Let’s dance !When Ann & I started ‘Growing Trends’ the web site, blog and radio show, we weren’t sure how to engage all of you. It seems a little wit, the odd anecdote and should I say a touch of knowledge has helped us enormously.
In a very short time we have built an audience of readers, listeners and fellow Horticulturists, they have come from :-
United States, Canada, Venezuela, Argentina, Columbia, Germany ,United Kingdom, Spain, Ireland, Italy, Hungary, Denmark, Romania, France, Netherlands, Jamaica,Barbados, Egypt, New Zealand, Australia, Malaysia, Japan, India, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Republic of Korea,
We are just stunned… thank you all so much. Please if you have time send us a picture of your favourite space, garden or landscape with a few notes, we would love to hear from you.
Today, as we have a holiday weekend here in the USA, it seems that our blog should be a little in this spirit, so I’m going to try and find a bunch of pictures of projects we’ve completed along with pictures of unusual items used in the urban landscape that perhaps some have not seen before.. hope you enjoy them..
So let’s start with a really big tree being moved, it was one of many on this site, weighing some 600 tons and approximately 60ft tall!
One of my favorites a flower clock in Geneva, Switzerland.Geneva, Switzerland
This one was ‘snapped’ in Amsterdam, it’s an old cannon, now serving as a vehicle bollard !
The next is fairly common – creating a bubble fountain using an old natural millstone wheel.
Original granite millstone fountain
This method completely softens a brick pier and makes it look ageless – we used a single canted brick on each corner, and added a double layer of tiles ‘Creasing Tile’ before the soldier course, the resultant ‘shadow line creates interest and helps the wall to ‘weather’ much better.
Brick Pier with creasing tile
This one is much harder to do, it’s a circular patio of natural setts – they tend to be slightly different sizes. When laid like this, in a circular pattern creates a feeling of movement and space, in what is a fairly small area.
Small setts laid in a radiating pattern
When you have a natural random wall it is always hard to create a ‘finish’ , we solved this by bonding a brick coping to match the drive brick edge.
Brick Coping Course
What is really interesting is, if you look really carefully you can see the brick coping running into the driveway as the wall ends, this looked so good, the red tarmac ( which is quite expensive) helps with the overall effect.
Driveway
Many years ago, we needed to find away to create ‘Raised planters’ on a roof that were exceedingly light weight, contained and yet attractive. We think we succeeded with these specially made by us artificial rock faced grp planters. – we won an award for the project , which was fun !
Artificial Rocks
Some 30 years ago we started building gravity walls with ‘TimberGrid’ , then we thought let’s add some plants, it worked great..!
Treated Structural Green Wall
It wasn’t long before they started to ‘Grow’ well you know if you try hard enough it becomes a ‘Trend ‘
Tall timber gravity wall
Sometimes it’s fun to experiment, so here we came up with a ‘curved’ wall
Could you grow these?The Victorians, were an inventive bunch, they invented and developed so many things, today we seem to spend more and more time with new technical inventions rather than try and solve the many issues facing us with the environment.
Perhaps its simply we do not spend enough time outside to enjoy the sun, stars,landscape and the water?
Going back to the Victorians, they have been credited with developing the regimented summer bedding displays, they developed huge estate layouts with ponds or should I say lakes, they were instrumental in cut formal lawns, I think Ransomes was one of the first with a horse drawn mower?
What they also did was include vegetables within the garden landscape,as did the Germans and French, it’s a great way to grow veggies and herbs as it is almost invisible, yet so effective and pleasing to grow your own.Plus invariably the food is both fresh & free of those pesky pesticides.
Have you included herbs & veggies in your design? – a question for your landscape designer perhaps?The marigolds help reduce the bugs
Our first interview for our Growing Trends radio show,was with a couple that do just that, – we are due to return shortly to see how the fruits of their labour has gone..
Their garden has between 350 – 400 Trees,Shrubs, Perennials, Annuals, and at least 75 Herbs & Veggies. It still has this beautiful pool to relax in !
Can you spot the herbs & veggies?
