Landscape and garden expert

Calling Oxford College of Garden Design students

Elspeth Briscoe has started a group on the Landscape Juice Network looking for students both past and present of the Oxford College of Garden Design.

Anyone wishing to join the network or participate in discussions on any aspect of life at the college or subjects related to garden design or landscaping are welcome.

A bit about the Oxford College of Garden Design - Duncan Heather is the Principal of the college and held in high regard throughout Europe for his achievements in garden design winning five gold, one silver and one bronze medal as well as three best of show awards.

The Natural History Museum bugged by rare insect invader

The Natural History Museum is asking gardeners to keep a lookout for and report any sightings of a mysterious bug that has decided to make the museums wildlife garden it's home.

About the size of a grain of rice, the almond shaped bug has been compared with twenty eight million other known insects and been ruled out. Scientists are baffled by it's identity.

Polymeric Sand and Epoxy Mortar for your patio

There is a lot of pressure on landscapers and garden designers to provide a means of drainage in new garden schemes.

Legislation which is set to come in in October 2008 will mean that home owners may need planning permission if they intend to pave over driveways or parts of their garden that is currently grass or a permeable surface.

The Society of Garden Designers

Finding a good garden designer in the UK or indeed anywhere else in the world is a tricky business and leads usually come via recommendation from a friend who may have already employed someone in their garden.

You could always take pot luck and pick, at random, a name or two from that famous yellow book but this method is a lottery because there is very little information about who you might employ.

The Woodland Trust plan massive Forest at Sandridge

The eight hundred and fifty acre site lies between St Albans and Harpenden in Hertfordshire and will be twice as big as Sherwood Forest and twice the size of Regents Park in London.

The Woodland Trust, formed in nineteen seventy two and committed to stop the destruction of the United Kingdoms ancient woodland, will seek to raise eight and a half million pounds to pay for the park, it is the Trusts biggest project ever.

Using Skype in your landscaping business

The Landscape Juice Network is going to attempt something this evening that I believe no other UK based, if not World, landscaping and garden network site has ever done.

We will hold a Skype chat and conference call to discuss issues related to gardening, landscaping and design through the Landscape Juice Network Skype chat interface.

How to use Chicory for Salad and Coffee

Isn't life just one great big voyage of discovery?

I have been living here in the Lot et Garonne for nearly four years now and stunned quite literally every month from early spring through to late summer by a different wild flower that pops up to grace the meadows and hedgerows.

I asked members of the Landscape Juice Network for help in identifying this French wild flower and Kerrie came to my rescue pointing me towards Chicory - Cichorium intybus.

A year in the life of a gardener's wife - Part the second - Summer

Thanks to Cat Fereday for part two of her fun blogs on 'A year in the life of a gardeners wife'

And so, we range into the summer season, leaving the broken tools and microwave meal disasters of Spring behind us....

In West Yorkshire, Summer is know as the "Hide and Seek" season - one moment its here, the next its gone. We range from indefatigable heat wave to monsoon season to grey and undecided (John Major weather). For me, as a gardener's wife, the onset of Summer represents a return to normality after the spousal gridlock of Spring.

Can you help The Shooting Star Children’s Hospice?

Most of us will look at our own gardens as a place of recreation and play without ever giving a thought to the other potential benefits that the harmony and tranquillity of this natural environment might bring.

A garden can be a diversion or sanctuary or even a passing and passive relief from anything serious that may be going on around you.

The gardens around The Shooting Star Children’s Hospice will be mean many things to many people both now and in the future and The Lawn Company want to do their bit in helping make hospice a very special place for those who need their support.

A visual blog of Landscaping on chalk

The modern day landscaper is now fairly well provided for when it comes to the array of machinery at his disposal, what used to take many man hours to do by hand, can be achieved in minutes or a fraction of the time.

On this occasion - in a Saltdean garden on the South Downs near Brighton - for Worthing firm TVG Landscaping, it was old fashion hand digging for him and his team because of restricted access through a narrow side entrance. The dig was made even harder because of the density of chalk that lay beneath the very thin layer of top soil.

The six cubic metres of waste from the project, except for the re-usable top soil was then wheeled back through the side entrance into a skip for removal.