Landscape Juice

Reviewing the Henchman hedge cutting platform

If you work as a professional gardener or you have a large garden that has high mature hedges within it then you will undoubtedly need to prune, cut or trim them through the year to keep up with the maintenance - if you miss the defined maintenance period it can lead to some major remedial work later on.

Anyone who has let hedge maintenance slip for a season will know how difficult it is to get back on the right track. A season of hedge growth can be explosive and accessibility to the hedge seriously impeded.

Planting against a south west facing wall

Three weeks of warm spring sunshine have been absorbed into the exterior walls of our pigeonnaire and this heat can be felt radiating back out in the late afternoon - early evening.

I have just been onto the terrace to inspect the progress of our Virginia Creeper - parthinocissus tricuspidata veitchii - and it is so apparent, even though it is rooted on the west facing wall, that the leaves are at least three weeks advanced to those that face the setting sun (where the buds remain fairly tightly closed.

Is science taking us down the wrong route?

I have just read an article on the Times On-line website - Artificial trees and brightened clouds may help to cool us down - where there is talk about planting willow trees, burning the wood and then burying the charcoal so that the carbon dioxide is not released into the atmosphere or of creating artificial trees to recycle the carbon dioxide and pumping out oxygen.

On the face of it these seem clever thoughts but these theories deserve some much deeper consideration - are we not just trying to develop technologies that will allow us to continue on the same course of destruction by merely prolonging the date?

The Garden Network has a new owner as Applegate stands down

I am rather surprised and shocked to report that the Garden Network is now under new ownership after Linette Applegate handed the reins over to garden designer Tim Matcham.

The site is little over a year old and has 7857 members but, despite Applegate saying that the site is a success, the daily activity has slowed dramatically after many members were banned or censored - why is the Applegate/Mac partnership throwing in the towel?

I wish Tim the greatest of success and I hope that he listens to what the TGM members want from the site. If TGN had listened and embraced the concept, I think the Landscape Juice Network would never had come into being.

I also wish Linette every success and happiness because she also revealed that she is expecting her second child.

Keeping deer out of your garden with a fence

Having worked in the countryside all of my life I have often come across a lot of gardens that have been all but destroyed by some kind of feeding animal.

Whether it is rabbit or hare gnawing the bark from the bottom of young trees or the leaves from the lettuce in the vegetable patch or woodpeckers or crows tearing up the lawn in search of chafer grubs there is never really a garden that is safe.

Pheromone used to trap Chafer Grubs

A company that specialises in insect monitoring and control has created a trap designed to capture chafer grubs in the garden.

Oecos, of Kimpton in Hertfordshire say that the trap, which is primed with a powerful pheromone, will attract adult chafer beetles thus leading to less eggs being laid in lawns and soil.

The chafer grub - Phyllopertha horticola - is extremely destructive, feeding on the succulent white roots of grass causing large patches to die out.

Senior horticultural warden - Slimbridge

The Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust is looking for a senior horticultural warden to present the grounds at its wildlife centre at Slimbridge in Gloucestershire.

Part of the role will require the successful applicant to work in the nursery and in the main areas at the front of house as well as undertake work in the grounds and around exhibits.

For more information and a full job description or contact the human resources Department, WWT Slimbridge, Gloucestershire, GL2 7BT.

Tel: 01453 891130 or email recruitment@wwt.org.uk

Building a sensory garden at the Chelsea Flower Show

Jo Thompson has designed a sensory garden for children that is due to be built at the 2009 Chelsea Flower Show.

Here, in Jo's words, she explains the inspiration and why the light was 'turned on' for her.

Jo Says: It all stemmed from a conversation with Ally, the head gardener at Demelza Children’s Hospice in Kent. He was showing me around the gardens that play such an important part in the lives of the children of Demelza, and the lives of their parents and siblings.

The Macmillan Cancer Support - 'Healing Garden'

For the second post in her series in the run up to Hampton Court 2009, Jill Foxley explains that the death of a customer from cancer and the devotion to his care by a Macmillan support nurse spurred her on to support the Macmillan Cancer Support Trust by building a show garden.

Jill Foxley writes: You know how it gets sometimes with that 'two steps forward, one step back' feel? A couple of weeks ago we went along to Ecobuild and met up with some companies who were all very willing to help out with The Healing Garden we are to build for Hampton Court 2009.

Policy changes to boost rural communities

Has anyone noticed a massive shift in the way we are thinking about 'community' as a lifestyle rather than a buzzword on the Internet?

For sure the Internet has shifted away from paying lip service to actually building real communities that encourage expression, intervention, participation and invention.