provides amusing stories & fabulous recipes for food using ingredients from her garden and foraged from the local environment. Happy eating in 2010!

Disclaimer: The author, Steve Rice, has thoroughly researched all the plants (leaves or flowers) mentioned in this article as edible. However, individuals consuming the flowers, plants, or any derivatives do so entirely at their own risk and the author cannot be held responsible for any adverse reactions.

If you would like to read this blog regularly, but are not sure how o suscribe, click here.

School Woodland / Wildlife Garden: Progress

2009-12-18T05:44:00.000-08:00

Earlier this year I was invited to design a woodland / wildlife garden for a local infant school.

The school has a good-sized playing field alongside the playground and they had already planted a corner of the field with mixed tree saplings, but wanted help to develop it as a wildlife area with trails and study spaces which could be used as an educational resource, but which would also be fun for the children.

My design includes a variety of habitats - scrub & hedgerow, trees with underplanted storeys of shrubs and perennials, a sunken bog area alongside a raised pond with a pebble beach, and adjacent wildflower meadow areas. There's also a living willow tunnel, a green-roofed shelter and we intend to include nesting boxes for birds, bats, hedgehogs, bees, lacewings and ladybirds.

After completing and agreeing the concept design with the school, I structured the project into self-contained stages - each of which has an incremental, usable result, within a limited budget.

I'm very pleased to say that the school's fundraising efforts have been progressing well and the school "Friends" committee has approved starting work on the first 2 stages early in the new year. We're hoping that volunteers from amongst the community will take on some of the physical work - which will not only save costs but give everyone involved a sense of ownership and pride in the end result.

The "Friends" group is a registered charity and organises events throughout the year to raise funds for projects at the school. They also liaise with businesses who may be willing to give donations or sponsorship. If you are in a position to help, please contact me and I'll be very pleased to introduce you to the school.

A Tour Around My Blog

2009-12-14T04:23:00.000-08:00

If you're already familiar with blogs, and how to subscribe to them, this post will not be of interest to you - my apologies! On the other hand, if you’ve found your way here, but don’t know much about blogs, here’s a quick description of mine own humble offering – including how to get more, if you should like it!

The intention of my blog is to write short articles which are related to garden design – could be design ideas, gardens to visit, book reviews, gardening topics, ecological aspects, and so on. The material is written by me, usually related to something I’ve recently experienced or thought about, but could also be prompted by something in the news media or “blogosphere”. I try to write at least one post (a short article) per week. I also try to include links to other related sources on the web so that you can get further information, as well as my personal opinions, about the post topic.

.
The format of the blog screen

There is a central, scrollable, panel – the grey sidebars to the left and right are blank space which could be used for advertising, but I don’t currently do that. Within the scrollable panel, beneath the main heading, the wider left side is the series of posts, whilst the narrow right side has various “widgets” that add function to the blog – for example, the “follow”, “subscribe” and “search” facilities – more about these below.
.

The post itself is text, pictures and/or video clips, which you can scroll through. I try to structure it with paragraph blocks and sub-headings to make it more readable, and to allow you to more easily scan through for a sub-topic of interest. Within the text, certain words or phrases may be underlined and in a different colour - if you hover your cursor over them it changes to a hand symbol – these are links to other places either within my blog or another source on the web. Just click to go there – you can use the back arrow on your browser to return to the blog post.

At the bottom of the post

are the labels (keywords) which I’ve tagged the topic with – click on any of these to show other posts in my blog which include the same label. The labels are followed by any comments left by other people (if it just shows a value, e.g. “3 comments” click on the word comments to see them) and a box where you are welcome to add your own comments & opinions and so take part in the discussions. Beneath the comments section there will either be the heading for the next post or, if you came into the blog via a specific article link, the words “newer post” (which is the next post in time sequence), “home” (which takes you to the top of the blog – i.e. the latest post) and “older post” (which is the previous post in time sequence) – just click on any of these words to take the indicated action.

Just before the labels is a small envelope icon with an arrow pointing from it. If you found the post interesting and have a friend or contact who might be interested, you can notify them of it by email. Click on the envelope symbol to bring up a window to enter your friend(s) email address(es), together with any message you’d like to include, then hit the send email button. They will get your note and a link to take them directly to the blog post; they can read it and, if they like it, follow, subscribe or email to their friends.

The widgets ...

As I said at the beginning, the right hand side has a series of action “widgets”. Starting from the top these are:

.
Followers – if you like my blog and would like to automatically receive new posts, one way is to become a follower. Click on the follow button which is just above the symbols (avatars) of my current followers. If you’re not signed-in to a Google account, you’ll get a window asking you to sign in using an existing Google, Twitter or Yahoo account – if you haven’t got one, there’s an option to easily set one up – it’s free!

Once you’ve signed in, you’ll be asked whether you want to follow the blog publicly or privately, as explained on the screen. Click the button to select your choice, then click Follow this blog – my blog will be added to your reading list and show new posts as I publish them.

Subscribe to is an alternative way to automatically receive new posts and/or comments which is useful if you already receive other internet news feeds via an RSS facility such as Google Reader. Click the down arrow alongside posts or comments to show the list of subscription services and just click on the one you use.

Search this blog allows you to search my entire blog archive for words or phrases of interest.

My website gives you a direct link to my main website http://www.blooming-good-gardens.co.uk/ if you’re interested in finding out more about my garden design services.
.

Blog archive shows the posts, by title, for the current month, and the number of posts for previous time periods. You can click any title to go to that post, or click the arrow alongside a previous time period to show the post titles for that period, or click the time period name (e.g. September) to go to the series of posts for that period.

Twitter updates shows the most recent tweets from my Twitter timeline – click on any of the names to go to that person’s timeline, or the referenced web page link. If you’d like to follow my tweets just click on the words follow me on Twitter.
.

About me lets you see a bit more information about me – for example any blogs which I’m following via Google Friend Connect – just click on view my complete profile.

So there you have it – my tour’s complete – now why not follow or subscribe – costs you nothing!

Walking Around a Garden Design

2009-12-02T12:35:00.000-08:00

Using 3D Animation in Vectorworks Landmark

A short while ago, I blogged about Tamsin Slatter's book "Residential Garden Design with Vectorworks Landmark". With the help of this I've now mastered some of the skills of using Vectorworks to develop 3D representations of a garden design, and I've explored further into this, including the animated "movie" facility. So here's a short sequence which allows a client to "walk around" the design and see how it suits them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjcjBzKSBFo&feature=channel

At this stage it may not be the most impressive artwork, especially the robotic-looking human figures, but even they help to give the animation a sense of scale - and my clients get a much better feel for the design than could ever be achieved from a 2D plan or sketch view.

The next 2 clips show an animation of the sun sweeping around the garden so that the shadow effects of the house, structures and planting can be explored. The animation is set for the summer solstice (June 21st), but could be changed to explore how the light & shade work at other times of the year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaBG7GEbOVk&feature=channel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9QmYnX2Q9Q&feature=channel

For the "techies":

My walk around animation is a "move along path" camera using 20 normal perspective views, rendered using "final quality Renderworks". I specified it at 10 Quicktime fps, so there's around 270 frames in the sequence. On my HP laptop (Windows Vista, Core-2 Duo T5800 2.0Ghz processor, 3GB RAM) it takes not far short of 2 hours to generate! The animation seems a bit "hurried" and plays much better at 1/2 speed in Quicktime, so I should probably slow it to "time scale 0.5" when I generate it - next time I've got 3 or 4 hours of idle time on my machine!!! The other 2 clips are "solar animations" using a high elevation orthogonol view and a normal perspective view. These take about 40 minutes to generate at 10 fps.

The British Garden in Winter

2009-12-02T06:22:00.000-08:00

Considering all the rain we’ve had lately, and looking at my own soggy garden, I asked myself:

“Can a garden look good in a British winter?”

I mean, it’s all very well the books & glossies eulogising about “frosted seed heads and frozen spiders’ webs on crisp, sunny days” but what about the dull, damp weather which seem to form so much of our winter months?

