If you fancy getting out into the fresh air this weekend why not come and have a chat with me on my stand at the Loseley Park Spring Garden Show? Its a lovely show with lots of great ideas for your garden and its going to be a gorgeous sunny weekend.
Loseley Park is a beautiful stateley home near Guildford in Surrey, and holds a Spring and Summer garden show every year. This year there will also be one in the Autumn. The shows are smaller than other garden shows, but you will find everything you'd expect at a larger show, but one a smaller scale making it a less exhausting and expensive day out.
Click here for information about Loseley Park and directions on how to get there.
The show runs from Friday to Sunday, opening times are 10am to 5pm and its only £2.50 to get in.
See you there.
Linsey
Tuesday 21 April 2009
Monday 20 April 2009
My allotment shows signs of life
Finally, my Berkshire allotment is starting to take shape and the first shoots are poking their heads through the soil. I’ve been gradually digging in the winter mulch blanket, preparing and planting each section. So far I’ve put in spinach, chard, coriander, parsley, spring onions, radishes and beetroot. I’ve weeded around my raspberry canes and fruit bushes, and given them some Sulphate of Ammonia. This year it looks like there’s going to be a bumper crop of currants and gooseberries and I can’t wait.
I planted the radishes and beetroot under some mesh tunnels to prevent them being destroyed as they emerge by greedy pigeons. I noticed over the weekend that the slugs have been nibbling the first leaves – time for some beer traps I think. I’m going to put mesh tunnels over the spinach and chard this weekend to make sure the pigeons don’t get to them before I do – this also helps to keep the flea beetle off the spinach and rocket.
Over the Easter weekend I planted my broad bean plants which I’d been nurturing in the greenhouse for a few weeks. I always bring on my broad beans in the greenhouse – I find I can keep an eye on them and ensure that I get sufficient plants to give me a large crop. I love new broad beans. Some people pick them too late by which time they are tough and bitter. I pick them early and make a lovely warm salad. I cook the beans and cover with a simple dressing of olive oil, lemon juice and garlic. Then I add some fried pancetta cubes, sun dried tomatoes and some soft goat’s cheese which melts into the dish. Serve with some crusty bread for a tasty supper dish. I always grow some green and some red broad beans – I don’t know which I prefer for taste, but it looks very pretty in the serving dish!
Pigeon protected radishes and beetroot
Broad Beans
I planted the radishes and beetroot under some mesh tunnels to prevent them being destroyed as they emerge by greedy pigeons. I noticed over the weekend that the slugs have been nibbling the first leaves – time for some beer traps I think. I’m going to put mesh tunnels over the spinach and chard this weekend to make sure the pigeons don’t get to them before I do – this also helps to keep the flea beetle off the spinach and rocket.
Over the Easter weekend I planted my broad bean plants which I’d been nurturing in the greenhouse for a few weeks. I always bring on my broad beans in the greenhouse – I find I can keep an eye on them and ensure that I get sufficient plants to give me a large crop. I love new broad beans. Some people pick them too late by which time they are tough and bitter. I pick them early and make a lovely warm salad. I cook the beans and cover with a simple dressing of olive oil, lemon juice and garlic. Then I add some fried pancetta cubes, sun dried tomatoes and some soft goat’s cheese which melts into the dish. Serve with some crusty bread for a tasty supper dish. I always grow some green and some red broad beans – I don’t know which I prefer for taste, but it looks very pretty in the serving dish!
Pigeon protected radishes and beetroot
Broad Beans
Sunday 5 April 2009
Case Study - Large Garden in Surrey - Update 6
The garden is really beginning to take shape now. All the retaining walls on the left-hand side of the garden have been faced with selected, random Purbeck stone. The alcoves in the conservatory terrace wall have had LEDs fitted so that when the lanterns aren’t lit they can still be illuminated - each alcove has a polished steel back plate to reflect the light.
The black Limestone paving has been laid on the upper terraces and the steps are almost complete. Because the paving oversails the walls and is visible from the lower garden it is really helping to define the curves and steps that give this garden its unique identity. The lower corner terrace is almost paved and should be complete by the time of my site visit next week. This will mean that the whole left-hand side of the garden is pretty much complete and you will begin to see how the finished garden will look.
There is what I have described as a porthole, but which others are referring to as a moon gate in the corner terrace wall. It is not, strictly speaking a moon gate as it’s not intended, nor is it large enough to give access to the area behind the wall. It’s purpose is to give a view on a new tree and planting behind the wall. Whatever you choose to call it it’s looking great and the contractors have done a splendid job – constructing a circle from blocks and stone is not a simple task and was made more difficult by the fact that the top of the porthole stands proud of the wall.
