Landscape Juice

Grasslands could store more carbon than forests if managed less intensively

(image: wildflower grass land on the edge of Avebury Ring)

The Grasslands Trust has launched a new report which highlights the importance of England’s grasslands, challenging policy makers to re-examine the importance of this resource.

The report identifies the opportunity to massively increase the amount of carbon stored in grassland soils through a carbon offset system.

Natures Tapestry, authored by The Grasslands Trust’s Director of Conservation Miles King, tells the story of England’s grasslands and sets out a series of recommendations which would make a real impact on their mission to halt and reverse the current decline of grasslands – nine tenths of which have been lost in the last 70 years, victims of intensive agriculture, development, and neglect.

The report explains why grasslands are important – including the way the ecosystem services that they provide underpin our daily lives. These services include carbon mitigation; probably one of the highest profile issues in environmental conservation today.

Larch disease spreads to new areas of Britain

Ramorum disease of larch trees has been found in two new areas.

Outbreaks have been confirmed in larch woodlands in Lancashire, England, and on the island of Mull in western Scotland.

The Lancashire outbreak at Churn Clough reservoir between Burnley and Clitheroe is the second confirmed finding on larch in England outside. Previous outbreaks had been confined to the south west.

Although the site is about 60 miles from the next nearest confirmed outbreak on larch, in the Peak District there have been findings on other plants, such as rhododendron, nearby.

Investigations are continuing into other suspected sites in north west England, and the Forestry Commission believes there is a high probability that more outbreaks will be confirmed in the region.

Tatton Park, see horticulture in abundance

Find more photos like this on Landscape Juice Network

Craig McGinty has been at the RHS Garden Show Tatton Park.

Yesterday at the RHS Flower Show Tatton Park the rain stayed away and the clouds scuttled by as designers and landscapers unveiled their gardens to the crowds, writes Craig McGinty.

Sweeping grasses, bold colours and sinuous pathways guiding the eye featured in many gardens, but a roaring dinosaur, the Wombles and giant vegetables also attracted the crowds.

What is the true value of garden maintenance?

Professional garden contractors constantly face two recurring questions: How much should I charge for my skills and how much am I worth to the market?

They might seem simple questions but there is far from two simple and straight forward answers.

There's no 'one size fits all' gardener - skills can range from specialisms in one particular niche i.e roses or begonias to experience across many disciplines i.e. lawns; trees; shrubs; greenhouse; pesticide application.

Glen Jackson benefits from dropping the knife with an RHS gold medal

Glen Jackson, senior horticultural tutor at HMP Everthorpe speaks to Craig McGinty at RHS Tatton Park about the garden Save a Life, Drop the Knife which has won the best show garden category.

Created to empower young offenders at HMP Everthorpe, Glen says he was fortunate to have had a very good team. From serrated leaf edges to sword shaped leaves, Glen explains how the plant choices work together to put across the message.

Read more about the ideas behind the garden's theme to empower young offenders and reduce knife crime on the sponsor ISg's website.

Sue Beesley talks about building a winning show garden

Sue Beesley sounding very relieved, reflects on her success at winning a gold medal, speaking to Craig McGinty at RHS Tatton Park.

Sue says that it is absolutely essential to stick to the design brief something that in her fifth year she can claim to have done. This year's show garden is called Grasses with Grace and Sue explains how the garden has taken its form built around a centrepiece figure by the sculptor Juliet Scott.

Read more about the build-up of Grasses with Grace on the Bluebell Cottage gardens blog.

Sharon Hockenhull talks about her Embrace garden at RHS Tatton Park

Sharon Hockenhull talks to Craig McGinty about her Embrace garden for St Anns Hospice at the Tatton Park flower show.

Sharon quotes patient Keneth Charles Weston as her inspiration for the garden.

The Embrace garden celebrates 40 years of care at St Anns Hospice and has been designed to evoke the idea of a physical, spiritual and emotional embrace.

Read more about the Embrace garden on the St Anns Hospice website.

Where to find Sharon

Website: www.sharonhockenhull.co.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/fruitshare

RHS Tatton Park picks the garden award winners

RHS Flower Show Tatton Park awards 2011 have been selected.

Best show garden Save a Life, Drop a Knife designed by Glen Jackson & the offenders at HMP Everthorpe.

Best Football Club garden, This is Anfield, designed by Ann Picot

Best back to back garden, Dinosaurs at Large! Designed by Mark Hargreaves & Mark Sparrow

Best Visionary Garden I Dream of the Promised Land, designed by TheDesign CIC

By all accounts it has been wet and cold during the garden build-up. But Landscape Juice will be bringing news about this as well as some reports from RHS Tatton Park as Craig McGinty is there following the events.
Visitors can enjoy the gardens from 20 - 24 July 2011.

EU postpones London's clean air deadline

London has been given a time extension to meet the European limits on airborne particles (PM10). This fact was discovered by Clean Air in London after they made a Freedom of Information request.

The revised Defra plan submitted on June 11th has been accepted giving the government until the end of 2011 to bring down the PM10 levels.

Although the government has never met the 1999 legal standards since they became enforceable in 2005 there will be no further action by the European Commission.

The Director of Clean Air in London (CAL), Simon Birkett told the BBC that the government is being given, "dispensation for breaking the law."

Wildlife-friendly gardening is not boring, says Marc Carlton

These days the essence of pollination biology has become the subject of domestic chit-chat, at least as far as bees are concerned.

For one thing what happens to bees affects us all. Bees sitting on flowers are about as tangible and normal as raindrops falling from a cloud and about as essential to life, or that's what we all learn from an early age.

So why then did Marc Carlton, a statistician and keen gardener, refer to studying pollination biology in 2005 as a flash of insight?