For gardens on a somewhat grander scale than mine, the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens, near Romsey in Hampshire boasts the largest winter garden in Europe, using massed plantings to give good winter structure and colour – though The National Trust now seems to challenge this, claiming their property at Dunham Massey: Cheshire, to be the largest winter garden of its kind in England! Their site also offers some advice on creating your own winter garden

Looking good whatever the season...

As a professional garden designer, I am (of course!) convinced that a great design can lay the foundation for a garden which will look good whatever the season - but what makes “a great design”? Well, it should be composed of strong basic shapes and have a balance of mass & space; it should employ structures such as walls, screens & pergolas - using materials which are sympathetic to the property and its environment - together with architectural planting such as hedges and groups of trees & shrubs, to create framing of any external views or to focus attention to interests within the garden space if there are no external views, as would be the case in most suburban / town gardens. The highlights in such a design then arise from the counterpoints of light & shade, colour & texture set against these basic elements - and it is the changing mood of this relationship through the seasons which brings dynamism, excitement & subtlety to the design. Andy Sturgeon addresses this subject in a Guardian article, stating that “Winter lays bare the bones of a garden and so is a good test of the strength of its design.”

What sort of planting?

In the main, the planting of a garden that has winter interest will rely on trees & shrubs, not perennials, for its form, and on berries, stem/bark and foliage, rather than flowers, for colour.

Perennials, ferns & grasses...

To avoid it looking a soggy mess on those days when the climate is not bright sun & frost, select perennials with interesting seed heads that retain strong verticals, or good mounding forms, as they die back, or those that retain good leaf structure ready for flowering in early spring. Plants such as Echinacea, Echinops, Foeniculum, Geranium, Hellebores, Heuchera, Lythrum, Papaver, Rudbeckia, Salvia, Sedum spectabile and Veronica fit the bill.

Also make use of the ornamental grasses – in a garden of sufficient size to cope with its bulk I love the way a stand of Miscanthus species can capture low light levels in their faded-amber colouring; in smaller gardens use billowy drifts of Stipa tenuissima, perhaps blended with the taller and more erect grasses like Panicum and Calamagrostis. I’m especially fond of Pennisetum ‘Red Buttons’ which retains a low mound of arching basal leaves and holds the faded flower heads aloft on wiry stems through the worst of gales, to wave around in gentler breezes, looking delightful against even a winter sky, or a reflection of that sky in a still pool. Grass-like perennials such as Dierama and even some of the Irises & Kniphofias can be used to similar effect.

My last mention in this section goes to the ferns, which are, in the main, naturally at home in damp or soggy, low-light conditions. The various genera & species cover a range of sizes, and most have that beautiful “shuttlecock” shape with either glorious bronze deciduous fronds or semi- or fully- evergreen fronds in greens that range from pale-with-reddish tints through to near-black. They’ll also reward you with the fascinating “bishop’s crosier” forms of their new growth at the end of winter – these develop astoundingly quickly into their fresh fronds.

Don’t be too keen to clear up your perennials after they’ve flowered - you can see my earlier blog on the virtues of not doing too much autumn tidying up work here but remember that leaving fallen leaves to rot down beneath the trees will work best around shrubs and those perennial plants that would naturally exist as woodland marginals (Aconitum, Anemone hybrids, Astrantia, Bergenia, Brunnera, Dicentra, Epimedium, Geranium sylvaticum, Polygonatum, Pulmonaria, and Tiarella), not those which like sun & open spaces – as these may well rot themselves if buried under wet leaves.

Trees...

There aren’t too many trees (other than conifers, of which there are a great many forms & colours) which are reliably evergreen in our climate, the main ones being Acacia dealbata (Mimosa), Arbutus (Strawberry Tree), Cordyline (Cabbage Palm), Eucalyptus (Gum Trees), Ilex (Holly), Ligustrum lucidum (Chinese Privet), Luma apiculata (Myrtle family), Magnolia grandiflora, Pittosporum, Prunus laurocerasus or Prunus lusitanica (Laurel), and Quercus ilex (Holm Oak) – though, of these, all but the Holly will only succeed in sheltered aspects in the milder parts of southern England and many are very slow growing, more often regarded as shrubs or hedging than trees.

In fact, whilst I like to include evergreen structure – most often in the form of shrubs rather than trees – it’s the deciduous trees that can be the real stars of winter structure. Go for those with great “skeletal” form and amazing bark textures or colours. Some of my favourites are:

Acer griseum (Paper Bark Maple), with flaking, curling, coppery bark which reveals a shiny cinnamon-coloured “skin” beneath, and has pretty leaves through the summer that take on great autumn colours too; it’s a small, slow-growing tree, so is ideal for a small garden’s focal point and associates really well with ground-cover perennials & grasses.

Acer capillipes (Snake-Bark Maple) which has striped grey-green bark on the trunk and older branches. This is also a small tree, but with a much denser crown and larger leaves that have all the colours of New England in just one tree during the autumn.

Betula albosinensis var. septentrionalis (Chinese Birch) a taller, graceful tree with grey-pink peeling bark or Betula utilis var. Jacquemontii (Himalayan Birch) which is a larger tree with stark white bark on its select cultivars such as ‘Dorenbos’, ‘Grayswood Ghost’ and ‘Jermyns’. Our native Betula pendula (Silver Birch) can also be very attractive with its rough, craggy silver-and-charcoal bark. Prunus (Cherry) varieties, especially P. Sargentii and P. Serrula are justifiably renowned for their shiny chestnut / mahogany bark.

Salix alba and S. daphnoides (Willow) varieties also have strongly coloured winter stems that give a similar effect to the Cornus (Dogwood) shrubs, but on a larger scale. They need to be hard pruned by stooling or pollarding to ensure a good supply of the colourful young stems.

For trees that don’t have especially good bark colour, but which retain colourful berries, remember the Euonymus europaeus (Spindle) and Sorbus aucuparia (Rowan, Mountain Ash) varieties, especially those with yellow or white-pink fruits, rather than orange-red fruits, as they are less appealing to birds, and so last longer – some examples being S. cashmiriana, S. hupehensis, S. vilmorinii, S. xanthocarpa and S. ‘Joseph Rock’. There are also winter-flowering trees, notably Prunus, and in particular P. subhirtella ‘Autumnalis’ which will blossom from November through to early spring.

Shrubs...

Amongst the many winter-flowering evergreen shrubs that make great companions to the trees are: Camellia varieties (but protect from exposure to icy winds and don’t plant facing east as the quick-thaw after frost will damage the flowers), Daphne odora, Garrya elliptica, Mahonia japonica & M. media varieties, Sarcococca and Viburnum tinus. Also don’t forget the luscious-looking, winter-lasting berries of Gaultheria (Pernettya) mucronata varieties. Deciduous winter-flowering shrubs include Chimonanthus, Corylus, Daphne, Hamamelis, Jasminum nudiflorum,

Lonicera purpusii, Stachyurus and Viburnum.

More information on plants which look good in winter can be found in this Telegraph article.

Where to find out more...

Obviously, designing a garden with great winter-appeal needs more than just selecting individual plant species that last well or provide foliage, fruit or flower colour. It’s the arrangement and combination of these, and other artefacts such as benches, planters and so on, which make the garden work. So, do some homework ... buy or borrow books which cover designing with plants – I can recommend the Hillier Gardener’s Guide series published by David & Charles – or, if you don’t have the time or enthusiasm, ask for help from a professional garden designer!

So, can a well-designed garden look good in a British winter? You bet it can!

Green Roofs

2009-11-16T08:07:00.000-08:00

Aiming to remain eco-aware in my design work I attended a course on green roofs recently, organised by the Brighton Permaculture Trust and Brighton and Hove Building Green. The tutors were Dusty Gedge and John Little, and we learned about the ethos and theory of living roofs, as well as the practicalities of construction. It was gratifying to meet people from many different countries, and many different disciplines, all of whom were interested in this topic.
Here are some photos of a community building and housing project we visited in Brighton.

What are green roofs?

