Residential Landscape Architect...... in training!

NEW Blog!

2010-10-27T21:58:00.001+01:00

I have started a new blog to www.rosewarnegardendesigns.wordpress.com

Knoll Gardens & Neil Lucas

2010-10-21T22:02:00.003+01:00

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

RAM's and Windows XP

2010-10-20T09:22:00.000+01:00

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!

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

2010-10-15T20:30:00.000+01:00

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.

DO you know which soil you are on?

2010-10-11T16:26:00.000+01:00

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/

OCGD going from strength to strength

2010-10-10T10:48:00.003+01:00

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

Coming soon

2010-10-07T12:48:00.001+01:00

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/

Have you seen the Garden Museum or Piet Oudolf?

2010-10-01T13:43:00.002+01:00

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!

Are design competitions worth the time and effort?

2010-09-29T13:16:00.001+01:00

I am just back from the post office more extortion as they extracted the cost of getting a competition entry submitted in time. OK so it's my own fault for leaving it until the last minute but really, £5.05? for delivering an A4 envelope, a light A4 envelope, to an address a mere two counties away?!

That said I am thrilled at the achievement of getting not one but two essays/articles written in the last few weeks. I'm not that hopeful about winning anything or even being placed but on a personal level I am proud of myself for knuckling down and writing first a Historical Review of a local National Trust garden, Wimpole Hall and secondly, perhaps even more surprisingly, for sitting down this morning at 7am and writing solidly for 5 hours to produce a creditable 2000 words on a garden visit I made in late summer, The Dorothy Clive Garden in Shropshire.

Am now wondering how it took me 4 weeks to write the first one which was only 1300 words longer! I am going to blame the research angle entirely, and yes the research took weeks :)

After the remains of today off, next week I am thinking about getting started on an entry for the Chris Beardshaw mentoring program.

Oh and once the results are out I'll publish both here, if of course they don't win awards and thereby publishing restrictions ;)

Noel Kingsbury

2010-09-28T14:07:00.002+01:00

Should really have posted the day I got back so inspired was I, but life got the better of me and here I am 6 days later putting finger to keyboard ( pen to paper sounds so much nicer!).

Organised by an SGD member in Bishops Stortford some 50+ designers arrived at Writtle enthused about the lecture from Dr Noel Kingsbury.

Not quite sure what to expect I was surprised by how youthful he seemed - I am becoming increasingly ageist it would seem! His credentials seem to stretch forever and his comment that he began a nursery at the same time as Carol Klein started her Devon nursery, made me do a double take.

A fascinating and thought provoking lecture ensued as he covered succession, right plant right place and how to actually do that well. Asking us to consider the effects on maintenance (reduction!) and longevity (much longer) of our designed gardens should we take this approach.

As I am sure you know by now I am more plants than design (sorry Duncan!) and as the day went on I began to realise that a passion for plants can really enable a vision for design or maybe that should be a creative expression. Really understanding my media (the plants) and what makes them work well is going to unlock a whole world of possibilities. Because lets face it whilst many new varieties pop up at our yearly RHS shows, in the main, new genus and species do not get discovered every day and even if they did, the time to the typical gardening market is S L O W W W W.

We spent the morning in a darkened lecture theatre where I learnt that Dr K could do with some help on his powerpoint presentations though obviously not the content therein. In the afternoon we wandered through the rather fabulous gardens of the college, putting what we had learned in the morning into practice and trying, in our smaller groups, to identify the various types of plant matter and it's growing patterns.

Obviously the opportunity to ask as many questions as you like to someone as knowledgeable as Dr K was brilliant and I felt that spark of excitement when you know you've met a kindred spirit, an inspiring and gifted teacher and consequently someone you can learn a LOT from.

I now have all his books (slowing working my way through them!) and will be keeping an eagle eye out for further opportunities to take courses with him.

Web Site Designer

2010-09-19T14:10:00.001+01:00

Well I am officially working with a small local-ish company to design my corporate ID and if we work well together and the quote for web design is within budget we will do the website together too.

Have to say it was a pleasure to meet two clearly clued up desinger-y types with a non nonsense, no fuss approach, a beautiful inspiring 'office' space and clearly an understanding that for a truly good design, being functional is vital - I hark back to a previous professional life where the founders company motto was heartwarmingly focused and simple:-
"Functional should be beautiful and beautiful must be affordable"

The process of finding SuttonCo was an interesting one that led me to scads of 'local' web designer sites which were hideous and not remotely fit for purpose not to mention ugly, ugly, ugly!

