MY week:

Last week end I spent a large amount of time reading about garden designers,architects and famous gardens.

1)Woman are now very well placed in garden statistics.

There are

46% of woman in the National Society of Allotments and Leisure Gardeners.

2)  I read with interest about the New York High Line Project.What a super attraction in this exciting city.

3) I never tire of reading new articles about Edward Lutyens association with the famous plant designer Gertrude Jekyll. Great Dixter is a must for those wanting to see the work of the great architect.

4)William Morris is somebody I am in the process of learning about.

The Red House @ Bexleyheath seems a place to visit.

5) Finally the use of  horticulture as a therapy is now well known.

In think I have used my break from Garden Design in a very good way!

 

Re- charging the batteries;

Everyone who deals with the geberal public needs to have a break.

I am having the whole of Setptember off.

During the last week I have visited 3 gardens, been to a Gardener’s Question Time and won a plant in

a raffle!

David Measures, the artist, lived here in Southwell.

Before his death last year he urged me to visit his father’s garden in Warwick.

The Mill Garden , lies just under The Castle by the river. It is beautiful.

Last sunday some friends in Southwell opened their delightful garden for charity.

This was followed by Gardener’s Question Time.”

The evening ended with a raffle in which I won a super white Phlox.

On tuesday my husband and I stayed at Barnsley House.

The was the home of garden designer Rosemary Verey.

More wonderful late flowering plants.

To finish off a very kind man in the nearby hamlet gave me some “Lily of the Valley!

Gardeners are such friendly people!

 

A serious matter:

Working with landscapers should be a two way relationship of trust.

Over the last three years the landscape industry has been under pressure.

This does not need to result in a drop in professional standards.

There is no need for the landscaper or  the garden designer to feel “threatened”.

I have now had three incidents where the landscaper I have sent to the client has misused the trust

and made efforts to take the client as his own.

This is NOT the way forward for our industry.

Much more care should be taken by landscapers to realise that being introduced to a client by a

garden designer presupposes that he will act in an ethical manner.

Let there be a return to professional standards so that we can get on with our job without having to

look over our shoulders at what the landscapers are doing!

 

How do you construct a path?

My answer is that I do not believe in woven membranes for paths.

I think that the more tradional method of a hardcore base followed by sand and finally washed gravel

is best.

This gives a proper passage of water through the soil.

If the construction is done correctly there should be no signs of weeds.

Paths are often built badly using membranes.

The result looks a mess after weeds start to appear.

Woven membranes do have there place in borders to help reduce weeds.

This does not mean they should be used everywhere.

 

Worth a try.

I am trying a new organic garden mulch called Strulch.

A contact told me about it.

It is a mineralised straw mulch. It acts as a barrier to light and slows down the growth of weeds.

Later, it can be dug into the soil to improve soil structure.

Sometimes it is worth trying new things in gardening.