For anyone who hasn’t heard of green roofs and the benefits they can bring, here’s just a very short introduction. The term refers to a flat or gently-pitched roof (usually less than 30 degrees) with a growing medium laid over a root-resistant waterproofing layer, which supports living plants. Whilst this may seem somewhat unusual to us in the UK, their use is increasing, with cities like Sheffield at the forefront and many others, including London & Brighton, adopting them for many of the situations listed below. They are a centuries-old tradition in Scandinavian countries, and they have been used for a long time in other European countries. Many countries, most notably Germany and many states in the USA, promote their use as part of their town & city planning laws – often requiring a percentage of green roof space as part of the conditions for granting development permission.

Why is this? What are the advantages?

Firstly, and most obviously, is the beneficial effect of adding extra “green space” for aesthetic and ecological purposes – especially in large cities where roof space can be over 75% of the geographical area. However - and here’s why they’re important for planners and commercial interests - they have solid economic benefits. Green roofs can increase the thermal insulation of roofs, resulting in lower energy requirements (and hence lower carbon footprints) for winter heating and summer cooling. The presence of the green roof can help to protect the waterproofing of the roof by removing exposure to UV radiation and reducing the temperature extremes encountered - which prolongs the life of the roof. The evapo-transpiration of the vegetation produces a cooling effect that mitigates the higher temperatures encountered in cities (the “urban heat-island” effect), improving the climate, reducing humidity, and lowering energy demand. The vegetation can also help improve air quality by filtering out contaminants and adding oxygen. Green roofs help to reduce both the volume and rate of rainwater run-off which needs to be managed during storms, giving economic benefits in reduced storm-water engineering requirements and costs.

Don’t they damage buildings and become a maintenance chore?

The answer is most definitely NO! Provided that the green roof is designed to be within the load-bearing capacity of the building and the root-protected waterproofing and drainage is properly addressed, an extensive green roof is very low maintenance.

There are several “flavours” of green roof, mainly associated with the depth and fertility of the soil (more properly, “substrate”) and hence the type of planting which will succeed. These are broadly grouped into:

1) Intensive: these have deep, fertile soil and the planting (perhaps even including trees) is very similar to that in a ground-level garden – in fact, they are more usually described as a roof garden. They require a very high level of maintenance, just as would a ground-level garden, and don’t offer much in the way of additional ecological benefit since the planting & habitat is so similar;

2) Extensive: these have relatively thin substrates – typically from 50mm (2”) to 200mm (8”) thickness and are deliberately of low fertility. In this way they provide very different conditions to ground-level gardens and are colonised by very different plants – mainly low-growing, drought-tolerant, nectar-rich flowering species, often & ideally native, which gives food & habitat to a wide range of insects & invertebrates, and the birds which feed on them. They are very low maintenance, and this form is what is normally meant by “green roof”;

3) Semi-intensive: refers to a compromise between these two extremes, where varying conditions are provided across the extent of a (reasonably large) roof space, such that a mix of habitat and planting can be used – even including food crops.

Where would an extensive green roof be used?

Around the home - on free-standing structures such as sheds, garages, summerhouses, garden offices, fuel tanks & bunkers, etc. or on parts of the main building such as flat-roofed houses or extensions to them;

At schools - they could be used on similar building structures, or for cycle shelters and outdoor shelters or classrooms, perhaps associated with school crop or wildlife gardens;

In Streets - they could be used for street furniture like bus stations and shelters, train platform covers, electricity sub-station roofs and so on;

For commercial properties - they could be used over factory units and warehousing, supermarkets and their trolley parks ... the list is endless!

You can find out more by visiting Livingroofs.org.

Residential Garden Design with Vectorworks Landmark

2009-11-11T11:02:00.000-08:00

“Residential Garden Design with Vectorworks Landmark”
by Tamsin Slatter

This is a great book! Or, perhaps, I should say “a great manual” since I don’t suppose there are too many sad people like me who would take it to bed to read!

For anyone completely unfamiliar with “Vectorworks” here’s a brief bit of background. When I first started out from my college Garden Design course, I tried out several of the very cheap “design your own garden” programs before giving up and returning (literally) to my drawing board. I’m not saying that these programs don’t have their place – but that isn’t in the toolkit of a professional designer. A couple of years ago, I looked again at professional-level CAD packages and decided that, for me, Vectorworks looked the best and that it would be a worthwhile investment for my business. I opted for the “Landmark” and “Renderworks” components, in addition to Vectorworks itself (there are other components specifically for Interior Design, Architecture, Engineering and so on), which together provide huge capability – but, unsurprisingly, with a huge learning curve to become truly proficient and efficient in their usage.

I took a 20-hour training course and, after an initial delay due to other work commitments, started to use the package for my design work. With practice, I got fairly good at drawing up my surveys, working up concept plans, hard landscape construction drawings and soft landscape planting plans. What I hadn’t got to grips with, because it seemed too difficult, was using the 3D modelling capabilities – hence I was not making use of Renderworks, nor offering my clients the benefit of 3D views, with lighting and shadow shown at different times of day, or seasons of the year. Instead, I resorted to separate hand-drawn sketches or simple Google Sketchup models. This also meant that I was putting in extra effort developing isolated section views of construction drawings in addition to the plan views and the hand-drawn sketches.

...

That’s where this book comes in!

...

Tamsin prepared this book for Nemetschek, the developers of Vectorworks. She has excellent credentials for this – 20 years working for IT software companies before retraining as a garden/landscape designer, learning to make best use of the Vectorworks CAD system and becoming a renowned trainer and the UK’s leading expert in the software. In addition to this expertise, she has a personality, which really comes across in the friendly “sitting next to Nellie” style of this book.

So why’s it so good?

Firstly, the concept: It’s a project-based workbook which takes you on a journey from when you first, excitedly, fire up Vectorworks after installing it on your machine, into how it looks & feels, how to set up an efficient & effective “virtual drawing board”, and into the design workflow based on a sample project. This goes right from bringing in a survey file or drawing up your own survey data, through developing a draft plan, creating the 3D hardscape features, adding lighting (both daytime sunlight and nightscape artificial lights), creating planting schemes with varying levels of detail, to end up with hardcopy of plans, perspective views, materials and plant schedules – the lot!

Secondly, the practicalities: The book itself is convenient A5 size, and spiral-bound, so it lays flat within a very small footprint on your desk, or even held in one hand, while guiding your mouse with the other. It includes colour screen images or sections of them throughout, which are well-positioned to match the text. There’s a CD which holds both a PDF copy of the book and a set of Vectorworks files which constitute the sample project at various stages within the workflow and exercise files so that you can try things out without screwing up the project files.

After completing this book and project, the 3D features of Vectorworks/Landmark are completely de-mystified and just make sense as the natural way of working with the package – I found that I could easily work through my current design project alongside the book’s sample project and gain all the benefits and efficiencies which I’d been missing out on. I’m not saying that the supplied Vectorworks manuals aren't useful, but they are descriptive of what the various tools do, not how they are applied, and they seem to be written by “techies” not practitioners – which left me using only a fraction of the package in the 12-months-plus which I’d employed it. Not any more!

I do have some criticisms – there are a lot of “typos” which a better proof-reading should have found, though usually these don’t impact on comprehension. The screen-image clips are very small – presumably to keep the physical size of the book down – which is fine if you’re just using them as a visual cue to what you’re seeing on your screen as you work through the project, but sometimes they make using the book for reference difficult - unless you have much more acute vision than me.

My major criticism is that the book has no index, so to use it for reference you either have to thumb through the contents pages, which list topics within the workflow of the sample project, and then skip-read through that section; or you have to resort to the PDF copy and use Adobe reader’s “find” facilities to locate the item you need. The sample project is “split-level”, so the book does cover retaining walls, steps, raised beds and so on, but it doesn’t cover site modelling of a “real” situation where there are undulating contours and how to construct a design over this. Nor does it discuss “real” hardscape which has a rainwater run-off gradient. Perhaps these might be the subject of a future “advanced” landscape design book.

Conclusions:

Would I recommend this book? Wholeheartedly and without reservation!

