Entries Tagged as 'gardening'
It is perhaps appropriate that tomorrow is Red Nose Day 2011. What better way to get you in the mood than to listen to an American, with a passion for gardening and an almost British sense of humour – his dry wit had clearly missed most of his American audiences but was most definitely not lost on his very english audience tonight.
Though organised by Derry Watkins of Special Plants fame (who was keen to point out that her gardens were now open on Tuesdays) – who is of course american herself, Dan Hinkley drew a large audience to the Bath University Gardening Club to illustrate a talk on two Pacific North West gardens. The climate there seemed pretty similar to Britain with some oddities bought about by its coastal location.
Tags: development · enjoy · garden design · gardening · Inspiration · Plant · weather
As we wait with latent expectation for those wonderful heralds of the spring garden to finally break cover and shower us with golden cheerfulness there are some plants that have been keeping a quiet watch over the winter months.
The Viburnum group is a remarkable collection of varied plants and I often wonder whether it would be possible to design a garden that only featured Viburnum in all of its assorted guises. Viburnum tinus ‘Eve Price’ is a popular choice of many schemes but is rather prone to Viburnum beetle which quickly reduce the leaves to a rather scrappy looking lace skeleton – a problem that is duplicated in others such as the V.opulus.
Viburnum bodnantense ‘Dawn’ isn’t affected but since it flowers before the leaves are present this somehow seems less of an issue!
Tags: Bath · Chippenham · enjoy · garden design · gardening · Wiltshire
In any walk of life training is now an accepted part of improving yourself and making progress in your chosen field. Garden Design and indeed gardening are two areas that, frankly, I don’t think you could ever have too much knowledge or experience. Every day throws us something new which is part of why I, along with many others, love gardens and garden design.
Tags: benefit · garden design · Garden Network · gardening · Inspiration · networking · opportunity
Twitter has a lot to answer for. How else would you get 25 people from around the country to visit a garden on a glorious sunny , early September afternoon.
Meeting before going to the garden it was clear that all was not quite as it might have been! In order that the 25 recognise each other we were invited to wear a button hole in the true spirit of a blind date. All was going swimmingly with assorted flora being sported until one of our number arrived wearing a half eaten digestive biscuit secured with a badly mis-shapen paperclip!
Perhaps I should explain that this gathering was no ordinary outing but a meeting of gardening enthusiasts of various persuasions found loitering with intent on Twitter and the garden we were to visit was Highgrove, the garden of HRH Prince Charles. The biscuit arrived courtesy of James Alexander-Sinclair which somehow saw the topic of conversation move on to cakes.
Tags: blog · garden design · Garden Network · Garden Organic · gardening · networking · Plant · sunshine · sustainable · Twitter
Hampton Court Palace Flower Show is a huge event but one area particularly caught my eye! …allow me to introduce the Sunflowers…
Tags: enjoy · gardening
This was my first visit on press day – with thanks to The Garden Network I was able to gain access and enjoy what is billed as the largest flower show in the world featuring the Best of British Horticulture.
As the billing suggests this is one mammoth show and so much to take in in one day – so much so that it will be difficult to do all the exhibitors justice – but I’ll make a start and add further thoughts later!
The show gardens normally define the show, but at Hampton Court they form only one of many varied garden themes and styles. So was there a strong theme that ran through the gardens? – well if there was I couldn’t detect it! Variety providing the spice of life. What was interesting however was that there were two notably different approaches to the show gardens.
Tags: garden design · Garden Network · gardening · striking display
The element of the Green Dock that I had particularly come to see however was the large rectangular formal garden with ribbons of topiarised Yew hedging trimmed in undulating waves running the entire length of the garden, crossed overhead with angled walkways.
Tags: development · garden design · gardening · imagination · Inspiration · sunshine · value
Every year the gardeners at Hidcote plant around 14,000 Tulips and as soon as they finish flowering they dig them all (well nearly all) of them out to make way for the summer planting. Why do they dig them out?
Everywhere you turn you can see how this Arts and Crafts garden of ‘rooms’ has been influencing gardens and garden designers ever since.
Tags: enjoy · garden design · gardening · imagination · Inspiration · Plant · striking display
The soil in Wiltshire, where I live changes dramatically – heading West towards Bath it is predominantly very heavy clay over sandstone, while less than a mile to the East, heading towards Chippenham the soil becomes very sandy.
The small clay particles that make it so difficult to work and so poor draining have the benefit of retaining lots of wonderful nutrients. Nutrients that plants like roses absolutely love. Sandy soil tends to see these nutrients washed away.
The secret is applying a layer of organic material about 2 inches thick every year. Then sitting back and letting the worms do all the hard work! It is important to vary the type of organic material applied so that a variety of nutrients are released. Sticking with say – spent mushroom compost will lead to the soil becoming quite acid so use well rotted farmyard manure, leaf mould, soil improver and compost.
Tags: amelioration · clay · compost · garden design · Garden Organic · gardening · mushroom compost · organic material · Plant · soil · Soil pH
In an article today appearing in Horticulture Week, research by multimedia retailer QVC shows that an untidy garden can knock £5,000 off the value of your property. That’s a lot of hard earned money going down the drain!
Tags: aspirational · benefit · development · enjoy · garden design · gardening · imagination · Inspiration · lifestyle · low maintenance · money saving · opportunity
