Landscape Juice

The Big Interview: Phil Stovell Garden Design

(image: Garden Designer Phil Stovell) Phil Stovell is a garden designer based in Somerset. Not only has Phil set up his business in a recession, to add to the challenge, he has also relocated from Hampshire. Phil Voice asks Phil a few questions about his business and about being a garden designer. You are fairly new to the landscape industry, is garden design a whole new ballgame? No, not really. Coming from a design background, I found moving into garden design very comfortable in all. Studying garden design however threw up all sorts of new ways of thinking that challenged... Read more →

Illegal and hazardous chemicals found in Chinese herbs say Greenpeace

A study by Greenpeace of Chinese herbs has found many contain illegal and hazardous chemicals. Once growing in forests and only picked at certain times of the year, Chinese herbs are now grown on an industrial scale and reliant on the use of pesticides. Greenpeace bought herb samples from a handful of renowned herb growing regions in China. They also purchased samples of herbal medicine from nine different cities (including Hong Kong) and from nine companies' for pesticide testing. The results of Greenpeace's investigation reveal the herbs contained a cocktail of pesticide residues. Many of these pesticides are illegal in... Read more →

Rare Bird Network warns of careless social media use

You can just imagine the delight of a birdwatcher as they stumble across a bird nesting site. Maybe young chicks are in the nest or eggs are being incubated by a parent bird? It is so easy for a bird enthusiast to pull out a smartphone and snap away and immediately in the excitement share their find with friends or the wider bird watching community. By tweeting or adding a photo of a nesting site to Facebook a birdwatcher immediately puts a nest with eggs or un-hatched birds at risk. Because of social media's ubiquitous nature, recording findings and sharing... Read more →

New breeding site for Norfolk Hawker dragonfly confirmed

The British Dragonfly Society says that a new breeding population of rare Norfolk Hawker dragonflies has been found at Paxton Pits Nature Reserve, Little Paxton, Cambridgeshire. It is the first breeding site to be discovered outside of its Norfolk and Suffolk stronghold since Norfolk Hawkers were lost from the Cambridgeshire fens 120 years ago. The first of recent sightings of Norfolk Hawker in Cambridgeshire came two years ago when a male was seen holding territory over water soldier plants in Hayling Lake at Paxton Pits Nature Reserve. Last year a female Norfolk Hawker was observed on the neighbouring Rudd Lake.... Read more →

The Big Interview: Mike Warman of Aura Landscapes

(image: Mike Warman (right) receiving a highly commended award from Marshalls) Mike Warman is director of Aura Landscapes Ltd, based in Southampton. The company is fairly young, trading for just over three years but it has gone from strength to strength winning six regional awards and one highly commended award in the Marshalls national awards. Add to that winning the contract to hard landscape around Bath Rugby Club’s training ground, it has been an excellent few years for Aura Landscapes. Despite his busy workload we caught up with Mike for The Big Interview. How did you start the business? Having... Read more →

Thomas Heatherwick caught up in plagiarism row

(image: A drawing of the petals from Atopia's 2007 Olympic sketchbook presentation) It seems fame and fortune are on the cards for designer Thomas Heatherwick. The man behind the Olympic cauldron at last summer's London games is behind plans to build a pedestrian garden bridge spanning the River Thames from Temple to the Southbank connecting north and south London. However the bridge garden might not be at the front of Heatherwick's mind right now after being faced with claims that his Olympic cauldron was based an idea presented to the Olympic committee in 2007. New York based design studio Atopia... Read more →

Campaign to save wild Juniper

Juniper is best known for its aromatic berries, which are prized for the flavour they impart to gin. In fact, the word ‘gin’ derives from genièvre or jenever - the French and Dutch words for juniper. Juniper is one of only three native conifers - the other two are yew and Scot’s pine - and was one of the first trees to colonise Britain after the last Ice Age. But today the wild juniper plant is in serious trouble. Juniper has steadily declined over the last few decades and many counties in southern England have lost over 60 per cent... Read more →

Should we worry about weedkiller in our pee?

People in 18 countries across Europe have been found to have traces of the weed killer glyphosate in their urine, a study by Friends of the Earth Europe has found. I've used glyphosate all my working life and used it just last week to control grass and perennial weeds. Glyphosate is widely used in farming and horticulture and to be honest there's very little else that can control weeds in the same way. Roundup, made by Monsanto, is the most popular product containing glyphosate. Monsanto maintain that glyphosate is safe but a number of studies - like this one -... Read more →

The Big Interview: Nick Milne of Southern Landscape Contracts

Nick Milne is a co-director of Southern Landscape Contracts Ltd SLC based in Chandlers Ford, Hampshire. SLC is a young company with big ambitions and already operates extensively around many regions of southern England with depots in Hampshire and Buckinghamshire. Here Nick talks a bit about SLC and its place within commercial landscape industry. SLC is an ambitious growing company. What do you believe stands you out from the rest? We strive in achieving horticultural excellence across the full range of the landscape solutions we offer. We believe our portfolio is unrivalled and extremely diverse. Typically what class of client... Read more →

Recording calls will protect contractors as well as the consumer

What with the news that the US government's agencies and GCHQ have been granted access to emails and telephone calls it comes as no shock to hear of further Big Brother measures coming into force. This time though there's a less sinister reason; to help safeguard the consumer against dodgy traders who renege on their word after a deal has been struck. A new bill of rights is to be passed which will mean home-owners can record meetings with contractors and allow them to use these recordings as evidence should any transaction turn sour. The new bill of rights will... Read more →