Who would benefit from this book? Students of Garden Design or experienced designers who are new to Vectorworks, and those people, like me, who are experienced users of Vectorworks but who’ve shied away from some of the most productive parts of the package because they seemed “too difficult”.

One final word of caution – make sure you have the appropriate version of the Vectorworks software - the book is for Vectorworks 2009, so you can’t read the exercise and sample project files if you’re running Vectorworks 2008 or below, though you could possibly manage with a 2009 demo version on another machine. If you’re lucky enough to have Vectorworks 2010, it should work OK, but I presume there’s a revision or new edition coming along to pick up on the enhanced 2010 features.

Steve Rice, Blooming Good Gardens, Southampton, UK

Garden Therapy

2009-11-06T06:52:00.000-08:00

A survey by the National Trust showed that 70% of the population think that spending time in their gardens is important for their quality of life. Certainly, it seems, horticultural therapy is widely being accepted as an aid for people with many differing needs. A book edited by Simpson and Strauss discusses the healing potential of horticultural therapy as used by health professionals for a wide range of problems - physical disabilities, brain injuries, mental health issues.

Last year I visited a project in Southampton, The Mayfield Nursery, which offers a working environment for people suffering mental health problems. They raise and supply a good range of plants for sale, and also have special events throughout the year.

The Minstead Training Project is part of a charitable organisation which provides horticultural training and residential care for young people with learning difficulties at Furzey Gardens. The project offers training in work and social skills through horticulture.

The Normandy Community Therapy Garden aims to “share the joy of practical horticulture with people of all ages especially those who have any form of disability or learning difficulty.” They are a small charity, serving the areas of Guildford, Mytchett, Farnborough, Camberley, Woking, Farnham and Godalming.

Thrive is a charity which champions the use of gardening to change the lives of people with disabilities, whether rebuilding a person’s strength after an accident or illness, or providing a purpose for people coping with difficulty in their lives. They have one project in Reading, Berkshire, and one in Battersea Park, London, as well as supporting around 900 other gardening projects around the country. Thrive has launched its Green Circle project in Hampshire, which raises awareness of the importance of older people being able to continue gardening, and provides information and advice on how they can do this.

If you’re interest in colour therapy in the garden try here where Jill Crooks gives some design advice for creating moods through colour – exciting the senses, inspiring your day, creating tranquillity, brightening shady corners, symbolism of colour. She cites Gay Search’s book “The Healing Garden” (BBC Books, 2001).

The Institute of Horticulture Newsletter November 2009 gives details of some research by Plants for People showing that planting in any setting can increase happiness and decrease stress, as well as creating a fresher environment in which to live, suggesting that businesses as well as homes can benefit from interior landscaping, with employees becoming more productive and less likely to be absent through minor illness when plants are present in the office. Some of the earliest work on the use of plants for improving indoor environments was done by NASA back in the 80s, by the way.

Thank goodness the importance of gardens (and the activity of gardening) to our own health and well-being, as well as that of the wildlife that we share them with, is becoming more widely understood.

Those DM twitter Spammers

2009-11-02T05:19:00.000-08:00

I’m pretty much a newcomer to the social media platforms, but I’ve noticed a recent spate of twitter users (“tweeple”) whose accounts seem to have been hijacked and used by persons unknown to send out tweets in the hacked person’s name. These are sent as direct messages (DMs) to the followers of the hacked account and include a hyperlink to direct you to a particular website.

Once they’ve become aware of it, the owners of the hacked accounts have sent out warnings that the DMs are not from them, and not to open the link. I don’t know if the link genuinely takes you to something interesting, or to a malicious website complete with viral attack software – I’ve been trying not to “fall for it” so haven’t followed the link.

How can your account get hacked? I’m not an IT specialist, nor a “hacker”, so I don’t really know, but I wondered if it was another example of phishing like those which are commonly used to try to get you to reveal online banking passwords - you know, the ones that say they’re the security department of the bank or building society, complete with a copy of their logo / branding, and try to get you to “confirm” your details.

It seems to me that the “new follower” notification from twitter would be a good candidate for a phishing scam. It could work like this:

1. You receive what looks like a new follower email notification, but which is really a cloned copy.
2. You click on any of the hyperlinks (new followers name or avatar, etc.) and this takes you not to twitter, but to the malicious site.
3. The malicious site then presents a clone of the twitter sign-in panel; if you’re unsuspecting you enter your account name & password – bingo they’ve got you!
4. The hackers can then use your twitter account to send the scam messages from your account to your followers. They use DMs since these are private and don’t appear on your timeline – so you’re less likely to spot that your account has been used.

This may not be how it works (maybe someone could comment to tell me?), but the precaution which I take, as with any other email that has direct hyperlinks, is to be suspicious! If you hover your mouse over the links, your browser will usually show where the link will take you – and if it doesn’t seem right, don’t follow it. For the twitter “new-follower” message I always go to the person’s profile from my twitter home screen, not from the email link, so I can’t be misdirected to a bogus website.

Apologies for straying off my usual garden / design topics, normal service will resume on next post!

More about bees

2009-10-27T08:20:00.000-07:00

I just have to mention this important topic again (previous blog here). A programme on Radio 4 last week – “The Plight of the Bumblebee” – emphasised the importance of bumblebees to pollination. Apparently bumblebee tongues are generally longer than those of honeybees, and able to pollinate differently-shaped flowers. The Bumble Bee Conservation Trust says that, of our 27 native bumblebees, 3 are extinct, and several others threatened. The decline in bumblebees not only adversely affects our food supplies, but the general colour of our countryside, where wildflower species will disappear, impacting on other wildlife which is dependent on these plants.

The Radio 4 programme had some interesting snippets: the use of specially-trained dogs to seek out bumblebee nests in the wild; bumblebees giving a high-pitched buzz while inside a flower, to dislodge the pollen; large areas of land at Dungeness being planted with bumblebee-friendly meadows, where short-haired bumblebees are to be re-introduced from New Zealand, where they were sent from Britain over a century ago (see also here).

As pointed out in “The Plight of the Bumblebee”, if you take all the gardens (and even window boxes) in Britain, the area of land equals more than all of our conservation areas put together, so we can all do our part by growing just a few bee-friendly plants, and avoid modern bedding plants, which are mainly sterile hybrids, with no pollen.
More links on bumblebees:

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/research/projects/bombus/

http://hercules.users.netlink.co.uk/Bee.html

http://www.open2.net/springwatch/bumblebees.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/genus/Bumblebee

Hillier Nurseries Cash & Carry

2009-10-22T05:35:00.000-07:00

A big thank you to Hillier Nurseries “Cash & Carry” for their trade open day last week. This proved a very popular event with garden designers, landscape architects and landscapers coming along from a wide geographic area. We were treated in several ways – firstly, and most importantly, with a tour of the revised cash & carry facility (formerly known as the “LCS” – Landscape Collection Service) which showed the huge range of stock – in both variety and sizes – now available, and the very much improved layout which will make browsing the stock for substitutions, extras or even new ideas / inspirations a more time-effective proposition for professionals. The tours were guided by Andrew McIndoe, Deputy MD of Hillier Garden Centres & Nurseries, and Jim Hillier, with his excellent knowledge of all-things-trees.

After the tour, the Hillier team extended their hospitality with tea/coffee and great cakes before a presentation by Andrew on some simple planting combinations to make fabulous use of foliage textures and colours for both border schemes and patio containers. We were then free to wander around the site before leaving with our “goodie bag” containing some notes based on Andrew’s talk, the Cash & Carry stock list, a Heuchera ‘ Peach Flambe’ and a copy of Andrew & Rosamond McIndoe’s book “Planting with Trees” (pub. David & Charles, 2007, ISBN-13: 978-0-7153-2717-3) which is part of the Hillier Gardener’s Guides series.

Hillier Nurseries Cash & Carry is in Jermyns Lane, Ampfield, near Romsey and can be contacted by phone on 01794 368832 or by email at: landscapecolllection@hillier.co.uk

Seed Banks

2009-10-19T04:34:00.000-07:00

I was interested to hear about the milestone for the Kew Millennium Seed Bank on Radio 4’s Today programme recently. They have just banked the 24,200th plant species - a Chinese pink wild banana that is much loved by Asian elephants – bringing them to their initial target of collecting 10% of the world’s known wild plant species.

