Landscape Juice

My favourite gardening site

Once again I have to say a big thank you to my regular readers and of course all the new visitors over the last thirty one days.

I do not expect to keep coming back month after month announcing another record but the image here of my stats speaks volumes.

Growing your favourite vegetables

There is a new Growing Vegetables group on the Landscape Juice Garden Network.

Vegetable growing is the UK is one of the fastest growing pastimes at present with people expressing a desire, not just to be a little self sufficient, but to get themselves and their family outdoors and enjoy the more natural things in life with some fresh air in the lungs.

The changing face of gardening tools

There is no doubt about it that life, whilst peaceful and less hectic, in a bygone age was a lot harder when it came to carrying out some tasks.

I wrote back about my experience as a young lad on Blackmoor Golf Club as the operator of the old iron hay rake that we towed behind the tractor. I was the one who sat on the hard iron seat and pulled the times up and down as we traversed the rough raking the long grass into lines for collection.

Everything was so manual back then but not only that the tools were so much heavier.

Growing vegetables in a small garden

There is a great thread developing over at our garden network about growing vegetables within the constraints of a small garden.

Andrew Fereday had just posted a couple of pictures of the tiny plot with which he is having to organise - and boy does he manage to keep things tidy!

Wild Orchids in full glory

Just a 10 minute walk from my home here in the Lot et Garonne I can walk through meadows full of Orchids.

The wild flowers at the moment are everywhere.

Dundee's Botanic Garden starts beach vegetable patch

Dundee's Botanic Garden are to experiment with re-introducing a rare plant to a Scottish beach in move that is hope will encourage it to re-establish itself in greater numbers in the wild.

The Sea Pea will be planted in the sands of Broughty Ferry after the initial preferred site, the beach adjacent to the Carnoustie Open Golf venue, was scrapped due to fears that it could be damaged during the golf week by a hovercraft.

Association of Professional Landscapers win gold at Chelsea

It may be like getting blood out of a stone but the APL has finally told - read Association of Professional Landscapers invade Chelsea under stealth - the world about the successes of it's members and updated their website with news from last weeks Chelsea Flower Show.

Let us hope that this is a watershed and that the APL get out in the field, on a cold winters day or a wet and inhospitable site, photograph and interview the core companies that keep the landscaping industry going.

Bank Holiday basket sale - ends midnight

Anyone who carries out garden maintenance as a job tends to use a plastic bucket to collect the weeds when cleaning up a border.

The same bucket is used to collect the windfall apples and when harvesting produce from the vegetable patch.

But garden baskets are coming back into fashion - in fact baskets generally are coming back; whether it is a basket to hold the dirty linen or maybe for the cut flowers as you enjoy your garden, the basket is a useful addition - what is more, a basket look good.

Understanding chargeout rates and business costs

Settling your hourly rate at a level that is profitable is extremely difficult to get right but it is the single most important aspect of any business that should get the closest of your attention.

Make a howler with your calculations and trading will come in below your expectations and if you are relying on profitability for expansion, you could easily waste a whole year as your competitors, who may have been more diligent, pass you by.

Shock and awe, garden centre sales have plummeted

I am getting rather tired of reading headlines such as the one from the Garden Forum entitled "Sales of outdoor plants down 42% in April".

Managers need to pay £42.00 per year to hear news rather than latching on to business thinkers and shakers who have have been offering advanced news for free for some time.

I have been predicting that 'all is not well in the garden' for a very long time now, yet headlines such as the one from the Garden Forum seem to infer a certain surprise in the industry.