February 2012
5 posts
Goodbye January!
I don’t know about you, but I’m always glad to see the back end of January. It always feels such a long dull month, however as we’re now into February, the days are getting noticeably longer and spring is just a month or so away.
The crown of bulbs and herbaceous perennials are now starting to break through the ground, which is a welcome sign that the garden is starting to stir and wake up after...
Do You Dig It?…
I am always glad to see the end of January as it feels such a long dreary dull month. Now we’re in February the days are getting noticeably longer and spring is thankfully just a month away.
One welcome sight I can see from my kitchen window is my evergreen Clematis armandii ‘Apple Blossom’, which has now developed lots of new buds and will give me a mass of early slightly scented pinky-white...
Planning The Year Ahead!
It’s during this time of year that many of us plan our next summer holidays and possibly reminisce about our last summer’s break.
When I’m on my summer holidays in my favourite parts of the world, I often think how nice it must be to live in the part of the world where the sun shines most of the time, and then I realise how much I would miss what we have here…
… seasons.
It’s with the seasons...
The Beauty Of Bonsai
Before Christmas I noticed that more and more shops were selling bonsai trees and Bonsai growing kits.
Bonsai is the art of growing miniature trees in shallow containers, which originated from China.
Whenever I go to gardening exhibitions, I always marvel at their stunning beauty, it certainly is a work of art creating such a splendid living sculpture.
Bonsai trees are ‘real’ trees so...
January 2012
6 posts
January’s Offerings
If you take a close look at your garden you will notice that new growths are beginning to emerge. This is a true sign that spring is around the corner, but there is still some way to go.
Early flowering bulbs are starting to push through like Snowdrops, dwarf Irises, Crocuses and Narcissus to give the garden some much-needed forth-coming cheery colour after the dull winter.
A lovely flowering...
In The Cold Of Winter
I feel that there is always a special beauty in a winter garden, especially when the frost is glistening on the plants or if there is a blanket of snow covering the trees and shrubs. It never fails to make the garden seem all the more magical for me.
But how do plants survive when temperatures drop so low and they are covered in snow or frozen by the frost? Snow can actually act as insulation...
Adding Colour In January
Even in this cold month of January in the gloomy winter season there are plants that can liven up more or less any garden and even make it a flowery, scented and colourful winter wonderland.
One of the first perennial bulbs to pop up around this time of year is the Galanthus plicatus, otherwise known as the Snowdrop. A carpet of Snowdrops with their dainty nodding delicately scented white...
It’s In The Stars!
Whether you believe them or just read them for fun, the newspapers this month are full of our horoscope predictions for the coming year. What will be our destiny? What are the predictions for our wealth, health, career, romance…or how about gardening?
Now it might surprise you that there are schools of thought that suggest the astrological movements in the heavens can actually affect plant...
“A New Start…”
I always regard January as being the month for armchair gardening.
It’s the time to browse through seed and gardening catalogues or books and plan the garden for the next growing season.
Unfortunately many people don’t think about planning the garden until spring and wish for a perfect garden by the summer, which is not always possible, so now is the time to get planning if you want that lovely...
A Month For Planning
January is one month of the gardening calendar year when we gardeners can relax and take some time out to reflect and plan what we would like to do with and plant in our gardens in the next season to come.
I always think that January is great for ‘armchair‘ gardening; looking through seed and plant catalogues and deciding on what we would like to have a go at growing this coming year. Even...
November 2011
10 posts
2 tags
Your Garden In November
With November already here, tulip bulbs can be planted in any sunny sheltered locations in your garden or into containers. Also around now you can already be planting spring flowering plants for filling any spaces you may have between shrubs and where you want to fill with colour.
As we’re now in the season of rather colder whether don’t forget to protect any tender shrubs you may have in outdoor...
3 tags
Indoor Horticultural Styling
My love and passion for gardening and garden designing led me to study flower arranging and floristry for the horticultural styling part of my business.