Apparently four plant species risk extinction every day, and the seed bank partnership is working to collect and save seeds worldwide. Kew’s seed bank is based at Wakehurst Place, but their partners around the world also have seed conservation centres. The collection is being used for scientific research, helping poor communities adapt to climate change, for medical research, and for restoring extinct species to the wild. Kew has an “adopt-a-seed” initiative for as little as £25.

On a more down-to-earth level (sorry for the pun) the charity Garden Organic (formerly the Henry Doubleday Research Organisation) maintains a heritage seed library which aims to conserve varieties of vegetables not otherwise widely available. Rather than being a gene bank, they say, they will make all of their seeds available to their members. They are protecting over 800 varieties of seed, mainly European varieties, from the threat of extinction. Garden Organic have an “adopt-a-veg” scheme for just £20.

Climate Change and Gardens - Blog Action Day

2009-10-15T02:21:00.000-07:00

This is Blog Action Day, which this year concentrates on Climate Change. I am pleased to be participating in this important event, which aims to raise awareness of an urgent topic which affects us all - not only from damage to the environment but also with the threats of flooding, famine, increased risk of wars and creation of millions more refugees.

As I’ve touched on before in this blog, the gardener can address in small but important ways the environmental challenges which face the world. Whether by providing better conditions for wildlife (see here and here), growing vegetables in small spaces to save food miles (see here and here), encouraging an interest in the environment in young people, through school gardens, or better handling of rain water through rain gardens, we can all make a contribution. The mass effect of each garden in the world becoming just a little more sustainable would surely make a huge contribution to improving climate change.

Some further things to think about if you’re planning to redesign part of your domestic garden or the outside space of your business:

DO: use reclaimed materials where possible for structures, containers and so on - find a local salvage or reclamation yard and re-use items such as old flagstones, bricks, tiles, chimney pots, scaffold boards, sleepers and other architectural salvage – it will bring character into your garden instead of stark/bland brand-new materials;
DO: use recycled crushed concrete as sub-base material for hard landscaping instead of freshly quarried crushed limestone;
DO: use crushed recycled glass as mulch instead of freshly quarried gravel or stone/slate chips – but only if it’s available locally;
DO: cut down or cut out cement usage in hard landscape elements – cement accounts for more than 5% of the world’s CO2 production – which is more than the oft-criticised aviation industry:
“Concrete is the second most used product on the planet, after water ... No company will make carbon-neutral cement any time soon. The manufacturing process depends on burning vast amounts of cheap coal to heat kilns to more than 1,500C. It also relies on the decomposition of limestone, a chemical change which frees carbon dioxide as a byproduct... Cement plants and factories across the world are projected to churn out almost 5bn tonnes of carbon dioxide annually by 2050 - 20 times as much as the government has pledged the entire UK will produce by that time.”

(http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/oct/12/climatechange)
DO: use natural stone for garden walls rather than manufactured products if they are available locally; use dry-built stone walls with soil/compost and stone chips to even out the courses rather than cement mortar; planting into the crevices with suitable species (e.g. mat-forming rock garden / alpine plants) as the wall is built will improve the look of the wall and the plant roots will help to bind the walling stone together;
DO: use natural stone paving rather than manufactured concrete slabs if it’s available locally. Wherever possible, for pedestrian purposes, lay it on compacted sand, not cement mortar, and use wider, gravel-filled joints instead of mortar joints – it will look attractive and drain better. Make it even more special by including pockets of planting such as creeping thymes and stonecrop;
DO: ensure your timber, if not reclaimed, is from an FSC source which guarantees that the foresting is sustainable;
DO NOT: use tropical hardwoods without being absolutely sure of their provenance and credentials – the last thing we need is more rainforest cutting down!
DO NOT: use pressure-treated timber if it can be avoided – the chemicals used are mainly petro-chemical derivatives, are harmful to the environment, and the timber cannot be recycled (nor easily used as fuel, due to chemical release) at the end of the product’s life;
DO: consider “composite” decking materials, if you’re planning a deck. This is manufactured from waste hardwood and recycled waste plastic – OK it has a high energy input to manufacture, but it has an extremely long life, and doesn’t need chemical treatment to maintain it during its life;
DO: consider introducing a “green roof” on any flat or shallow-pitched structure, whether a part of your house or an outbuilding. Not only do green roofs look good and add environmental habitat, they slow down and help clean rainwater runoff – especially if used in conjunction with rainwater harvesting or rain gardens. They also add insulation, so reducing energy consumption - which saves you money! The transpiration effect of green roof planting can help to cool city climates in summer, they absorb CO2 and replenish Oxygen in the air as well as helping to filter out gaseous and particulate pollutants. Remember though, to first check the additional weight which will be introduced, and the load-bearing capacity of the existing roof/wall structure!
DO: try to find space for a compost heap/bin to transform your kitchen & garden waste into wonderful soil improver – saves energy of transporting it to the local recycling tip, adds nutrients back into your soil, keeping it “in good heart” - use it as a mulch and let the earthworms do the work for you!

What are your thoughts on how garden design can help fight climate change?
Please add a comment!

Here are 12 suggestions for actions which YOU can take from the Blog Action Day website:

Sign the Tck Tck Tck campaign's "I am ready" pledge supporting an ambitious, fair and binding climate agreement in Copenhagen this fall: tcktcktck.org/people/i-am-ready

Register for the 350.org International Day of Climate Action October 24: http://www.350.org/

Join the UK Government's "Act on Copenhagen" effort to promote a global deal on climate change: www.actoncopenhagen.decc.gov.uk/en

Learn and act with The Nature Conservancy's Planet Change site: change.nature.org

Watch and help promote Current TV's green-themed video journalism at: current.com/green

Support strong climate legislation in the US by making calls to your Senators with 1Sky: tools.advomatic.com/13/calls

Put yourself on the Vote Earth map and upload your photos, pictures and weblinks to show the world future you want to see: www.earthhour.org/home

Put yourself on the Vote Earth map and upload your photos, pictures and weblinks to show the world future you want to see: www.earthhour.org/home

Join the Greenpeace cool IT challenge campaign to turn IT industry leaders into climate advocates and solution providers: www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/climate-change/cool-it-challenge

Add your personal story and tell the world what you will miss the most when you lose it to climate change with the United Nations Foundation Climate Board: www.unfoundation.org/global-issues/climate-and-energy/its-getting-personal

Find the latest and most popular climate change actions online at globalwarming.change.org

Join the Causecast community and find new ways to get involved with organizations working to end climate change. Watch videos, read news and support one of the many environmental nonprofits on Causcast. www.causecast.org/environment

Throwing Light on Garden Design

2009-10-05T01:53:00.000-07:00

Many enthusiastic people put a lot of effort into planning their gardens, making sure that it suits their daytime needs, but often, in my experience, completely overlook extending the use of the garden into night time. Having invested money in making a garden such a splendid leisure space, why not make it usable for longer? Not only can a good lighting design offer greater flexibility in garden use during summer months, but it can also provide a magical nightscape as seen from the house or conservatory, adding drama and atmosphere to the whole scene all year round.

There are 4 main uses of outside lighting – functional lighting is used to illuminate areas such as dining and entertaining spaces on patios or terraces, or for leisure areas such as pools, hot tubs, spaces for sitting and relaxing with a book, etc; safety lighting is used to mark paths, steps, archways, walls or other obstacles, edges of pools, trip hazards and so on; security lighting would normally be used in conjunction with motion sensors to floodlight areas such as drives and sides/back of properties and outbuildings, and might also be linked in with CCTV recording, or with automatic gate or garage door systems; decorative lighting is used for creating the nightscape scenes by “painting” light onto trees, plants and hard landscape features - using light and shade, shadows, halos, silhouettes, textures, and, perhaps, colours, to transform the garden views into something which could not be achieved in daylight.

