Landscape Juice

Trusting the judgement of qualified practitioners

Land management practitioners are vital in protecting our biodiversity, natural and cultural heritage and in particular ensuring the survival of trees for future generations, but at present are largely ignored, disconnected from decision making and even disenfranchised from their own remits, writes Philip Howard of European Trees.

The UK has a shortage of land management practitioners, from Arboriculturalists, Horticulturalists, Agriculturalists and Silviculturalists. The very titles of their profession have been abandoned in favour more easily understood, yet less defined titles – Tree Surgeons, Landscapers and Farmers and these roles are largely misunderstood or worse subject to over arching statements which dismiss their professionalism: In ecological circles a ‘Farmer’ is considered bad unless proven otherwise. Foresters and Arboriculturalists cut down trees; their work in planting and extending woodland cover or working on a tree to extend its longevity is often ignored.

Professional branding is the key to success, says Arbworx

Jon and Sophia Lee are a husband and wife team on a mission.

Based in Brighton, their Arbworx landscaping and tree care business is going places and despite the difficult trading conditions they're expanding and hiring new staff.

The key to Arbworx success? Jon says professional re-branding has changed their business virtually overnight.

We found the secret to getting more leads came from a professional rebrand. I was very reluctant to change from our old branding but was convinced when the calibre of client virtually changed overnight. No more small low margin jobs that forever run over and have to be chased for payment, writes Jon Lee.

Business to business and business to local authority works have really raised our profit margin and continue to do so. The trick with these clients is not to get greedy and maintain a fair pricing policy. Just because they have a large budget to spend do not try to raise your margin to soak it up. This way you reap the benefits for years rather than months and generate a loyal customer base that return year on year.

Digital time bomb waiting to go off

We live in a digital age and almost all of us are using computers for work and for play.

Depending on the nature of the play, many digital dilemmas relate to the world of work, but not all of them, particularly where photographs are concerned.

With this in mind, although the bias of this piece is toward the working world and in particular large collections of data, please don’t dismiss its relevance to computer play if it involves anything that you have created or want to save, writes Amanda Davey.

As background, I was in charge of a computer network in a practice of landscape architects running six offices across the British Isles for ten years. I still keep an eye on the market, contribute to discussion on the Landscape Institute archive and of course use my own computing system, but focus my attention on fieldwork, research and taking photographs. Not as lucrative, but more fresh air.

Computers have been part of my world since taking a BBC touch-typing 1-hour session in a trailer in Warwick marketplace in 1984. The speed of change has been on occasions awesome to watch, but it has been a very interesting period to live through.

Flatulence and biodiversity - part two

A little while ago I received an invitation from Phil Voice to attend one of the many intriguing seminars at Creating Landscapes at Capel Manor in October, writes Amanda Davey.

The title “Establishing Wildflower Meadows” brought to mind a blog I had done under my own heading of Pragmatic Bollards (the hidden things that connect with landscape architecture).

Also entitled Flatulence and Biodiversity, I wrote it full of enormous enthusiasm following the interim results of a study into animal methane production whose conclusions had hinted at a very promising future for our landscape, as a result of the improvements to digestion brought about by a livestock diet consisting of wildflower plants, such as are found in wildflower meadows.

Phil very kindly offered to host an update to the blog, 2 years after it was first written.

When is a conceptual garden not a conceptual garden?

Like so many, garden writer Helen Gazeley went along to this year's Hampton Court flower show, but here visit set her wondering.

Helen comments on her Weeding the Web blog: "Picturesque was one of my favourite gardens. Fundamentally Fungus was surely the least successful. And where do they really draw the line between conceptual and show?"

When is a conceptual garden not a conceptual garden? Asks Helen Gazeley.

When it’s a show garden, silly.

Visitors to Hampton Court this year surely found themselves questioning the difference as the conceptual and show gardens squared up to each other across the Garden Walk. And the contrast (actually, that should be comparison) was brought into stronger relief when I spoke to Judy Cornford who designed The Eye of the Internet Maze. “I entered it as a conceptual garden,” she said, “but they asked me to be a show garden.”

Andrew Mikolajski: a plant that by all rights should not really exist

Travel broadens the mind. At least, it broadens your gardening experience. On a recent visit to Frankfurt, I was interested to see on several city balconies garden plants I would not have thought would be hardy there – acacias, Albizia julibrissin and olives as well as bananas and the Chusan palm (Trachycarpus fortunei) writes Andrew Mikolajski.

Growing – spectacularly – to cascade down a wall from an upper storey (rather than clamber up it), the climbing hydrangea, Hydrangea petiolaris, rather took my breath away. Being deciduous, this, of course, is perfectly hardy – but you hardly expect to come across it in the middle of a city.

Listen to the SodShow with Peter Donegan

I've just returned from Dublin where I visited landscaper and radio host, Peter Donegan to discuss with him, amongst other things, landscaping in Ireland and also to talk a little bit about Landscape Juice.

You can either pop over to Peter's blog or listen to the Audioboo below.

Thanks again to Peter and Brian for allowing me some time on their show. Listen to today's show in full on Dublin City FM.

Here's what the deadly duo look like in real life:)

Parochial strategies - Universal impacts?

My recent Devil's Advocacy (see comments) in the recent peat debate lead me to realise how little I actually know.How parochial responses are and how much the 'players' rely on emotive rather than analytic responses to galvanise public opinion, writes Steve Yandall.

The issue of peat bogs is an international problem but the information being disseminated is very local and opaque resulting in the real issues not being understood and the potential for action without being assured of the reaction!

I will not pretend to understand every aspect of the current situation or to have a solution but do understand that our government/public bodies and peat owners/exploiters are failing to communicate successfully with the public and are thus relying on an emotive rather than an analytical response thus confounding a building block of democracy-education!

The Threat of Phytophthora gets worse

This is a scary time for European trees, since it was first discovered, Phytophthora ramorum and some of its relatives have not abated.

The spread of the disease has not been halted despite some serious investment and efforts by the FC and DEFRA in the UK and their European counterparts. Recent news that the spread is as a result of sporangia in Larch plantations is a massive new problem, writes Philip Howard.

With most EU countries now adopting austerity measures or cuts to public spending, how much will the budgets of the organisations dealing with this problem be affected. This is already answerable and we know that funding has been dramatically reduced and will continue to be reduced.

Health and Safety in the garden

Robin Ainsworth is founder of www.gardens4u.co.uk, based in Market Drayton, Shropshire and Putney, South-West London.

Robin isn't convinced that garden health and safety is being taken seriously - Robin asks:

What is the most important safety item when working on a job in a garden - boots, gloves, goggles, head protection, hi-viz vest, or a dust mask?

The answer, says Robin, is simple...it's all of them.