I have also designed some additional parts of the garden which were not included in the original project scope. We removed a line of Cypress trees that formed a screen around 10 metres tall sitting behind a low retaining wall. The client originally felt that they would like to replace this screen as soon as possible and so I obtained some prices for mature Yew and Bay hedging. However, once the trees were gone the client realised they were not needed for privacy and that the garden was more open and lighter without them, and they have not been replaced. So, I have re-designed the retaining wall that formed the raised bed in which the trees were planted. This wall will be raised to 450mm and faced with the Purbeck stone to tie in with the rest of the garden. There will be a semi-circular seat cut into the wall and two alcoves for displaying some rather lovely antique sculpture which needed a home.
Another area that has been designed is a lower level of the garden which forms a transition space between the middle level of the garden and main lawn area to the tennis court that forms the lowest level. The retaining wall that supports this part of the garden, consisting of some large lumps of stone mortared into place was falling down and considered to be unsafe. We consulted the structural engineer and started going through the options. Problems that needed to be overcome apart from providing a safe structural wall include difficult access, the clients’ wish to avoid pouring even more concrete if at all possible and keep costs down to a minimum. A proprietary system which requires very little excavation and no poured concrete has been chosen and the walls will be faced with planted, timber cribs. I have re-designed an area that sits on top of this new retaining wall which is a steep bank down from the upper garden with a set of steps at its centre and a flat area at the base. We are raising the base of the bank so that it forms a narrow raised bed, then retaining the rest of the bank with the stone reclaimed when demolishing the existing lower retaining wall to make a rock garden.
I also designed the shape of the new retaining wall as a flowing 'S' shaped curve that allows access to a previously dead area of the garden and ties in with the curves and terraces used elsewhere in the scheme. I'm off on site next Wednesday to mark out this curve with the main contractor - I may live to regret using so many freehand curves!
The black Limestone paving has been laid on the upper terraces and the steps are almost complete. Because the paving oversails the walls and is visible from the lower garden it is really helping to define the curves and steps that give this garden its unique identity. The lower corner terrace is almost paved and should be complete by the time of my site visit next week. This will mean that the whole left-hand side of the garden is pretty much complete and you will begin to see how the finished garden will look.
There is what I have described as a porthole, but which others are referring to as a moon gate in the corner terrace wall. It is not, strictly speaking a moon gate as it’s not intended, nor is it large enough to give access to the area behind the wall. It’s purpose is to give a view on a new tree and planting behind the wall. Whatever you choose to call it it’s looking great and the contractors have done a splendid job – constructing a circle from blocks and stone is not a simple task and was made more difficult by the fact that the top of the porthole stands proud of the wall.
I have also designed some additional parts of the garden which were not included in the original project scope. We removed a line of Cypress trees that formed a screen around 10 metres tall sitting behind a low retaining wall. The client originally felt that they would like to replace this screen as soon as possible and so I obtained some prices for mature Yew and Bay hedging. However, once the trees were gone the client realised they were not needed for privacy and that the garden was more open and lighter without them, and they have not been replaced. So, I have re-designed the retaining wall that formed the raised bed in which the trees were planted. This wall will be raised to 450mm and faced with the Purbeck stone to tie in with the rest of the garden. There will be a semi-circular seat cut into the wall and two alcoves for displaying some rather lovely antique sculpture which needed a home.
Another area that has been designed is a lower level of the garden which forms a transition space between the middle level of the garden and main lawn area to the tennis court that forms the lowest level. The retaining wall that supports this part of the garden, consisting of some large lumps of stone mortared into place was falling down and considered to be unsafe. We consulted the structural engineer and started going through the options. Problems that needed to be overcome apart from providing a safe structural wall include difficult access, the clients’ wish to avoid pouring even more concrete if at all possible and keep costs down to a minimum. A proprietary system which requires very little excavation and no poured concrete has been chosen and the walls will be faced with planted, timber cribs. I have re-designed an area that sits on top of this new retaining wall which is a steep bank down from the upper garden with a set of steps at its centre and a flat area at the base. We are raising the base of the bank so that it forms a narrow raised bed, then retaining the rest of the bank with the stone reclaimed when demolishing the existing lower retaining wall to make a rock garden.
I also designed the shape of the new retaining wall as a flowing 'S' shaped curve that allows access to a previously dead area of the garden and ties in with the curves and terraces used elsewhere in the scheme. I'm off on site next Wednesday to mark out this curve with the main contractor - I may live to regret using so many freehand curves!
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