Various types of lights - more correctly called luminaires (technically lamp is the bit which gives out light, i.e. what’s loosely called a “bulb”) - can be used for these different purposes. Some are fixed onto walls or other structures, or even attached to trees; some can be set into a lawn, patio or deck; others are free-standing such as bollards alongside a drive, or as pole or spike spotlights used within planting. There are a wealth of styles for the luminaires, from traditional “coach lamp” and lantern styles through to uber-modern chic; they come in finishes of stainless, copper, brass, or colours like black and green. The lamps used can either be mains voltage or low voltage - using weather-proof transformers located near to the string of luminaires to step down the mains to a level (typically 12v or 24v) which is safe even if you accidentally chop through a cable whilst gardening. They will usually be one of 3 types depending on their purpose – most commonly tungsten-halogen (similar to those used in kitchen ceiling downlights) which offer a very wide range of light output (wattage) and beam spread, and can also be faded up & down with suitable equipment. The second type, LED lamps, are highly efficient and stay cool, so they are especially useful in situations such as deck lights or other places where accidental contact with people or animals is a possibility; they also have a very long lifetime and can give out blue, amber, red & green light as well as white light - devices are available to mix the light colours to provide an infinitely variable range of hues which can even be changed to match the mood or occasion, or can be programmed to create varying colour light shows for parties. The third main type is metal-halide lamps which give out high-powered, intense light used for the uplighting of large trees or faces of buildings.

As an aside, the cheap, solar-powered devices now widely available from garden centres, DIY stores and the like are not really viable for effective garden lighting. While the glow they emit (usually low-powered LEDs) means they themselves can be seen over a relatively short range, they do not have the power to illuminate other objects (e.g. plants, steps, etc. as described above), nor to be seen from any distance. They may just about provide “way-marking” along the sides of paths or “twinkle” lights around a small, otherwise dark, feature which is close to the viewing position. Remember too, if you use these, that they must be in a reasonably sunny area in daytime to charge them up – so no use trying to illuminate a path shaded by trees!

Unless you’re using the units to make a “design statement” (e.g. modern stainless steel on a chic terrace), the aim of a well-designed system is to see the lightscape – the results of lighting featured objects - not to see the lights themselves. Carefully considered lighting achieves this without causing “light pollution” to annoy neighbours or glare to make the scene uncomfortable.

As well as basic on/off switching, modern professional lighting systems can be designed to control all of the system, or specific parts of the system, from a portable, wireless remote control unit, with different zones allowing for multiple options of switching and dimming.

By defining which areas of the garden need lighting - deciding on the type of lighting to enhance each feature, and where lights will be placed for maximum effect - a professional lighting plan will provide a scheme to serve all needs, whether safety, security, functionality or decoration. Ideally, this will be undertaken as part of the overall garden design such that the best synergy is achieved and the practicalities of installing the lighting can be done at the same time as other disruptive hard landscaping work, saving costs against grafting on a lighting design once the “daytime” project has already been completed.

If you would like a free consultation to discuss professional outside lighting, whether as part of a new design scheme or for an existing garden, please contact me via my website.
If you fancy doing a bit of research yourself, there's an online catalogue of lighting components here, along with design advice and hints & tips.

Finally, remember that (in the UK) it is a legal requirement for outside electrical work to be carried out by a competent, “Part-P” qualified electrician. Always ask for the Part-P certificate on completion of the works – without this you may encounter difficulties if you subsequently come to sell your property.

Japanese Knotweed - set a thief to catch a thief?

2009-09-27T01:55:00.000-07:00

We can give great thanks to the Victorian era “plant hunters” who brought back many of the exotic species which we now take for granted as part of the colour and structure of our gardens - but we can also curse them for some of their introductions – notably Rhododendron ponticum and especially Fallopia japonica (“Japanese Knotweed”).
What’s the problem?
Japanese knotweed is native to Japan, China and Korea, where it is part of the natural ecology with its own controlling pests, and was brought here around 1825 for decorative effect. Lacking any ecological balances here, it has been so successful that it is now widespread throughout the UK (with the exception of the Orkneys) and threatens the indiginous plants in large parts of Wales and South-West England. In addition to its effects on flora, and the implications this has for bio-diversity and food chains, it has adverse impact on riverbanks, leading to erosion and increasing flood risks, and on fish stocks within rivers; it can damage asphalt surfaces, building foundations, retaining walls and drains; it can create safety issues by obscuring railway signals and road signs and create trip hazards in paving.
For these reasons it was made illegal to plant, propagate or otherwise spread it in the UK by the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. It is also classed as "controlled waste" in Britain under the Environmental Protection Act 1990, so it may not be disposed of along with other “green” or household waste. This also applies to any soil contaminated with parts of the plant – adding extra costs to development and regeneration schemes. To give a sense of scale to the problem a DEFRA review in 2004 gave an estimate of £1.5bn for the cost of eradicating it – mainly with chemical herbicides, which are themselves considered “unsustainable”. In addition to our problems it is classified as a highly invasive weed throughout Europe and the USA and is listed as one of the 100 worst invasive species by the World Conservation Union.
How can it be recognised?
Recognition is fairly easy – it has hollow purple-speckled stems with raised nodes which look similar to bamboo canes and which carry broadly-oval grass-green leaves about 8-12cm (3-5”) long by 5-10cm (2-4”) wide alternately along the zig-zag stems. The leaves have a smooth (“entire”) edge and a “cut-off” base. Spikes (“racemes”) of creamy-white flowers, about 5-15cm (2-6”) are produced in late summer – these are initially erect, but tend to droop as they fade; they are not (yet!) fertile in the UK so the plant does not spread by seeding. The hollow stems become brown and brittle but remain after the rest of the plant dies back in late autumn.
It spreads by rhizomes, which can reach 7m in length and 3m deep, to form dense colonies that crowd out other herbaceous species. It is often found on roadsides and wasteland where it can be extremely difficult for site developers as the depth and spread of rhizomes make it virtually impossible to excavate and it re-grows strongly from any remaining pieces or after being cut down. Any plant material, or contaminated soil, must be disposed to properly licensed landfills.
How can it be controlled?
Currently the most effective control is through (repeated) treatments of translocated (“systemic”) Glyphosate-based herbicide. This is a non-specific product and will therefore kill any actively growing plants which absorb the spray through their leaves - so if the stand of Japanese knotweed is within other desirable plantings (as in the photos) it will be very difficult to remove. In a domestic situation, some success may be had through the use of a glyphosate gel, painted directly onto the knotweed leaves, covering as much of the plant as possible whilst avoiding contact with other plants – though this will be an extremely time consuming “labour of love”.
Biological Control
There is some hope now that biological controls might prove effective, of which there are 2 promising candidates – a leaf spot fungus, Mycosphaerella polygoni-cuspidati, and a sap-sucking insect, Aphalara itadori. The latter is a naturally occurring control in eastern Asia, but is not currently found in Europe, and is therefore prohibited under the same act which bans spread of the knotweed plant, i.e. The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, and is also restricted under the Plant Health Order 2005. DEFRA and the Welsh Assembly Government are currently asking for views from people/organisations with an interest in the impact of Japanese knotweed on the natural and built environment - including the horticulture industry, landscape managers/contractors and people interested in the control of invasive species - on the release of this insect as a control agent. If approved, this would be the first use of a non-native insect to control a plant species in the UK and Europe. The consultation input is required by end of October – further information on this can be found at http://www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/consult/japanese-knotweed/index.htm and at http://www.cabi.org/japaneseknotweedalliance
General information about Japanese Knotweed can also be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallopia_japonica and at Devon’s excellent site http://www.devon.gov.uk/japanese_knotweed.htm

Save the Bees!