Even if you only have a small area it is very beneficial to grow say just a pot or two of herbs, not only are they fresh, they keep on producing throughout the season, (saving lots of money) all you need to do is water, and take any seed heads off as they form.
Stacked herb pot.
For the more adventurous a larger area can be created, this requires more commitment, the rewards are much greater with more produce grown and the satisfaction of growing your own food.
An example from a Chelsea Flower Show exhibit
Of course you could get completely carried away, employ a full time team and develop a world class garden, that attracts thousands of visitors a year.. feeding an awful lot of folks into the bargain !
Simply stunning !
How do I start ? I hear you say. Well the best way is always start in a conservative way, the easiest is probably to start with herbs, which will grow throughout the growing season, once thats mastered, try a quick growing veggie such as lettuce, it has a short cycle and is relatively easy to grow. If you don’t want the hassle of growing from seed initially, it’s possible today to buy ‘plugs’ that are pre started and likely to produce quite quickly, then progress from here, adding interesting varieties of say garlic, carrots, tomatoes, potatoes….
Weekend Garden Kit from Picagardi
This garden was planted just 2 weeks earlier with pre started plants. The trick if you haven’t grown many plants yourself is to start small, then as you find that the weather and conditions are unpredictable, you can try a more adventurous approach. Remember though that even hardened gardeners find that some plants some years just do not flourish as expected.
The rewards are so worth the effort, producing your own food, saving money and having a healthy outdoor activity.
Hort Cuisine anyone ?
Ann & I will be talking to some new gardeners, along with some seasoned,experienced gardeners in the next few weeks… the trick is always to have fun and experiment just a little !
“The commitment & sheer hard work required to achieve career success nowadays takes a heavy toll on our lifestyles. All of us need to counterbalance a busy working schedule with the right level of relaxation. For centuries gardens have been places of retreat and contemplation where our minds, detached from everyday problems, can resolve conflicts and plan confidently for the future.”
“A rare moment of peace in the perfect haven of a garden brings us renewed harmony with nature”
A short stroll to the patio
There is something rather special about returning home from work , seeing your beautiful landscape, perhaps pouring a glass of wine, or beer, then taking a walk around your landscaped garden enjoying the trees, flowers, shrubs, all whilst listening to the insects & birds, before an evening meal.
This tends to be a bit of a chore when the temperature is over 90f with sweat dripping off your forehead with each sip, however once the temperature falls to below 80f it is very much more relaxing.
It’s a great time to water the container plants ,dead head the flowers, check on the veggies , check on the water levels of the ornamental ponds, maybe even pull the odd weed from your immaculate borders. You do have immaculate borders? I mean what would the neighbours say ?
Garden Pond
Finally stroll back to the main terrace to complete or restock the beverage..mmmm ‘if only’ I hear you say, alternatively pop into a nearby park at lunchtime for a few minutes peace and relaxation.
Unexpected benefits of gardening
Research is now emerging that suggests that digging in the soil is actually beneficial, as the microbes found in real soil are the very ones that help us feel good . – Perhaps its time for us to develop adult sand pits? No just kidding, all that yucky sand traipsed indoors would wreak havoc with the carpets, “She who must be obeyed” would read us the riot act.
I do think that , garden landscapes are for using, they are not like a trophy, or picture hanging on the wall, they are alive, constantly changing ,constantly in need of nurturing, feeding, watering ,tending but above all else enjoying.
What better way to enjoy than to actually get into the midst of the garden and soak up all those positive ions?
A maturing landscape
This beautiful award winning garden was developed some years ago for a very busy client, who had a passion for orchids , immaculate lawns, with filled to the brim shrub borders.
We were often asked how it was that most lawns had these long lasting “stripes”. The secret is two fold, first the mower used has to have a roller behind the cutting blades, it can be a rotary mower, although the best is obviously a cylinder mower, also the roller should be the drive method for the mower .
The second is to make sure that each time you cut , you turn 90 degrees from the last.
The advantage of the cylinder mower is, usually you are cutting finer grass, and it needs to be quite short, a rotary mower tends to tear the grass blades and thus causes bruising, so it never looks as good, but it is able to cut much tougher grass which is usually also much higher in length.
