Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Knoll Gardens & Neil Lucas

Grass man Neil Lucas is a joy to listen to. Interesting and humorous and incredibly knowledgable about his topic...GRASSES of course.


About 20 'garden designers' and hangers on followed him and his assistant Luke around the glorious Knoll Garden this afternoon soaking up the knowledge and even asking one or two pertinent questions.


The gardens look spectacular at the moment and apparently will do so long in December. If you haven't been GO GO GO. The Euonymus make it worth while and that's before you set eyes on the sweeping grasses and trees.


Managed to escape with no more than 3 plants which is an achievement.

Panicum Heavy Metal,  Molinia arundinacea 'Karl Foerster' and Miscanthus nepalensis with it's frothy bronze fronds...of course division will be taken from a friends hoard of 4 grasses, so in reality there are 7 new additions to be squeezed in come spring!

was inspired by the Paperbark Mulberry
and the pruning techniques

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

RAM's and Windows XP

Well as I discover more and more about hardware supporting software it all seems to get more complex. I discovered yesterday that although I upgraded the RAM on my lappy last year from 2gb to 4gb becasue I am running Windows XP as my OS (therefore 32bit) it cannot optimise the increased memory but can only use 3.something of it...darn no wonder it failed with renderworks, if only I'd known I could have simply upped the OS and the RAM instead of buying the Mac i5..........ok well thankfully I didn't know so got the joyous i5 as compensation for my own lack of research!

Friday, October 15, 2010

Well here I am .......employed!

I know a bit of a shock for me too dear reader.

One minute I was hot footing it down the self employed, starting my own business route and the next I have a job, well a 6 month full time contract with a possibility of a permanent role later. And yes as you ask, as a designer/project manager. Of course there is the usual trial period while we both suss out if it's a good fit but even so it has been a remarkably quick process and I find myself in a company where I will learn ALL about the build side of things, assuming the trial period is successful!

Exciting (read terrifying!) and a challenge to be sure.

Monday, October 11, 2010

DO you know which soil you are on?

Do you know which soil you re on? quite possibly but when it comes to being a Garden Designer soil-scapes can change pretty fast.

This little tool from Cranfield University is rather a godsend for these matters.

http://www.landis.org.uk/soilscapes/

Sunday, October 10, 2010

OCGD going from strength to strength

Having completed the OCGD Post Grad Diploma in September, 'coming down' has been a bit more drawn out than I thought it would be!

Duncan (the college principal) has completely revamped the course and started the first online 'virtual reality' course which runs alongside the terrestrial 'real reality' version now located in the beautiful Maplethorpe building of Oxford's St Hughs college. No wonder they have DOUBLED the student numbers for this years courses!

Lucky for us, the OCGD alumni, that we have full access to this excellent set of material AND the forum that goes along side it AND all the masterclasses running this year, and of course, our ongoing and inspiring, Flickr group still loaded with new imagery. So my withdrawal symptoms from all the intense studies, practicals and academics can be soothed somewhat by a moderate amount of immersion in all things designer-y

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Coming soon

A new educator is about to hit the web, reportedly the end of this month. Backed by some serious design and horticultural clout, not to mention the web savvy marketeers,  it should be worth the register and a follow: Find them at:

http://www.my-garden-school.com/

Friday, October 1, 2010

Have you seen the Garden Museum or Piet Oudolf?

No? Well neither have I but both will be remedied at a 'members only' lecture hosted by the Garden Museum in October entitled Going Dutch: Piet Oudolf - His Life and Work
Am thrilled to now be described as a 'Country Friend', of the Garden Museum, which sounds so Jane Austen!
All the other lectures are sold out, unsurprisingly, due in part no doubt to a large editorial in the Telegraph on Saturday
Note to self: buy the telegraph on Saturday!
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