2009-09-21T07:32:00.001-07:00

Going back to a topic from a little while ago on (not) tidying up the garden, the encouragement of bees is a good reason not to have your garden too neat. Even if you don’t like honey, remember that it’s the pollinating work of bees which provides us humans with at least one third of the food we eat. The Global Bee Project campaigns for the survival of bees of all sorts which are so important for plant pollination worldwide. They ask us to leave some wilder places in our gardens to provide refuge for bees and other insects. We may think mainly about honeybees, but bumblebees are in danger too, through loss of habitat. The Bumblebee Conservation Trust urge us to grow traditional cottage garden plants, and give a table showing which plants we should be growing in each month to help the bumblebees. The RHS also gives details of plants which will attract bees My own garden seemed to be full of bees this year, so I hope maybe I’m doing my bit. As well as the structural plants I included in my new design, I also sowed packets of colour-themed annual seeds, which produced many flowers attractive to bees and butterflies.

American Public Landscapes

2009-09-15T05:47:00.000-07:00

If you’re a fan of parks and gardens and planning a visit to Chicago, USA, or for anyone interested in American landscape architecture, I've just come across a great website which is the “legacy project” about Jens Jensen (1860-1951) who helped create the “Prairie” style of municipal parks and private gardens in the early 20th century. The site has biography, drawings and photos, plus links to other sites, describing several of his related works and other online newsletters for further research.
I found this site from a reference on Jane Berger’s excellent blog “Garden Design Online”, which has articles covering American gardens, events, books, magazines etc.

Growing Veggies in Window Boxes

2009-09-10T02:59:00.000-07:00

An interesting campaign by the National Trust is to persuade people to turn their window ledges into veggie gardens. They estimate there are more than 600 acres of growing space on window sills all over the UK. They suggest growing things like lettuce, radishes, beetroot, chard and herbs in window boxes that get good sunshine. An article in The Telegraph about the initiative mentions Kingston Lacy as one NT property where they’ve installed window boxes, and says that other properties have converted hanging baskets for vegetable growing. The National Trust has already given up land for allotments over the country.

Blooming Good Gardens at the Local Fete

2009-09-06T07:21:00.001-07:00

Great fun yesterday, when the village held its very first fete in the park at the end of our road. I had a stall there, offering free garden design advice, and the whole day was really enjoyable. We were in the park by 8 am, organising the stall, and there was a real neighbourly buzz as everyone mucked in together to get things ready. I'd just struggled for nearly an hour to put up the gazebo, when I was told that someone hadn't turned up, and I could move to a better pitch, so three other guys helped me "walk" the whole structure to the other end of the ground. I think it was a worthwhile day, business-wise, mainly through the local contacts I made, but it was also worth the charitable donation required for having the stall, because it was just plain nice to see the neighbourhood enjoying having fun together, for such a good cause. There was a good crowd, right from the start, and we had a lot of people being complimentary about our new front garden. A bonus was that the weather was pretty good, too. Let's hope it becomes a regular occurrence.

(not)Tidying the Garden for Winter

2009-09-02T04:19:00.000-07:00

Many people find their gardens can be a bit “flat” at this time of year after the fireworks of summer, though regular dead-heading will prolong the season for many flowers and there are some good-value plants which will continue well into autumn – Anemone hybrids (“Japanese Anemones”), Rudbeckia & Echinacea (“Cone Flowers”), Asters and, of course, Sedums (“Ice Plants”) which are only just coming into flower – as are the late-flowering ornamental grasses such as Miscanthus.
As we move into autumn, lots of people start to tidy everything up in the garden for winter, but I think there is good reason not to go too mad. Wildlife can find shelter in a little overgrown patch which is hidden away alongside a shed or tucked behind a hedge. I like to leave seed heads on plants too, instead of cutting them down too early. They attract birds, and look really lovely when they’re frosted – sedum, achillea and echinops are good examples, as well as most of the small ornamental grasses. I also love to see shrubs draped with spider’s webs, where moisture droplets have gathered. Leaves should be raked off lawns, where they would cause damage, but piles of leaves can be welcome shelters for hedgehogs and other small mammals and insects. So for me, late winter/early spring is the time to cut everything down. I like my winter garden to provide interest for me and its other inhabitants.

Social Gardens

2009-08-28T02:54:00.000-07:00

This year I re-designed my own front garden, mainly because it was looking tired, and many of the old plants needed replacing. While planning what we wanted to do with it, I was also thinking that we don’t get much afternoon sun in our back garden in the late summer/autumn, when the sun is getting lower. It occurred to me that we could include another seating area in front of the house, which is south-west facing, and catches the afternoon & evening sun. Since our living rooms don’t offer a full view of the front space, sitting there allows me to appreciate the hard work I put into the new design, allowing more than the usual passing glance as I walk to the front door.
It’s been a revelation, as my wife and I sit having a cuppa in the afternoons or a glass of wine in the evening. Neighbours have joined us for a chat; complete strangers walking by speak; even someone I worked with years ago came past on his bike, recognised me, and stopped to catch up. It seems we’ve been missing a trick here in increasing the sociability of our neighbourhoods. I think maybe we’ve re-invented the equivalent of the old American idea of “sitting on the stoop”. Once you get over any self-consciousness of being on display, sitting in the front garden becomes a real pleasure. Why not give it a go? Give yourself a whole new view of your front garden, and start to meet more of the people who pass by your house.

Visit to Future Gardens

2009-08-24T04:24:00.000-07:00

Butterfly World near to St. Albans, is home to Future Gardens, a series of conceptual gardens which I visited at the weekend. The gardens themselves are great fun for kids as well as being thought-provoking and enjoyable to wander through – more so IMO than show gardens, which can only be viewed from one angle. They ‘re all the more interesting for being semi-permanent – staying for the whole season, so you see them differently depending on when you visit, in the same way as their predecessors at Westonbirt and the similar international gardens at Chaumont in France and Metis in Canada. A better description than I could give of the gardens can be seen in Cleve West’s “Independent" article, but my particular favourites were Nest , by Jane Hudson and Erik de Maeijer – a wonderfully meandering garden in such a small space, The Exoskeleton by Paul Dracott - loved the large timber frames towering over the planting, Nature’s Artistry Autumn’s Edge by Fiona Heron – unusual bullrush-type structures wave magically in the breeze, and the H Garden by Bruno Marmiroli – another meandering space, with a surprise orange structure which opens to reveal three stylised trees.

Butterfly World, by the way, is an ecological project worth keeping an eye on. The wildflower meadows are great to wander through, and the eclectic permanent gardens by Ivan Hicks are a joy. There is a small hot-house with exotic butterflies at present, but eventually the site will have a tropical dome – “the biggest butterfly walk-through exhibition in the world”. The cafe was pretty good (a tip on deterring wasps – the staff were burning coffee grounds in bowls to smoke them out), and there was a large plant sales area too, where I was pleased to see a display of the designer pots by a friend of mine – Jonathan Garratt.

Lawn Care

2009-08-20T09:10:00.000-07:00

Now's the time people start to look at the sorry state of their lawns and wonder what to do about it. Of course, there are many professional companies who will come and sort out major problems, but for those who just want general advice, I've had a leaflet which I've given to clients over the years. I'll share it with everyone here:

Newly Turfed Lawns - DOs and DON’Ts

· DO keep it watered in dry periods until it is established - especially the first 6-8 weeks BUT don't make it waterlogged!
· DO allow a few weeks for roots to establish before allowing "traffic" on the lawn
· DON’T mow for at least 3-4 weeks, until growth of about 2 inches (50mm) has been made;
· DO take care with first few mowings not to lift the turf, especially at the edges
· DON’T use feed or weed products for the first 6 months (i.e. if lawn was laid in autumn, OK to weed & feed the following spring & vice-versa)
· DON’T scarify or wire-rake the lawn for at least 12 months

A Calendar of Lawncare

· Jan-Feb.: Leave it alone! Try not to walk on it, especially if it's frosted
· Mar.: First mowing, with blades set to high cut. Feed with high nitrogen lawn fertilizer
· Apr.: Gradually lower height of cut
· May: Apply weedkiller if needed. Lower cut to summer levels (3/4" = 20mm)
· June: Feed & weed treatment - approximately 6 weeks after May weedkill
· Jul-Aug.: Mow 2-3 times per month
· Sept.: Mow 3-4 times. Feed with LOW Nitrogen (N) high Potassium (K), high Phosphorous (P) lawn fertilizer to condition it for winter. Turfing and/or re-seeding if necessary
· Oct.: Raise height of cut. Autumn maintenance, as described overleaf
· Nov.-Dec.: Last (high) cut, then leave it alone. Sweep off fallen leaves

Autumn maintenance

This is best carried out in late September to October - though it can be done at other times providing the grass is growing strongly (i.e. warm & moist conditions - not hot & dry or cold & wet). The procedure is:

· Scarify the lawn
· Mow in same direction as scarification
· Leave it 3-7 days to recover
· Scarify, then mow, again - but in direction of 60-90 degrees to the first sequence. This will probably take out as much rubbish as the first time
· Spike the lawn to aerate it
· Brush in (using a besom) a top dressing of autumn lawn fertilizer (i.e. low nitrogen) plus compost & horticultural grade washed sharp sand mix

*Scarification: This is raking out (using a spring-tine rake or machine) the accumulated "thatch". The thatch must be collected and removed to allow light and air to the grass blades. It also helps the weeds stand up, and hence get cut by mowing.