Reminding me AGAIN that good design, be it website, corporate, interior or garden is not as common nor easy to find as one might think it would be. But I do say thank heaven for the web otherwise I would not have found them nor been able to research them through blog and social media and more....so guys and gals social media marketing works!

In between times I have been back to some gardens for a second photogrpah, and look, Wisely and The Savil last week and Wimpole Hall yesterday. When I get 5 minutes I will post images

Website Design

2010-09-13T18:58:00.001+01:00

Moving into the next phase of the transition to Garden Designer has me researching not only web designers but websites and I am surprised by the number of eminently capable designers who do such a poor job of designing their own website.

It si as if they throw out all the principles they have leant and, well, and what?!

Today I came across a real classic, oh it's elegant the person is a top designer who has won awards and plenty of press BUT BUT BUT, their internet showcase fails to deliver anything but a suspicion that their web designer took them for a ride, an expensive one!.

Text banged up against a table edge on one side and miles away from the other - making it look mean and out of proportion, so much flash you give up after the first 3 pages, content text so small, text so similar in tone it is barely visible on the page and content so 'blah blah blah' you switch off before the flash even finishes :), headers the change from a readable font to an illegible one as you 'roll-over' it - probably the ' clients choice' but it remains a poor one.

Ok enough of annihilating this designer sites - and no I will not say who's it is...well unless you offer bribery then I might consider it.

It is not the first, nor the last to demonstrate such a clear ignorance about the medium in which they are marketing themselves. Web goers are a short attention spanned lot, and I include myself in this, we want it NOW, we want it CLEAR, we want it to scream WELL DESIGNED and we do not want pretension - unless it is of the uber cool variety!

Needless to say I am still hunting for my 'within budget' web designer......

Can it really be done?

2010-08-28T13:00:00.001+01:00

Well here I am done and dusted. Final project, the soft landscape portfolio, printed packed and posted. A sense of overwhelming relief followed that final piece of information landing in the right place but it wasn't until posting it that the real sense of 'it's done, finished' hit me.

SEASONAL PLANTING:160 plants over 4 seasons

COLOUR THEME PLANTING:120 plants over 10 colourways

A certain gapping hole which of course will be filled in coming weeks with planning and progressing a new business, MY new business. But I have to say it has been a whale of a ride and a great deal more work than I imagined possible to cram into one year (well 11 months tbh) and a great deal more in terms of deliverables and learn than I also thought possible.

I've enjoyed the blogging and the sense of achievement at completing the course and now putting it into practice and making a success of my new business is the next stage.

New blog(s) to go with the new business.

Which books get you enthused about plants?

2010-08-17T17:51:00.000+01:00

In the middle of prepping 20 planting plans (!) and I am knee deep in fabulous books, spread open with sticky notes all over them identifying perfect combinations and possible plant choices. My current favourites are:

With Beth Chatto's wonderful planting schemes detailed

Predictable in places but mostly glorious ideas

Dreamy is indeed the word though the cottage garden features so heavily in UK examples one could be led to believe that's ALL we can do!

I'm in a Piet phase so though I gather things have moved on I am still lusting after these planting schemes ;)

Any other recommendations would be happily explored

Earth Clock - not on topic but fascinating nevertheless

2010-08-17T17:33:00.001+01:00

Poodwaddle.com

Glorious Shropshire summer days

2010-08-13T11:44:00.002+01:00

A short stint of house and chicken sitting for friends in sunny Shropshire allowed me ample time to pad round some glorious gardens (including The Dorothy Clive garden and Wollerton Old Hall) in the environs. The last one was Trentham Gardens a huge estate with some spectacular gardens. Think mature meets modern. I visited in the winter last year and was breath taken by Tom Stuart Smith's Italian Garden borders so felt a summer visit to see it all in it's full glory was both appropriate and frankly a must do whilst staying less than an hour away!

It was heaving with families and kids, HEAVING. I headed along the Trent beside the frothing grass paths and sculpture.

