Landscape Juice

Stuart Marler on networking benefits

Carol Miers interviews a Landscape Juice Member on a mission.

Stuart Marler spent his youth at sea but wanting to put down roots led him to landscape gardening. Today he is still unable to resist an adventure so he's growing his own seven year old business and expanding into international waters.

He was having breakfast but in spite of the sounds of clearing dishes Stuart managed to explain what drives his company TVG Landscaping.

Kicking the habit: why gardeners need to ditch their addiction to oil

Oil spills and their impact on our planet’s ecology might seem faraway and remote, but one way of helping prevent them lies closer than you might think. This article, by earth-friendly gardening writer John Walker, won the Garden Media Guild Environmental Award 2010.

The pale and swirling oil slick from the Deepwater Horizon, which is polluting the Gulf of Mexico, captured by a satellite in late May 2010. The oil smooths the ocean surface, making the sun’s reflection brighter than the surrounding water. The bird’s-foot-like land extending into the sea is the tip of the Mississippi Delta. Image: NASA.

Here’s a question for you: what does the catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico (still underway as I write this*) have to do with your garden? And while you’re pondering that, try this: how much of the materials, equipment and gadgetry that make your kitchen gardening possible is made from a dark liquid just like that gushing from 1,500m (5,000ft) down on the ocean floor? Here’s a clue to get you started, whether you’re of an organic disposition or not: rather a lot.

Thinking Gardens has a new website

There is a group of literary activists who believe that a garden is much more than a place where you plant marigolds or daffodil bulbs.

Their mission statement is to "to encourage and develop a broader, more enquiring attitude to gardens. This will encompass the aesthetic of gardens, the philosophy of gardens, and what gardens mean or can offer. The Group’s work is aimed at stimulating both gardeners and non-gardeners alike."

The Thinking Gardeners' leader, Anne Wareham, takes no prisoners and is fearless when it comes to saying what she thinks and she'd like you to review the new Thinking Gardens website.

Can kids grow their own futures?

The main characters in many an Enid Blyton story are keen gardeners. They merrily grow plants to win competitions and make jolly new friends on the school allotment. If Enid Blyton back in the 1940s knew that children are happy when they garden, how did we forget?

As a society, we seem to have lost touch with the simpler tasks of life. Sowing seeds, watering and harvesting plants like rocket have become ‘rocket science’ to most people.writes Lara Jane Hurley.

Digging for victory through the 2nd World War, families grew food for themselves in gardens, allotments and parks. The subsequent intensification of agriculture, the development of supermarket culture and changes in working habits meant that growing food ceased to be a necessity and became seen as a hobby for the older generation.

About Carol Miers

I bought a small house in the Dordogne, France, and moved here in 2008. Here in the countryside, I have juggled jobs, teaching and sending in pieces to the Advertiser/Connexion, the English language paper for French residents before becoming interested in blogs. Now I write for the web (and teach a bit).

In a previous world, I had a career in the BBC in Broadcasting, working as an engineer in News and Current Affairs, and I worked freelance for some years in London. During this time I also wrote and produced for local radio projects in London and for national public radio in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Malvern Meet draws the wroth of garden journalist

Matthew Appelby gets a kicking by fellow journalists et al but Mark Diocono's wrong too.

There's a deep recession; your subscription numbers are on the decline; your staff are finding it difficult to master the change from print to digital: what would you do to expand your brand and reach out to potential consumers?

a) Go on a charm offensive and try to build an online community from your print readership, with a blog facility on your website open to all?

Garden writer Elspeth Thompson has died

The Telegraph's 'Urban Garden' writer, Elspeth Thompson, has died at the age of forty-eight.

The sad news was announced on her blog by Elspeth's husband Frank - it read: "It is with the deepest sadness that I must tell you that my beautiful and beloved wife Elspeth died on Thursday 25th March aged 48.

"She brought her family and friends so much happiness during her short life and she loved to share some of the things that brought her happiness through her writing. She was loving, warm, wonderful and generous and she will be missed by many."

Garden writing and irresponsible journalism

It's a bloody good job that George Pitcher wasn't writing about open heart surgery on his Telegraph blog yesterday - I can just imagine the advice he'd give....probably something like this:

Get any knife from the kitchen drawer and pop it through the chest wall anywhere close the the third rib from the right; don't worry about damaging what's behind because it can be secured with superglue afterwards.

Sponsor news and information articles on Landscape Juice

Landscape Juice will be expanding its role as an independent news and information service for the landscape and gardening industry and will be employing one or more freelance news reporters to help me get more news items published in faster time.

I will be using funds that have been generated through advertising and sponsorship to do this and I would like to lever Landscape juice's dominant position to provide much more exposure to small and medium sized business; as well as continue to publish information and opinion that affects all of the land-based industries.

Garden Press Event review by Claudia de Yong

I have just visited the Garden press Event held at The Royal horticultural Halls in Westminster.

There were 63 stands and the event is billed as key companies within the Industry showing what plants and products are new.

As for all shows, trade or public, they are only as successful as the stands that are there, writes Claudia de Yong.