*Mowing: Don't cut too short - not more than 1/3 off the height at one time. Mowing is best done regularly rather than left to get long and then blitzed. Remember that mowing is taking nutrients out of the grass (like collecting a crop), so you must feed the lawn to replace the nutrients. Use a mower that collects the cuttings (either rotary or cylinder) unless a mulch-mower is used which re-distributes the clippings as a fine mulch.

*Spiking: This lets air into the soil, and allows waste gases out, it removes compaction, and improves drainage. Spiking needs the soil to be moist, and is best done with a hollow-tined aerator, but can be done with an ordinary garden fork. Ideally follow spiking with a top dressing, using horticultural sharp sand & compost to prevent the spike holes closing up again. It gives real benefit, but it takes several months for this to show!

Remember: Grass won't grow well if in the shade or on poorly-drained ground. If you have a lot of shade, or water-logged soil, call us for specialist advice.

Remember too that some herbicides can be harmful to wildlife, especially aquatic creatures - always follow the manufacturer's directions, and if in doubt keep well away from ponds, streams, ditches, etc.

"Lawn sand" is the cheapest ready-mixed product which will "instantly" kill moss - though it has no effect on other weeds. It contains sulphate of ammonia (feeds the grass) and sulphate of iron (kills the moss and greens up the grass) in a sharp sand carrier. Be careful to apply it to correct dosage and evenly spread - it will leave blackened, scorched grass if excessively applied. It's best applied in the early morning, whilst dew is on the ground, in Spring. Don't use in Autumn, as it will soften up the grass. The lawn should be watered if there's no rain after 2 days. Note that it works by "burning off" surface moss, but the roots are not touched, so it is NOT a permanent solution.

Look in garden centres for other lawn weedkillers. Some are specifically for treating moss and/or clover. They will generally take 1-2 weeks to work and may need a second application 4-6 weeks later. The effects generally last up to 6 months. Moss is often regarded as a separate problem (the cause of it should be dealt with) and therefore "weed & feed" products often don't deal with moss - though some "triple action" ones do!

Don't mow for 3 days before/after applying weedkiller. Ideally, apply a high nitrogen lawn feed 10-14 days before a "straight" weedkiller. This gets both the weeds & grass actively growing. The weeds are more susceptible then to destruction, and the grass is better placed to grow into vacated biospace. Most products will require watering in if there has not been rain within 2-3 days of treatment. After about 2-3 weeks rake out the dead moss/weed using an electric lawn rake or (with some effort!) by hand, using a spring-tine rake, otherwise it will not allow the grass to grow properly.

School Gardens

2009-08-17T06:51:00.000-07:00

There's been an upsurge of interest in school gardens recently, due both to the interest in promoting healthier eating in our children, and in encouraging environmental studies. The Royal Horticultural Society is running a campaign, supported by Alan Titchmarsh and Chris Collins. The Kids Garden has some great ideas too, as does Growing Schools. Some of the large supermarkets are supporting these schemes, and the National Trust has joined with the Yorkshire Bank to promote greener school gardens in Yorkshire, as part of their greener gardens campaign.
I recently designed a wildlife garden for a school, which can be viewed here. I can't help feeling that the development of school gardens must be beneficial on so many levels, for both young people, teachers, school neighbours, and the environment in general.

Growing Our Own Food

2009-08-12T06:04:00.000-07:00

Current news items about the effect of climate change on food availability, the need to produce greater quantities of crops nearer to home, and the end of the “cheap food” era must surely mean an increase in many people wanting productive areas as part of an overall garden design. The integration of veggie patches with ornamental gardens (if we want to be posh about it, “potagers”) is nothing new, and can be an attractive idea – though some people are put off by thinking it’s a lot of work. I’ve done projects in the past using raised beds, which can reduce the work and overcome poor soil conditions, linked to the ornamental garden by, for example, a pergola walkway. I recently visited a company called Living Leaves, who have developed a complete system for producing veg, herb & salad crops – including neat raised beds, planting plans for all-year-round crops, plants delivered to your door at just the right time, plus monthly email guides. Integrating a system like this within an overall design can give a novice client confidence that they can grow wholesome, fresh food themselves – without it being too much work, and at less cost than buying from a supermarket.

Article on Rain Gardens

2009-08-09T02:34:00.000-07:00

I've just had a piece published in the local magazine about rain gardens. The gist of it was:
"We’re all aware of the village roads flooding after heavy storms and we’re constantly being told of climate change and its consequences.
You may not know about last autumn’s change in planning regulations, which means that anyone paving more than five square metres of front garden has to do so in a way that prevents rainwater running off onto the highway and, therefore, into the storm water drains. Estate and property developers now have to give consideration to rainwater management, including using SUDS (Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems) to minimise the effects of rainwater during heavy downpours.
The intention of these new planning measures is to have as much rainwater as possible returned into the ground, where it can be soaked up and used by plants before naturally returning to brooks, streams and rivers. This allows the water to move in a delayed, slowed and cleaned manner, instead of as a deluge carrying pollutants from hard surfaces into the drainage system.
(You may think that this is only a problem for the cities, but consider the following small calculation. The population of the village is 2116; assuming an average of 4 people per household this gives 529 dwellings; if they are, on average, similar “roofprints” to my house, the rainwater falling on the village's roofs during a 2-hour heavy storm amounts to about 350,000 gallons (just over 1.5 million litres) – or enough to fill a 25m swimming pool 3 times over! OK, many dwellings will have soakaways instead of pouring this into the drainage system, but just imagine how much more water falls on roads, paths, drives, car parks, ...)
Whilst this new emphasis is a positive step, it still treats rainwater as a problem to be “managed”. Many people are now thinking differently, with rainwater being regarded as a resource. The established use of water butts connected to downpipes via diverters for use in the garden is increasing in popularity, although many of you will know how quickly a water butt is filled in a storm, still leaving the excess to flood into the drainage system. Some people have invested in larger rainwater “harvesting” systems, such as underground storage tanks beneath permeable-paved drives, although these are very expensive, and complex to install.
In their book “Rain Gardens” (Timber Press, 2007), Sheffield University’s Nigel Dunnett and Andy Clayden describe new concepts that combine environmental benefits and aesthetics where rainwater is not seen purely as a resource or as a problem, but is instead a visible, celebrated part of our gardens."

You can see a rain garden I recently designed here.

Blooming Good Gardens at the New Forest Show

2009-08-06T06:33:00.000-07:00

Last week was fun. I and four other garden designers had a stand at the New Forest Show. Business was brisk, especially on the Tuesday - the weather forecast was poor for Wednesday so maybe everyone decided that was the day to visit. We had many seemingly genuine visitors, and gave out sets of leaflets and business cards.

The week would have been perfect, had it not been for traffic problems. The first day I was on the stand, I lost my car in the evening...although I knew exactly where I'd left it. Security had other ideas though...and then on the last evening, when we wanted to dismantle the stand, heavy traffic, and an off-site road accident, led to grid-lock on the showground.