A large main lawn
Sometimes when I wished to get away from the constant ringing phone , a product of having great teams, being in constant demand and being easy to contact, I would head out to a clients garden and actually spend an hour or two cutting their lawn for them, although it earned me the reputation of ‘The Gardener in a Suit” as I always wore a suit and tie to work !
It was a great way to recharge the batteries !
The complete lawn
Come listen to our interviews at Growing Trends they are all about these amazing folks with a passion for landscape gardening, the experts that help them and the wonderful folk that create them.
We would love to hear from you too….if you visit us at www.growingtrends.org please spend a moment to click our Facebook Like !
Most people are so interesting, it’s just a matter of coaxing them to talk to you, then asking the right questions.-
Are you passionate about your garden ?,
Do you have a favorite landscape ?,
Would you like to be interviewed ?
We started this series of horticultural based interviews with one simple idea, which was, that within our very diverse industry there were many people :-
both Homeowners,
Designers or Creators,
Builders,
or Visitors and Admirers,
who had fascinating stories to tell about their everyday lives.
We have not been disappointed , in fact, we have been surprised by how many folks have a real passion for all things outside, particularly by how many people would like to reconnect with nature.
Tiger Rhus
So with that in mind here is a day in the life of… Ann & Chris. the co-hosts of Growing Trends, we ventured out last Saturday, bright & early, just as the sun was rising :-
5.00 am Saturday
Ann & I had literally, a ‘field day’ on Saturday.
We each got up at the crack of dawn, and went to interview Farmer Steve, at Weston Red Barn Farm
We arrived at 7.30am and had already missed Steve, who had picked a crop of fresh peaches for Cindy ( his lovely wife) to take to market some 50 miles away.
Early one morning , Weston Red Barn Farm
Steve & Cindy have, for the past 25 years been slowly developing Weston Red Barn Farm to a traditional working farm, specifically to show kids how farms are part of the community. They have Apples, Peaches, Chickens, Goats, Horses, a Farm Shop, Pumpkin fields, along with a wedding venue. It keeps them very busy throughout the summer and autumn.
8.00am
One of Steve’s farm workers arrives to feed the chickens, goats, ducks, and horses, calls Steve for us, who appears over the horizon in a 4 wheeler…
We set up the Mics, the recorders,then we interviewed Steve for around an hour, it could have been much longer, Steve had a fascinating journey and one that you will be able to hear on our show shortly at Growing Trends Internet Radio
A few snippets : –
They have an amazing 12,000 – 15,000 school children visit them every year !
They have 67 weddings at the farm in a year.!
Old Milk Churns
I happen to know one of the current family members , of the family that invented the milk churn, their company was called Express Dairies, they developed the original milk churn to take milk from the ‘shires’ to London on the newly built railways, for the burgeoning population of the city.Needless to say they made a handsome profit !
Of course these days most milk isn’t delivered by horse & cart, or by electric milk floats – yes way back in the 60’s milk in England was delivered by battery powered eco-friendly milk floats, as a youngster I often helped the ‘Milkman’ on his rounds for an extra shilling or two.
Express diaries
Ok, so back to the interview.
The Farm is about to lay out it’s Pumpkins for sale so Ann found a few pumpkins lying around and ….posed for a quick picture – they sure look impressive !
It’s fun here…
There was even time for a spot of ‘picking’, in my miss spent youth we would go ‘Scrumping’
These look yummy !
9.30am
With our interview completed, it was time to rush back to interview our second fascinating person of the day.
Alan Sargent was over 4000 miles away, and 6 hours ahead of us, in Petworth, West Sussex in England.
A must for Head Gardeners.
Alan has a most varied career in horticulture :-
He has Built or,
Designed and Built dozens of Chelsea Flower Show Gardens,
Design & Constructed Award Winning Landscapes.
Formed a Trade Association,
Judged Garden Exhibits,
Written Books
Found time to be a Head Gardener at one of England’s finest and busiest Estates – the 12000 acre Goodwood Estate – with its 44 acre gardens, airfield, horse racing,and motor racing circuits.
