Landscape Juice

Brian Valentine Photography

I am on the search for the website of garden and wildlife photographer Brian Valentine. Brian's work is featured this morning on the Daily Mail site showing some macro images of flowers through the 'orbism' (I might have made that word up!) of a dew drop. Truly amazing captures, something I have tried before myself but Brian has obviously got a flare for it. If anyone knows of a website for Brian I would be delighted to add it to my side bar. Do you take great photo's or have you captured something unusual in the garden or the wild?... Read more →

Using a Scythe to cut grass

When we bought our derelict farm in 2004 there were a number of old implements and 'things' left lying around in the stone barns. There were old tin milk cans, ancient wine bottles, rings for clamping into a bulls nose, mole traps and in one corner of a big barn was a scythe. Well I call it a scythe but it may even be a home made version and it got me wondering what life was really like before lawn mowers were available on a large scale? When I started as an apprentice green keeper at Blackmoor Golf Club in... Read more →

A Compost Kind of Girl

A compost Kind of girl is available from Amazon with all of the illustrations in watercolour from Bryony herself. Read more →

Illegal forestry and our collective responsibility.

Next time you sit down on your new hardwood garden furniture to eat a BBQ on a glorious summers day, think about where the wood might have come from. A recent survey suggested the public were convinced the harvesting and dealing in illegal timber had become a thing of the past, the reality of that notion could not be further from the truth. Your new patio set could be one of thousands of products that have been made from stolen timber there illegal traders are deforesting large tracts of land to fuel the demand. It is a vicious circle but... Read more →

Job losses as the downturn takes a hold

The golden years for garden centres and nurseries seems to be well behind us now and cracks are appearing in the industry. Suttons Horticulture of Terrington St Clement together with it's subsidiary PA Moerman has gone to the wall with the loss of 98 jobs. Suttons was named In 2006 as best manufacturing business in the West Norfolk Mayor's Awards for business achievement and in 2004 it it gained the accolade as one of the UK's fastest growing companies in the Sunday Times. The company, which supplies plants and flowers to supermarkets such as Sainsbury's, Morrisons and the Co-op called... Read more →

Planting the Giant Redwood for the future

The Giant Redwood or Sequoiadendron giganteum in Latin is one of the most fascinating trees on the planet. It is a native of North America and grows well in mountainous regions and is found on the slopes at altitudes of 7000 feet. Probably the most famous of the Giant Redwoods is the one which has been hollowed out to form a tunnel which you can drive through. Visitors to the Yosemite National Park can drive amongst these giant trees and judging by the pictures I have looked through this morning here, here and here they need to be seen to... Read more →

Joining the National Trust

There is, arguably, one organisation in Great Britain that has done more for our heritage than any other. The National Trust has been in existence since 1895 after being formed by three Philanthropists. Sir Robert Hunter, Octavia Hill and Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley were so concerned about un-controlled development and industrialisation that they wanted to preserve the nations assets, including buildings, parts of the countryside and buildings. The Trust cares for over 200 buildings, 700 miles of coastline and over 612,000 acres of land. By setting up the National Trust, these three wealthy Victorians have guaranteed that these assets are held... Read more →

How to stripe your lawn

I have received an email asking quite simply how you achieve stripes on a lawn. "Dear Landscape Juice My boyfriend and I have just bought a house near Plymouth and we are very excited about having our own garden. We are just planning a few things and we do not have enough money to have a landscaping company in to do it for us so at present we are very happy that it is mostly grass. The lawn in 60 steps (heel to toe) long and 15 steps wide. When we arrived the grass was a little long but had... Read more →

Are you a weeding snob?

What a blooming stupid question I hear you all whisper. However, I will ask it again, 'Are you a weeding snob'? I could have phrased it ' are you a garden control freak'? I am certain from my experiences with clients that there is indeed such a species that exists within the UK gardening scene. Many people are more worried or concious about their garden because of the fear of condemnation from their peers for being untidy than they love and cherish the plants that are within. I even have experiences of clients following the 'must have' trends and latest... Read more →

Garden Blogging and the time frame for success

Landscape Juice has just passed it's first birthday. It is not always easy to find the inspiration to produce the material and I really do understand why so many bloggers fall by the wayside so quickly in their pursuit of readers. Some Blogs are highly focussed on their subject and do not incorporate off topic experiences, musings or ramblings. Some tell of the authors great struggle with life as well as what they do for a trade and many are an eclectic mix of anything. However, there are only a small percentage of blogs that make the twelve month anniversary... Read more →