Sculpture and Grasses

Coming upon the Piet Oudolf borders is a delight they tantalise along the river path inviting you to explore the wide paths and deep, blocky planting. Somehow there is something much more satisfying about big blocks of plants, not 3's, 5's 8's per Fibonacci but 34's, 55's and 89's (also Fibonacci's but bigger :) )

Piet Oudolf borders

Swathes of Echinacea, White Swan and purpurea and probably several other so (no plant list :( ), Eupatorium purpureum, Solidago, Achillea, all colours and sizes, bluest Salvias, stands of Monada's, and pink/purple Liatris amongst them and then, of course with blocks of grasses to form backdrops and punctuations in the floriferous groups.

Birch copse with grasses

Two smallish copses of birch (Betula utilis and nigra I think) underplanted with grasses promise of future season when they will join the mature canopy of trees that dot the gardens. Seeing the layering of the plantings against the well established shrubs and trees re-inforces the vital importance of seeing the planting scheme within the whole environment.

Stretching on forever

This section of garden is maintained by 1 full time and 1 part time person plus volunteers which surprised me. It's pretty weedless and looked in excellent shape given the time of year and recent dry spell. I was lucky enough to speak at length with the gardener about her plants and the maintenance of this beautiful series of borders. Her enthusiasm for the plants and the development are infectious and lead one to imagine it will indeed develop over time and not remain static.

beautiful blooms

Crossing the paths into the Italian Garden proved something of a disappointment though. They just didn't look great. The planting was bitty, or so it seemed, there were a lot of unfilled gaps, collapsed plants that were still flowering and shockingly weeds at eye height. OK I am not a weed snob and know it's impossible to maintain a completely weed free environment but 5'6" (eye height for me!) flowering dandelions? c'mon! that's just poor management!

5'6" Taraxacum officinale - DANDELION!

At the time I thought the whole area looked unkempt - hardly appropriate for the formality of the space - but looking back at shots it doesn't strike me as so uninspiring. Maybe it felt worse in comparison to the boldness and striking planting of the Oudolf borders, maybe it was simply a hard year for the plants in that area. But uninspiring it was.

Italian Gardens

scale of planting in Italian Garden

and can I just say Trentham what on earth possessed you to plant this up in the upper (Italian) gardens? talk about poor juxtaposition!

hideous bedding in upper Italian gardens

The 100 ideas gardens on the whole were not worth photographing, which is a mean thing to say but they were so badly looked after - think dying plants, weeds, gaps, dead plants, broken fences, that I was shocked they were clearly starting to hard landscape for new ones. This was such a change from my December 09 visit when they were all looking full of promise and good structure.

WHICH just goes to show one season does not a good garden make!

Seasonal portfolio in the print

2010-08-06T14:25:00.001+01:00

After a moment of blind panic yesterday at the printers todays news came a s a delightful surprise. Not only was the quality of the print out fantastic and not in the least bit line-y (as we were worried it might be yesterday) but the first few pages look completely amazing, and the cost is about half what I had anticipated.

I'm really excited about seeing it finished and am onto part two though it is still more challenging due to having to limit my plant selections to 6 per colourway!

Do you know what this is?

2010-08-02T07:58:00.000+01:00

An alternate title could be ' It's not enough to know the Genus!'

I am mid way through the Seasonal portfolio and struggling to identify some of the flower images. It is of course great exercise in plant identification but sometimes one needs outside help. Time as ever is against me so I am asking for help.

Tweeters have been brilliant with speedy replies and suggestions so I am hoping that blog readers will be able to help to.

These are my current challenges.

Geraniaum himalayense? perhaps? perhaps not?

???? some sort or rudbeckia? or helianthus?

Veronica spicata?

all help gratefully received :)

Going cross eyed with photographs and plant details

2010-07-27T17:02:00.001+01:00

The final project of the PG Dip Residential Landscape Architecture course is a soft landscape portfolio (SLP). What is this? Well it forms two parts, the first part is a seasonal portfolio showing 4 'spectacular' borders for each season. Along with this is a detail page with 5 plants, from the border, detailed in terms of height, spread, water, soil type, hardiness, pH level and origin of genus oh and light levels, then a selection of 5 alternative plants. So that 4 borders and 40 plants per season plus a key and some fancy graphics!

SLP part two is much harder, which is why part 1 is being done first, this consists of colour themed planting plans. 10 sets of colour ways, 5 plants per plan (that's tough!) and one plan for shade one plan for full sun. Same plant detailing and same set of alternatives. So 20 planting plans and 200 plants to detail yes 200!!!!!!!