Goodwood estate
the race course…
The Race Course
the motor racing circuit. – or for the Petrol heads as Alan refers to them !
Alan’s skills are legendary, and he has a keen eye for detail – I am a detail freak too, so I love his workmanship !
One of those more famous English Schools
His stone work is superb.
Ann and I were to coin an English expression ‘Plum Tuckered’ – you will need to look up it’s meaning, here’s a clue to replenish the reserves we stopped for breakfast..
10.30am back home.
It was time for that quick breakfast, and of course coffee – coffee in America is so good …
Then we quickly reviewed the recordings, packed up the recording gear. Headed off to the lake some 53 miles away for a well earned break, sailing our little racing cruiser ‘Stiletto’
Stiletto – Capri 25
It’s amazing how relaxing an afternoon sail can be.. this week it was a tad hot at 100f but still fun.
This Weeks Show
This weeks show will be about a fantastic store that brings in it’s very own miniature pony each weekend, where it has a small coral in the ‘Fairy Garden’ at the back of the store. – you can buy all many of things for creating a miniature garden !
We are also talking to Richard Benfield a Garden Tourist Guru, whilst he is on his travels, around the world, we caught up with Richard in Western Australia.. do listen to the show at.. Growing Trends Internet Radio if you, or you know someone that would be fun to interview drop us a line and we will get back to you.
In the meantime we have a website telling you more at www.grotrends.com
You will be able to hear all about Weston Red Barn Farm, along with Alan’s adventures in the coming weeks.
If you have someone in mind we could interview drop us a line briefly explaining who & why.
When were you last seen walking around a garden, a city park, or through the woods?Rodin’s The Thinker 1880, probably cast 1949.
“The Thinker” – from one of our latest interviews…
Having always been a little ‘cheeky’ , I turned Descartes words around a little from ‘ Je pense, donc je suis’ to ” I think therefore, am I?” – my reports from school often said ‘ if – and then went on about my impish sense of humour’
Back to Growing Trends, our fun, friendly, internet radio show – our latest interview was from this superb Museum in Kansas City and the Kauffman Memorial Garden
Henry Moore Sculpture, Nelson Atkins Museum of Art
Ever since Ann & I started our internet radio show we have had fun, sure it’s hard work to find the folks to interview, then arrange the best time to interview, especially with differing time zones.
We try and interview ‘on site’, so listeners can get a feel for how it really is, this proves challenging in windy conditions or inside cavernous stone buildings – the Museum springs to mind here.
The payback is simply stunning landscapes, interviewing amazing people!
Absolutely stunning at this time of year !
Our main goal is a desire to create interesting informative interviews that grab your attention and keep you interested – fortunately so many people in our industry have really interesting stories ,it’s really a matter of us letting them tell their story.
The hardest part is finding enough sponsors to cover the myriad of costs for doing this. It’s a real chicken and egg situation, the sponsors want listening numbers before committing, the show needs sponsors before promoting more, and the merry cycle of business life continues.
Light at the end of the green tunnel ?
In the meantime, we are steadily building an audience, developing a really informative web site at Growing Trends with a soon to be added link to youtube short videos of where we are interviewing. Please , if you get a chance to listen, do so, and maybe tell your friends there is this really different show out there to listen to..
In the short time we’ve been doing this we have learned that there is a real desire for folks to reconnect with other folks, for buyers to talk to growers, for gardeners to talk to the gardener, for the sports person a bracing game of tennis or a round of golf. I confess to liking a few hours sailing, but then I am surrounded by green most days.
For the lucky some, that develop a lifelong passion it becomes a relaxing daily exercise, for others a calming walk in the woods is enough, for our children a healthy carefree romp in a playground, or just to sit outside reading a good book is enough. What is just right for you?
If only we could all enjoy everyday scenes like this !
Cities absolutely need green spaces for the people to unwind , connect with nature, report after report shows the benefits to this, even patients in hospitals benefit from gardens, we know how much kids love to play in a well laid out playground !
Our next group of interviews are going to be exciting, we’re interviewing a couple whose passion was to recreate a working farm, they have succeeded, it’s a magical place full of wonderful sights, smells, happy people and a great day out.
