Landscape and garden news, tips and advice

Google announces Sketchup 8 with built in maps

Google has released Sketchup 8. The popular 3D modelling tool now has Google Maps built in.

Announcing the release of Sketchup 8 on the 1st September, Google says its latest offering makes it 'easier to build site context models for your projects using our ever-growing collection of geo-data.'

Interview with Andrew Fisher Tomlin

Andrew Fisher Tomlin is past chairman of the Society of Garden Designers, director of the London College of Garden Design and a trustee of the gardening charity Thrive.

Recently, Andrew expressed his concerns that the landscaping and garden design industry was knocking each other too much.

I speak to Andrew about what's needed and how we can all work together in a much more unified way.

Listen to interview with Andrew Fisher Tomlin

Heatherwick's Seed Cathedral, storing the seeds of change

By Carol Miers.

The 'Shanghai Expo 2010' with the theme 'Better City, Better Life' runs until Oct 31 and like all previous international public exhibitions of its type, it's expected to have millions of visitors.

Britain's contribution is The UK Pavilion including the Seed Cathedral by Heatherwick Studio, London.

It's not every day that a seed can take root, but we all rely upon them, spring summer and autumn, whether a sycamore key, a poppy head, a rose-hip, or the dandelion seeds that blow invariably across the lawn and re-seed themselves.

Melissa Jolly wins silver medal at Gardeners' World Live

Melissa Jolly has won an RHS Silver Medal for her Salad Bar garden at Gardeners’ World Live.

Melissa was one of three winners of the National Savings & Investments Growing Gardens Today competition. The brief was to support grow your own initiatives by showing inventive ways of growing fruit and vegetables in the garden.

Melissa received a £5,000 grant to create and build the garden.

Visitors to the show then voted for their favourite sustainable fruit and vegetable garden and chose Melissa’s Salad Bar design which is a “modern and sustainable” practical solution that shows just how much you can grow in a relatively small space.

A key feature of the design is a wooden circular unit that doubles up as an area for potting plants and a bar table.

Read Melissa's blog.

Olivia Stewart becomes RHS Young Garden Designer of the Year finalist

Garden designer, Olivia Stewart, has just been announced as one of three finalists in the Royal Horticultural Society Young Designer of the Year competition.

Olivia, who is a member of the Landscape Juice Network, will be designing a show garden at RHS Show Tatton Park.

Olivia will receive a grant of £12,000 to create her garden, provided by the North West Regional Development Agency, together with the RHS. The three finalists’ gardens will be judged by RHS judges at the Show and the winner will be announced as the first RHS Young Designer of the Year in July.

Sourcing ethical sandstone for landscaping projects

As landscapers and gardeners, I feel we should take our ethical responsibilities extremely seriously. If we exploit or use a product in the construction of a garden we should know where a product has come from, how it has been produced and if it's from a sustainable source.

Indian sandstone has become popular with garden designers and landscapers in recent years; the wide range of vibrant colours and textured surfaces can make a landscaping scheme stand out strong against any planting scheme.

Its supply however, comes with a cost - both in terms of the environmental impact as it is mined and also in the way of human cost in getting it to market.

Garden design is childs play

I bet there aren't many garden designers out there who could boast designing a garden scheme for a £7 million regenerative housing development?

Alice Bentley can but it's not so much the value of the project that's remarkable; it's because Alice is just four years of age.

David Stevens gives his opinion on the Landscape Man

Much of the problem was down to the production, it is simply a pastiche of Grand Designs - right down to Matthew Wilson's presenting style.

I actually like Matthew, you can see that he is an intelligent and capable man but he has been fed a half baked script that the producers feel will dramatise the programme and situations - it doesn't.

These are the words of veteran international garden designer, David Stevens.

Maria Luisa Medina wins Chris Beardshaw scholarship

Up and coming garden designer, Maria Luisa Medina, has won the Chris Beardshaw Mentoring Scholarship 2010 at this year’s Malvern Spring Gardening Show.

Maria competed against six other shortlisted candidates to secure her place on the 12 month experiential garden design mentorship with Chris Beardshaw.

The Chris Beardshaw Mentoring Scolarship is open to amateur, trainee and semi-professional landscape designers, and the candidates came from a range of professional backgrounds.

Sarah Bradley to design French Ambassador's garden

Garden designer, Sarah Bradley, has won a garden design competition to design 'Le Jardin Entente Cordiale' for French Ambassador’s Garden in Kensington Palace Gardens.

Sarah, who is a student at the Inchbald School of Garden Design, was chosen for her design as she was able to combine French and English style whilst taking into account the necessary practical considerations.

The French Ambassador wanted to select an English garden designer in order to mix English and French elements and create a classic, yet modern feel.