Landscape Juice

The Young Garden Photographer of the year gets £25,000 prize pool boost

I received an email yesterday from GPOTY with a list of prizes that have been put up for the Young Garden Photographer of the Year competition.

I must say, I am impressed by the value of what is on offer.

Lawn advice - listen to the experts

We have all heard the expression "the customer is always right'. It is not something that I subscribed to myself and if I felt the client was about to make a big mistake then I would try to change their view.

But what do you do if your client is hell bent on doing something against your professional advice?

I spoke to Mike Seaton, managing director of the Lawn Company, based in Bracknell. Mike tells me of a recent project that had a recipe for disater written all over it, just because,' the client knew best'.

GardenLend - free garden maintenance

Anthony Wilson will be wishing he had known about GardenLend before the council finally evicted him for refusing to tidy up his rubbish strewn and overgrown garden.

Repeated requests by The Gateshead Housing Company fell on deaf ears and eventually, Bill Fullen, the company’s chief executive. patience finally snapped and court action was executed to rid the neighbourhood of the lazy gardener.

Danish Christmas tree suppliers charged with price fixing

"The Danish Christmas Tree Grower's Association and its director have now been charged under the country's competition law for sending out price guidelines to its members."

I am quoting from the Daily Mail website here. How ironic that this should happen after I suggested this might be the case in a recent post. "You could call it market forces, you might even take a cynical view that it is greedy marketeers cashing in on a seasonal demand worth over £100 million."

Greenkeeping at Morecomb Golf Club

Here is another little gem. Greenkeeper Scott, at Morecombe Golf Club, is using Blogger to keep members up to date on events and happenings around the course.

The site is not copiously written but it still tells a unique story of how the team tackles certain tasks around the course.

July was obviously a very wet one as you can tell from the the update on Scott's post. It is great because it tells the real story of how a golf course runs day to day.

Working with raised borders, enjoy your garden without breaking your back

There are many people in the United Kingdom who would love a garden but do not want to get physical. Digging over an overgrown, hard and vast border, whilst therapeutic to some, is a nightmare for others.

I witnessed this so many times over the years. A meeting goes well with a prospective client and the budget they have to spend on their new garden features would be reasonable; however, one of the main things that a vast majority wanted was 'labour saving' or 'not labour intensive' or 'low maintenance.

There is certainly no such thing as a 'no maintenance' garden for sure and trying to achieve a low maintenance garden is relatively easy, providing the owner of the garden practises a bit of discipline and gardens their plot little and often.

Plants that hug the ground or wood chip or gravel mulches make weed suppression easier but you will always get weeds coming through, especially if debris is allowed to build up on top of your mulch as weed seeds love to germinate here.

Rare Teloschistes chrysophthalmus Lichen found on Guernsey

In recent years, we have all become accustomed to plants being added to the Red List of endangered species. With this in mind, it comes as a pleasant surprise that a rare plant has made a comeback in an area that it has not been seen for over 140 years.

The lichen is called Teloschistes chrysophthalmus and was last seen growing on Guernsey in 1867.

Has the HTA reached the wrong conclusion?

I have just read an article on Horticulture Week entitled "Ground Force factor recedes as garden-related sales fall",

I am a little concerned that Andrew Maxted, the HTA commercial services director, has concluded that it is the waning of the 'Groundforce effect" that has turned the young off gardening whilst the current spend is being maintained by the 55's and over.

My take is this is way off beam. If there has not been enough evidence of late for the market professionals to realise that the UK is on the brink of a recession.

The IOG and BIGGA call off the wedding

It looks as though the relationship is on the rocks before the two parties could tie the knot.

The IOG - Institute of Groundsmanship - and BIGGA - British & International Golf Greenkeepers Association have ceased talks which were aimed at merging the two professional bodies.

Reading between the lines, it seems that IOG and BIGGA have realised that they are not suited and certainly not equal. It perhaps, underlines the divide between a groundsman and a greenkeeper and the rise in status of greenkeeping and the apparent apathy towards groundsmen in general.

Planting a Green Screen by Mobilane for instant effect

Whilst perusing the Design Buy Build on line magazine, I came a across this rather ingenious product for instant screening using real plants, that are already attached to your fencing. The product is called Green Screen and it is supplied in the UK by www.mobilane.co.uk.

The concept, is not itself a new one. I am sure we have all bought mature plants to shut out the view to an eyesore but, what Mobilane have done with their Green Screen is created a a very thin screen that is already attached to a robust fencing/trellis material, with the plants grown into a biodegradable pot.

In effect, you are using a modular system, the same way as you would erect an ordinary fence or trellis but in this instance you are killing two birds with one stone by have the vegetation attached. Hey presto! job done.