The nelson Atkins Museum of Art , Sculpture Park
Then we are interviewing a competitor of mine, who has had the most amazing time, building show gardens for the worlds most prestigious flower show, as well as designing & building award winning residential gardens, then as a head gardener at a famous English estate, whilst forming specialist trade organisations and now turning his hand to writing books… watch this space as they say !
We pre-recorded both of these interviews a few weeks ago, each is really quite special, and is the start of a series of Horticultural interviews with a Different Perspective.
We have to thank Dr. Richard Benfield for this, we interviewed Richard in Australia – he will be on the show shortly. Richard was fresh from watching three kangaroos demolish a fence in front of his vehicle as he drove in Western Australia.
Richard is a professor whose research has revealed some fascinating facts – for instance food & garden tourism attracts over 78 million visitors a year across the USA !
So here is the first in this series, we hope to add one a month within the programming, please do let us know what you think, any ideas or requests.“Did I say that ?”
This weeks show is from two truly outstanding places –
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art’s superb Sculpture Park.
Being a transplanted ‘Brit’ , living in Kansas City, I was amazed to find 13 Henry Moore statues in our midst, they are like a place of inspiration, and just get the creative juices flowing for this designer.
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art is a gem, here in the American heartland.
Anyone for Badminton?
The sculpture park is celebrating 25 years this year, it is a must see attraction in Kansas City. So on a rather windy evening Ann & I called in to interview the Sanders Sosland Curator, Jan Schall, Ph.D.
The park covers some 22 acres, in the middle of Kansas City, just along from the Plaza. It was opened in 1989, designed by Dan Kiley & Jaquelin Robertson, there are more than 30 sculptures.
The Sculpture Park is FREE to the public, open year round during daylight hours, and a wonderful place to have a picnic!
One of the many Henry Moore Sculptures
The Kauffman Memorial Garden
This is a truly beautiful garden, superbly maintained by Duane and his volunteer staff, the garden has so many wonderful plants in this walled garden’s micro -climate, the attention to detail , the care make this probably one of the best gardens in Kansas City
Absolutely stunning at this time of year !
The Ewing and Muriel Kauffman Memorial Garden draws inspiration from the couple’s journey through life and their commitment to share with others. It is an enduring gift for Kansas City that extends the legacy of a gracious couple and welcomes visitors to a vibrant landscape throughout the year.
The Kauffmans’ world travels inspired the creation of a space comparable to parks throughout Europe. The garden features bronze sculptures by Tom Corbin among lush and colorful annual and perennial plantings, pruned foliage framed by stone walls, brick walkways and playful fountains.
Some of you may know that Ann & I have started a daily radio show, we call the show Growing Trends, it’s on at 1pm & 7pm daily at www.cravingtalkradio.com it’s really an extension of this blog, where we talk to people who are connected with our industry or homeowners that have a special interest or just an interesting landscape, or perhaps just a passion for gardens.
This past week we have been really fortunate to find some exceptionally gifted folks, our first was a rose grower, who in addition to working a very busy day as an executive still managed to come home and relax by working in his rose garden until late at night, he has a really interesting twist to this but you will have to wait until we broadcast the interview to hear it.
As our heading says this week is National Farmers Market Week, so Ann & I decided to take an early morning trip to one of our local farmers markets last Saturday morning. Well ok, a quick confession, Ann was early, I was late. We were both much later than the first customers who arrived long before 7am to buy the pick of this very fresh crop – some of the farmers were up at 3am to make sure they brought their produce to market!
Parkville, Missouri
The growers and customers were a very happy group, many were regulars who knew all the growers and would talk with real enthusiasm about the produce they were buying, you will hear this in the interviews.
All the growers had a wealth of knowledge and experience, which was one of the main reasons the customers came back week after week, they liked the idea of talking to the growers, understanding their efforts to produce good quality despite the variable weather conditions we all experience, some came because they had tried to grow crops themselves but just couldn’t quite succeed.
Everyone felt that they were obtaining value for money, and just loved the freshness, flavorsome and at times unusually shaped produce.
