Landscape Juice

Horticulture Week subscriber figures fall again

Is it the economy or is it the realisation that a magazine subscription model is not sustainable? I will have to let you make up your mind on that but what I can tell you is subscriptions at Hort Week have fallen around ten percent in the period for the 1st July 2008 to 30th June 2009. Audited figures from ABC reveal that total average net circulation fell 128 copies in the 12 month period 2007/08 from 9,579 to 9,451 copies in 2008/09. Analysis for a single distribution on the 28th May 2008: Total Net Circulation 9,119 (8,690 UK) (429... Read more →

Marshalls plc starts lay-off program

Marshalls, one of the UK's largest landscape material supply companies and main sponsor of the Chelsea Flower Show, has commenced its lay-off program after eighty percent of its workers voted in favour at a recent meeting. Some staff will now take time away at a fifty percent reduced salary. In results published yesterday (28th Aug) figures revealed that turnover for the group fell to £166m from £211m and profits (pre tax) fell from £22.7m to just £4m. Marshalls are now relying on the Olympic Village to pull them up. Chief Executive, Graham Holden told the Financial Times: "public spending on... Read more →

Creating a traditional dry stone wall with local stone

It appears that the dry stone wall is making a bit of a comeback as clients move to more sustainable materials. Imitation or reconstituted paving and walling can take its toll on the environment both in terms of manufacture and haulage of materials to the manufacturing base. Environmental cost is increased when materials are delivered onto the various stockists around the country before moving to its final destination and place of construction. As you travel from place to place in the UK (or the world) there is much historical evidence of localised material production and use. In areas such as... Read more →

Outsourcing banner design for your website

Regular visitors to Landscape Juice will have noticed some strange goings on in the last few days as things appear and then disappear again. I have decided to have a little bit of an autumn refresh and one of the tasks was a slight redesign of the banner image. It's not that I was unhappy with the original image but more of a case of wanting to draw on the strength of the Landscape Juice brand and bind it firmly to the Landscape Juice Network by welding the two sites together. The original banner design was created using one of... Read more →

Birds of prey killed by illegal pesticides

A new report, released by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (Scotland) has revealed that there is a widespread practice of illegal baiting designed to kill carrion. There have been twenty eight cases of birds of prey being killed in Scotland due to the illegal use of pesticides including a white-tailed eagle, two red kites, fourteen buzzards and three ravens. Forty two illegally set baits have also been discovered - five buzzards and a red kite have been shot, and peregrines and hen harriers have mysteriously disappeared; it is believed that these disappearances are also linked to poisoning... Read more →

What does a gardener do on holiday - visit a garden of course

I have just had a little bit of time off and away from the computer screen. Some of this time was spent helping friends source and install a couple of oak beams to support the upstairs floor in an old French house they've just bought, and a bit of stud work framing for the upstairs bedrooms and bathroom. I also cleared and levelled an area at the back of my house - that had become a little overgrown - and poured a twenty six metre long footing for a stone retaining wall I am building. On top of this wall... Read more →

Yell.com Head of Content responds

I realise that when I write anything on Landscape Juice that I can give a very one sided view and it is mostly my opinion - although I add links to factual info where possible. I do however always offer anyone the right of reply, either by leaving a comment at the foot of a post or, in this case, by publishing (in full) their communication. I have received this email first thing this morning in response to yesterday's post - Yell.com gardening blogs. Phil, I thought I'd respond personally to the email you sent to Rob yesterday. I've had... Read more →

Yell.com gardening blogs

Back in May I was contacted by Yell.com and asked if I would be prepared to write regular gardening blogs for them. Initially I was flattered and I thought I had been selected because of my writing; after all, Landscape Juice was making good ground and attracting a great audience. I slept on it for a night and asked a couple of media friends, who work online, for their advice. Their opinion was I didn't need Yell in the first place but they needed me (and others like me). Yell's content commissioning manager told me any agreement would be 'non-transactional'... Read more →

New Sarpo ‘superspuds’ lead the way in low carbon gardening

Earth-friendly gardening writer John Walker reports from the recent Sarvari Research Trust open day, on the shape of the ‘footprint’ of spuds to come. Exceptional resistance to potato blight and virus diseases, high yields, even in poor soils, weed-smothering tops (haulms), drought resistance, and a long storage period. What more could you ask of the humble spud? The breeding and development of the Sarpo (Sarvari + potato, pronounced ‘sharpo’) varieties is perhaps the best recent example of how research in commercial crops has brought huge benefits for gardeners, allotmenteers and smallholders. Commercial growers have been slow to appreciate the benefits... Read more →

Echinops time-lapse video

Neil Bromhall has created this fascinating time-lapse video of an Echinops flower opening. Neil says: "Time-lapses reveal growth that we can't normally see. I hope you like the way Echinops opens its flowers in succession over a period of a few days. "This strategy ensures that some of the flowers will be pollinated by insects after periods of bad weather when the insects have been inactive." Read more →