Landscape Juice

Make your lawn the centre of attention

This is not really a tip I am sharing with you but more of a bit of psychology.

I  must have walked through hundreds and hundreds of customers gardens in my time and one thing that  nearly always threw one's attention away from immaculately attended borders was the poor state of the lawn.

It mattered not what money, time and effort was thrown at producing a riot of colour or wonderfully topiaries but if the lawn, usually at the centre of any display, was not up to scratch then the whole show seemed to be lost.

By contrast, if the lawn looked magnificent yet the borders were unruly and neglected the reverse was not the case.

The lawn is the focal point and if you treat it as such then the rest will psychologically fall into place.

How to value your garden

It is all very well landscaping and planting out a garden to a high standard but once completed what is the cost to you a year and probably more importantly, if you sell the garden what is the overhead cost to the purchaser?

This is a tricky subject to put a finger directly on a pulse but I am going to try and prove to you that your garden has a certain overhead cost throughout the season and this should be assessed when you buy or sell a house.

It does not cost a thing - I am retired.

Ok I am with you slightly on this one but you are not entirely correct here. Being retired means that you probably have plenty of time on your hands and to you that time is free.

If you are drawing a pension of one hundred pounds per week (ok I might be off beam with that but just to demonstrate my argument) and you spend twenty hours of your week in the garden then it has cost you £50 to do your own gardening.

Add to this the cost of all of the essential materials each year like petrol or electricity for the mower, the fertiliser, potting composts and plants or maybe seed then indirectly you are paying something out.

Gardeners with Seasonal Affective Disorder

Gardeners everywhere are enjoying the last of the warm summer rays. Being out in the garden definitely frees up the mind from any domestic clutter and during the summer months we all clamour to be there.

If you are like me you will take your coffee out first thing and walk around and probably be out there with a glass of wine at sunset to catch the last few rays at dusk.

Unless it is extraordinarily hot I will seek to be in the sunshine all of the time because of the feeling of well being it gives me.

But for some gardeners the sun is hugely important. During the winter months when the day length is at it's shortest and the dark wet and gloomy nights seem to last forever, many  of us suffer with SAD or Seasonal Affective Disorder.

The disease is very common and especially in women which can start as early as their late teens leading to prolonged depression in later life.

Symptoms are a generally feeling of disinterest in everything. Depression and a willingness to sleep longer. A desire to eat more including very sweet things.
In severe cases a feeling of uselessness, guilt and hopelessness is common and sufferers may even feel suicidal.

Aerating the lawn this autumn

After a long season of wear, your lawn will need aeration if it is to stay in good shape.

Compaction around the roots, which are being restricted in the compacted soil because they have been trampled by lots of feet, means they cannot breath properly and you will need to create some air spaces.

It is vital to break through the compressed soil structure, loosening the root zone around the grass and in the process allow free passage for the fine white grass roots to expand. This all leads to a much healthier and balanced sward and combined with scarifying tips and a good feeding regime

The garden is a silent witness

A couple of news items this week started me off on a train of thought about crime and how the garden fits into a sequence of events and becomes the silent witness.

Zack, a newly born baby boy who still had his umbilical cord attached when he was abandoned in a garden in Liverpool is the innocent in a desperate crime that only Zack's mother can solve.

The second was the discovery of a man's body in the garden of a house in Greater Manchester.

Somewhere, someone knows the facts behind both of these cases yet they will remain a secret until either the police make a breakthrough in their investigations, the person or persons involved make themselves known or information by a third party forces a resolution.

Royal food taster required

If I were Camilla I would not let hubby Prince Charles prepare the breakfast in the morning without a member of the royal household testing the food in advance.

Friday (21st Sept.), Charles opened the second part of countries first garden dedicated to poisons at Alnwick, Northumberland.

5 garden jobs to consider for this weekend

As the summer throws out the last of it's weakened rays and the leaves turn evermore red and bronze it is time to consider the autumn tidy up before the leaf rake and secateurs are called upon.

Most of us get the urge to spring clean the greenhouse in readiness for the busy time but how many will actually do the autumn equivalent?

I am not suggesting that you do all of these jobs during one weekend but we all need to start somewhere.

The elements of organic gardening, by Prince Charles

Keep an eye out for our future king's book 'The elements of organic gardening'.
The soon to be sixty year old has worked with co author Stephanie Donaldson - the editor of Country Living.

Charles has been a log term advocate of organic and  practices what he preaches on his Gloucestershire estate, Highgrove.

Turn your golf course wild and balance the ecology

Can you see a flock of sheep mowing the fairways or chickens chasing a daddy long legs across the greens?

Well if the model for a balanced ecology adopted by Cordova Bay Golf Course then the use of chemicals on golf courses could be eradicated for ever.

Cordova Bay Golf Course has been certified as a natural sanctuary which means Gordie the rooster can strut his stuff around the 71 par course without being turfed off.

Home depot acts early to avoid landscape losses

Ben S. Bernanke may have saved the US economy from a heavy fall but few insiders seem to feel safe from a recession.

This weeks rate cut has let a herd of bulls loose like children in a candy store. However the bears only see it as a matter of time that the DOW will resume it's downward path and in doing so take the world indices, including the UK markets with it.