We talked to at least half a dozen or so growers and could have if time had permitted talked to many more, we also talked to a number of customers who were clearly regular visitors to the market.
What struck us most was that everyone was there because they enjoyed meeting each other,the customers liked talking to the growers and the growers really liked meeting their customers, it seems that more and more we see this as we broaden our interviews.
If this year is anything to go by we are definitely experiencing some changes to our weather patterns. We have more rain than I can remember, I know this because the power has gone out an amazing 13 times in the past 6 weeks ( yeah I hear you say why are the lines not buried, and how can a squirrel knock out power to a whole town, well the same way a dump truck can when it tips it’s load, or too many birds take a break on a power line and it shorts out).
Back to the weather, instead of 90f plus temps they have been 75f and at night instead of 75f they have been 55f, it’s almost English weather, except over there the temps have been much higher.
We have also had nearby, a huge increase in Earthquakes ( by this I mean hundreds of small quakes) this year, many place the blame on this, to the new habit of ‘Fracking’ , which I’m sure isn’t helping.
We’ve a serious issue with lack of bees to pollinate the crops , it’s not just the honey bees the wild bee population is suffering as well, as is the bird population, which probably means that the insect population is affected as well. In sure mother nature doesn’t like it when us humans mess with what was once a very balanced eco-system.
Some areas of the country are experiencing record droughts, which if it continues will have a far reaching impact on food production and where folks chose to live.
So with all this turmoil around us, a couple of friends and I decided it was time to change how we grew herbs & veggies…
So today we are launching Hort Cuisine something we have been working on for a few years now, it’s a rather fun way to grow at home.
It starts with our Hort Cuisine patented grid system
Here’s an example Hort Cuisine, herb garden
and here’s the beginnings of a Hort Cuisine ‘Knot Garden’
here’s the Knot Garden sector planted
We are going to make smaller ‘Balcony’ sized versions too
Which should be an ideal size for balconies.
In the next few days you will see just how easy these kits are to do yourself at home.
About three months ago, Ann ( my Co Host on Growing Trends) & I were given the opportunity to Host a radio show, we were basically given the chance to create our very own show, we wanted to be a little different, so after much thought and deliberations ‘Growing Trends’ was born, we would both love to hear what you think ? What we could include in the shows?
We’ve been having a ball talking to the most amazing folks in their spaces, they are in our midst and yet we hardly ever see them in this light, we all rush around in our daily lives, heads buried in smartphones or tablets, completely disconnected with the nature that is all around us.
Our guests are all connected by either their garden or the landscape where they work, some are keen gardeners, others technical experts in their field, all are in tune with nature, it’s as if it’s a constant healing process.
“A little oasis in the middle of suburbia.”
( Belinda & Terry’s Garden)
All find time to re connect almost daily with their space, we feel so privileged to be able to hear all their stories and bring them to you usually in their own homes.
Sometimes the recordings will be a little quirky, it’s because we are not in a studio. Some are far away, and we have to rely on the internet, which gives an odd echo from time to time, but talking to folks in Australia, England, South Africa, brings us all together.
“Chestnut growing down under!”
( John Stanley’s Australian outback)
We caught up with John in Australia early one morning.
“In my global work I see new trends in merchandising, display, social media marketing, general retailing, culinary eco-tourism and lifestyle retail”
we will catch up with John again shortly in the meantime.
“Finding happiness in a garden – how it’s done at the Kelly Gallery”
(Kelly Daniels – The Kelly Gallery)
Kelly was just inspirational , almost magical, her photography is enchanting.
You can find us on the internet at www.cravingtalkradio.com , or download the phone app Live365 or you can download Growing Trends as a podcast from the website.
Our upcoming schedule is both varied, fun and very different, here’s a few pictures taken on locations we visited..just wait till you hear the stories…
I thought it would be fun to share with you, our interview schedule.
We are on air at 1pm & 7pm daily at www.cravingtalkradio.com or you can download as a podcast for later listening.
Our first interview was with Belinda & Terry, this is their lovely garden.
and a more romantic version, the pool is so inviting….
and the famous ‘Zen’ deck, now sanded and restored to its glory…
Our next interview was with John Stanley of John Stanley Associates in Australia, we didn’t talk about his garden as it’s a tad larger than most as you can see – what a view !