I should mention that we are expected to have photographed all the images ourselves - hahahaha

Happily I am more than 2/3rd of the way through part 1 just detailing plants and dreading the slog of part two. It's a great way to learn my plants and to understand them better but GODS it is a LOT of 'virtual cutting and sticking'

Portfolios are ordered and a schedule for printing is set. It is going to cost a fortune to print professionally but they will certainly be exciting things to show to clients. In fact I already have extra sets of borders to include. 16 simply isn't enough!!!

I am resisting showing an example because I hope mine will be individual, here is an example of the enclosed plant images

One of the top 10 gardens per the Telegraph readers... what do you think?

2010-07-18T19:52:00.002+01:00

Coton Manor in Coton, Northamptonshire is one of MY favorite gardens. I have even gone as far as to buy a season ticket, so much do I enjoy this garden and it's plantings.

"Originally laid out in the 1920's by the grandparents of the present owner, the garden has been developed and extended by successive generations capitalising on its natural setting, attractive views and abundant water. " literature from Coton Manor

The rich yellow stone walls of the house are literally coated in roses and an enormous wisteria with a raised patio skirting the house and flooded with pots of brilliant coloured geraniums. What a welcome and it certainly entices you to chose your direction carefully because there are at least 3 to chose from. I have a preferred route but tbh I usually head away from any other visitors as quickly as possible. Disappointingly Coton Manor now forbid the use of tripods - same old reason yawn. which of course on a grey damp day like the day I visit makes it all but impossible to take a good distance shot. They rather smugly point out that all the website images are taken without a tripod, I, rather impolitely want to point out to them that they have the lucky position of being there all the time and can whip out a camera whenever it suits them and especially when the weather is fine! I have to drive nearly 80 mins to get there and though it may be fine at home and forecast fine there sometimes IT RAINS and we have to try to make the best of it. Out of over 350 shots taken about half are blurred due to weather induced low light. Whinge over.

The dell gardens falling down the backside of the gardens are glorious in their damp shady conditions. At their best in the rain I have to say. Breathtaking planting and inspiring combinations. I do like seeing how it progresses and am amazed at the transformation since end of April when it was all but bare, now it is cheek by jowl planting and greenery/puple-ery.

The wildlife is a flamboyant as ever although the chooks apparently don't like the rain and scurry helter skelter across the lawn as the heavens open. The flamingos are less fussy and they stalk about munching in their orangey-ness.

Herbaceous borders are stuffed, a bit collapsed and being tied up and late 'chelsea chopped' as I glide about in my rain mac trying to protect my camera from the elements.

Then the nursery stuffed to the gunnels, more heaven.

What is not heaven is the lack of promised plant list and the apathy of the staff member about it's reproduction this season (let me say it is early July and they remain open until October!). So no plant list and no labels on plants.

For any garden opening to the public let me say this is a pet hate of many visitors, they do not care if you lose labels, that your plant list is out of date and someone forgot to reorder it, they have travelled to pay and see this garden they want to know what the damn plants (cultivar!) are!

Despite the grumps above this is a garden worth going out of your way to visit, and more than once if you can. STUNNING

Are we done with the moral high ground in this country?

2010-07-17T08:12:00.004+01:00

Flipping through the Society of Garden Designers magazine, Garden Design Journal August 2010, last night I began to read Tim Richardson's piece at the front. He always amuses me and it felt like the right tone to set before drifting off to sleep. NOT SO this time.

I was shocked and admit still am to discover the depths to which the RHS and associated bodies have dropped. I am talking about show garden judging. Yes the old chestnut that raised it's head publicly at last years Hampton Court flower show.

- Hampton Court Palace Flower Show 2009 - sparks fly in The Daily Telegraph Gardening Theatre

- Chief Assessor for Show Gardens for the RHS, responds to Tim Richardson's criticisms of the RHS judging process.

Not only has nothing been done to raise the morale and ethical tone of the situation, indeed it appears to have worsened!

The chief assessor and show garden judge, yes he can sit in both camps!, who also happens to be head of a new garden design school - no potential conflict of interest there then - is, and I quote "putting himself forward as a designer for next year's Chelsea". One assumes he will relinquish head assessors role then but there is nothing confirmed in the article to say this.

ARE YOU KIDDING??????

I hear you ask. Well apparently NOT.

I am obviously not the only person who can see the blatant conflict of interest not to mention appropriateness in this example but it is only one example of a repeated pattern. Be a show judge and then drop out for a year and design a garden for the show. A model apparently followed by a number of award winning designers it would seem.