So now I not only enjoy the flowers outside in my garden but I can enjoy their splendid beauty and wonderful scent indoors at close quarters.
More and more people are taking up the popular hobby of flower arranging. While it is easy to go along...
2 tags
Indoor Gardening For Well-Being
Just because you may not have garden it doesn’t mean that you have to miss out on the world of gardening completely, as there are so many gorgeous and exotic houseplants that can be grown indoors.
A house filled with lovely lush plants will immediately give your house a welcoming atmosphere and a homely feel. I think that indoor plants really are the finishing touch to any décor as they beautify...
2 tags
Off With Their Heads!
“Should I cut off the seed heads or not?” is a question asked by many gardeners. Usually there are two answers to this question.
If you want to stop the seeds from self-sowing themselves, then the answer is “yes”, go ahead and cut them off.
Also if you are one of those gardeners who like to keep the garden immaculate and tidy, then “yes” again. The reasons for keeping the seed heads and spent...
When The Leaves Are Falling…
Now that plants are shedding off their leaves, fences and boundaries will get revealed showing whether they’re in need of repairing or replacing.
When you’re designing or planning your garden, then the fencing should be one of the first things you consider, not just what style you would like but also durability and cost.
Also, the type of fencing you have can actually effect the microclimate of...
Garden Lighting
The summer is coming to a close and autumn is starting to set in and the days are now becoming notably shorter all too soon. Still, with a garden carefully designed, these dark evenings are the prefect opportunity for using garden lighting.
During the summer months the use of candles can be very attractive and are wonderful for atmosphere on a lovely warm evening. Those late dinner parties in the...
An Orchestra Of Autumn Colours!
As I’ve said before, my favourite time in the garden is in the spring but for my husband it is the autumn. He loves to see all the wonderful rustic colours that the leaves turn into before they fall from the trees.
Around this time of the year there are some super trees to provide orange, gold, bronze and crimson colours for autumn interest and on the top of my list is the Acer palmatum...
A Bright future
This is the time of year when many of us start to spend more time indoors and forget about the garden, however, you could save yourself time and money by using the time now to plan your garden for next year.
This is the best time of the year when we should be thinking and planning how we would like our gardens to be and want sort of plants we would like to be growing next season.
Autumn is...
4 tags
Gardening Can Be Spooky
This year seems to have gone by so quickly and it’s already just gone Halloween, rich with tradition, mystery and symbolism.
Not surprisingly, much of the symbolism surrounding Halloween has connections to the natural world, including plants, fruits and vegetables.
Also it might interest you to know that Halloween is celebrated in some form in many parts of the world, including, Japan, Mexico,...
October 2011
5 posts
2 tags
6 tags
The Magical Colours Of Autumn
Although autumn is now here and taking its effect on our gardens, there are plenty of routine gardening chores which we can be getting on with.
For instance, we can still be mowing our lawns with the blades nice and high.
Around this time of the year we can also be getting on with winter digging as well as pruning.
Do remember do not trim established hedges now unless the weather is very mild...
6 tags
6 tags
4 tags
Tiptoeing Through The History Tulips
Last week we looked at bulbs and different ways of planting them, so I thought that this week we could take a closer look at one of the most well known bulbs, tulips.
The Dutch are renowned for their passion for tulips and tulip growing has been a major crop since the 1600s.
Today nearly half of Holland’s flower bulb farms are planted with tulips. Every year about 3 billion tulip bulbs are...
September 2011
18 posts
2 tags
Brighter Bulbs
I think that this time in the gardening year is so exciting with the new season of bulbs coming into the shops and garden centres. I’ve just recently treated myself to a bag of tulip bulbs aptly named ‘Red Riding Hood’ which will be a rich red colour with flamboyant bold wide leaves which will have dark maroon markings.
Other bulbs that I’ll be looking out for will be a tall variety of the...