What we did talk about was trends in edibles and concerns over bees, you can hear both on Craving Talk Radio.com, we are due to revisit John in Perth again shortly.
Coming up soon is :-
Kelly Daniels lovely garden,
and here is some of her superb photography.
Then we have:
Dwayne Hoover the Horticulturist at the Kauffman Memorial Garden in Kansas City we caught up with Dwayne early one morning – 6am to be precise, the team was starting to put together the summer bedding.
Then it’s Jenny’s turn and her Fairy Room at the Celtic Ranch along with ‘Half-pint McGee’, who will soon be your little heart throb…….
Then it’s the turn of the Nelson Atkins Museum in Kansas City,
and the lovely sculpture park. You have to be strong to play badminton here !
and my favorite the Henry Moore collection…
this next amazing sculpture is some 56ft tall..
to read more about our rather different programs visit www.grotrends.com
As it seems for some of us climate change is playing havoc with our normal weather – for some way too much rain, others nowhere near enough and yet others both but at the wrong times along with huge temperature variations. I thought it might be an idea to show you some projects that eventually turned out quite well despite the conditions we encountered during construction.
The thing to remember is, that they took longer to complete, longer to establish and usually they cost much more because the folks building them could only work in short time sections.
This first project was constructed on very heavy wet clay, here is the site as we saw it when we started work.
here is the site after we have been working a little while. Almost ready to put the finishing planting, turfing in etc,.
Here, during an inspection, the plants have established and the grass is growing well, you would never know how bad the conditions had been. Happily this project won a number awards for us.
This next site was similar… in this case we recommended the owner take a few long weekends away, whilst the garden looked so bad, actually we also wanted the housebuilder to leave so we could apply a finished landscape, without him running equipment over the finished work.
and so it slowly took shape..notice it’s somewhat tidier looking..
The trick is to let the ground dry out, drain where necessary, and what ever you do, do not over compact the sub surface where planting and lawns are due to be.Also as soon as possible get the site clean and tidy and keep it that way, the client usually has had enough after about week 8 of these very distressing looking pictures., fortunately In the end it looked just like any other project.
perhaps nicer than some..
We found that if management spent a little extra time with the client in these situations, it wasn’t long before the project was back on course, with a happy client and a happy workforce.
As youngster I remember going blackberry & wild raspberry picking in the hedgerows in the country lanes near where we lived in England. Then later after I was married we would holiday in the Jura mountains in France each year, where we would hike a few days and find the most amazing tiny wild strawberries and a blue berry ( makes the most amazing Tarte au Myrtilles) with the most intense flavors. All washed down with a delightful Crement du Cerdon slightly sweet sparkling wine.
In England we would often pop down to the local ‘Pick your Own’ and gather raspberries, strawberries and sometimes gooseberries when in season.
Which was great fun, especially as we could test taste a few along the way….
Today there is a much bigger demand for growing your own at home, due in part to a return to more natural activities ( getting lost behind a small screen is ok, it’s not very energetic, and it’s probably a strain on the eyes) . A lot of today’s youngsters would like to know how to grow plants. Many younger adults are seeking to help them, whilst us old-en’s have the knowledge.
The trick is, as always a balanced approach, until you feel confident enough to really ‘go for it’
Can you see the edibles in the picture below?
Of course if you happen to have the odd Châteaux just lying around you could always develop something on a rather more grand scale..
Sadly unless you happen to be a Hedge Fund manager, Politician, CEO of a public company or Daddy was very generous this approach is beyond most of us.
So with this in mind we have started to develop a rather novel approach, tailored to today’s rather busy folks and designed to grow with you as they say. First however, try something quick easy and useful, a Deck or Patio vertical herb garden. – just growing a few herbs is both fun, educational and beneficial.
Once you are happy with the herbs, then start being more adventurous, depending on the space available you can start a larger edibles garden.
The next phase, slightly larger edible area will be our next blog, along with ideas on how to implant within the landscape.