‘Strips and Solids’ = Sweet Upcycled Accessories
I totally love these
Full article over at http://blog.2modern.com/2011/09/strips-and-solids-sweet-upcycled-accessories.html
4 tags
3 tags
5 tags
Garden Designing - Santa Fe Inspirations
More great photos and full article over at http://www.gardeninggonewild.com/?p=18457
The Creeping Up Of A New Season
As I see the first signs of the Virginia creeper’s leaves starting to turn red I know that autumn is just around the corner, but September is still a vibrant and colourful month in the garden.
One ‘sunny’ flower that is in it’s full glory this time of year is the Rudbeckia, with the common name of Black-eyed Susan, as it has a blackish-brown centre with yellow daisy-like flowers. These are...
BBC News - British flowers are the source of a new... →
The search for more effective cancer treatments may soon harness the healing power of the Autumn crocus. Researchers are poised to start clinical trials with a new “smart bomb” treatment, derived from the flower, targeted specifically at tumours. The treatment, called colchicine, was able to slow the growth of and even completely “kill” a range of different cancers, in...
As Summer Fades...
As I see the first signs of the Virginia creeper’s leaves starting to turn red I know that autumn is just around the corner, but September is still a vibrant and colourful month in the garden. One ‘sunny’ flower that is in it’s full glory this time of year is the Rudbeckia, with the common name of Black-eyed Susan, as it has a blackish-brown centre with yellow daisy-like flowers. These are...
The health of our gardens, and the people who tend...
Via Scoop.it - Garden Designer The Dry Garden: Mow and blow crews — and mow and blow gardens Years ago, as a photographer and I were at work on a photo essay for a magazine about some of the more accident-prone people in Britain, we… Show original
Garden calendar for the Lower Hudson Valley
Via Scoop.it - Garden Designer Brewster: Flower & Horticulture Show in Honor of 9/11. A Standard Flower & Horticulture show, ‘United We Stand,’ to mark the 10-year anniversary of 9/11. Public invited to submit horticulture. Call 845-279-3257. Show original
A festive feast for the senses
Via Scoop.it - Designer TAKE in Australia’s celebration of spring at Floriade from September 17 to October 16 at Commonwealth Park. Show original
Bottle and pot tower gardening (Ibagué Greenbelt /... →
Full article over at http://containergardening.wordpress.com/2011/09/02/bottle-and-pot-tower-gardening-ibague-greenbelt-willem-van-cotthem/
I Think It’s That Time Of The Year
Summer always seems to come to an end just that little bit too early and we’re already fast approaching autumn. Gardeners are always planning ahead anyway, so even though autumn is more or less here already, lets hope we still get some more fine weather this month. Although summer is coming to an end, it doesn’t mean that there’s any less to do in the garden. You can still keep the lawn mower...
August 2011
11 posts
8 tags
Astronauts could grow 'kitchen garden' on mission... →
Full article over at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/8728130/Astronauts-could-grow-kitchen-garden-on-mission-to-Mars.html
How To Build a Container Garden : TreeHugger
Via Scoop.it - Garden Designer Building Your Own Container Garden Whatever your gardening challenge, it’s very possible that container gardening is the answer. Bad soil? Container garden. Limited space? Container garden. Rented yard? Show original
Gardens Filled With Native Plants Mean Less Work,...
Via Scoop.it - Garden Designer Gardeners who melted in this summer’s heat to water their wilting, hybridized hydrangeas may be looking for more low-maintenance plants. Or maybe they’re seeking a nature-friendly alternative to invasive species. Whether it’s to fill a tough spot in their yard, save time or attract birds and butterflies, gardeners are discovering the value of...
The Elegant Fire Pillar is a Decorative Lamp and...
Via Scoop.it - Garden Designer The Fire Pillar is a magnificent concept that has stunning looks and goes beyond being just a showpiece. Show original
Steven and Hardy's Recycled Pool Deck Small, Cool...
Via Scoop.it - Garden Designer Show original