If we Brits used to pride ourselves on our ethics and the moral high ground we followed and demonstrated to the the world, then what in heavens name has happened here in one of our most trusted and loved national bodies? Have they lost sight of basic common sense. Do they not see how difficult it is for the judges to remain impartial and even if they do manage this task, how it will be perceived by a wider, public audience. Have they not noticed the recent political scandals around expenses and conflict of interest?

Of course the wider public is probably blissfully unaware of this conflict of interest. The BBC production on the big RHS shows does not even touch this aspect of the show scene, no real mention is made of either the process of assessing and then judging or of the individuals who judge/assess yet it lauds the winners again and again. Which given the current situation is probably understandable because frankly, it seems pretty hard to defend.

Sadly for me all winners could be tainted with this brush until there is a clear stated and observed line between entrants and assessors/judges, the judges are from a wider variety of associated industries and have a more international flavor. Oh and conflict of interest is both CLEARLY stated and dealt with.

I find later in the magazine that the French are doing it FAR BETTER than us, non c'est vrai, in the form of Chaumont. Exhibitors cannot return for 3 years, to allow new talent to have a chance and assessors are taken from a wide range of expertise including the arts, horticulture and medicine. This year 4 landscape architects, a neuroscientist, an author and a psychiatrist. Now that's what I call diverse!

A career limiting blog post? will I be blackballed by the RHS? perhaps. But one has to ask why this is allowed to continue almost unchallenged.

Do you dear reader find it acceptable?

Do you like me want to have full disclosure and visibility?

Gotta love Google Analytics

2010-07-16T07:07:00.000+01:00

No doubt you will have noticed the change of template which I am happy with, once a year isn't so bad, but with it I forgot to update my google analytics code which is embedded into the html code of the page - not as hard as it sounds honestly!

Consequently I lose a day or two of analytics, or 'who is visiting' stats, which is fun to review.

The tutorials to get the right code back up are so simple and easy to find I have to say it's a pleasure which is not something that can often be said about help tutorials online!

Fellows' Garden, Clare College, Cambridge

2010-07-14T08:16:00.001+01:00

A rather last minute trip to Cambridge last week offered the chance to visit The Fellows Garden at Clare college.

How UTTERLY spectacular they are, nestling just across the bridge from the Old Court of the college they stretch along the Cam. Re-designed in 1947 by Professor E.N. Willmer, a fellow of the college it shows of stunning herbaceous borders, a tropical planting, sunken garden and a secluded green and white walkway and sitting area.

From Collages

Well manicured and clearly well tended the gardens are a treasure trove of unusual plants collated in interesting and striking borders. No wonder they feature highly on gardens to visit before you die!

How wild is your wildlife garden?

2010-07-10T11:25:00.003+01:00

It turns out after two years plonking every possible plant I can get for free or grow from seed into my tiny patch that something of a wildlife haven has emerged and whilst I should say this is all calculated and planned, in truth it is not.

Having gained my little collection of local beasties - two toads, a gaggle of single bees (Apis melliferaapis) in the bee hotel, swarms (not literally of course) of bumble bees, hoverflies, ladybirds, spiders of all shapes and sizes and many other insects who pop up unexpectedly from under pots and trays. I am delighted at how well they all get on together. Of course I am thrilled with the arrival of the toads as this means the demise of slug city - yehaa!

In honor of the toads arrival I am building a small water feature which will consist of an small upturned dustbin lid, some water and a small up and over ramp for easy toady exit.

One toad lives in the cold frame, he refuses to leave even though I have built him a ramp. The other lives under the bee hotel pedestal ( a bin) at the other end of the garden.

From 2010-07-10

Last night was the first time I had seen bees going in and out of the bee hotel, and I saw 4 on about half an hour, each heading into his/her own little pad brilliant.

From 2010-07-10

Happily the gardens is full of varieties of shrub, tree, and flower nectar and with neighbours on either side who have flourishing mature gardens and a large tree lined park two gardens over they have plenty of local food sources.

Final postings

2010-07-04T20:31:00.005+01:00

Well I must say it has been kind of fun posting some of the ups and downs through the PG Dip course as part of the 'projects' we were meant to complete.

And as the course is now all but over, one project left to complete, postings and the blog will be coming to an end, probably one or two more entries for completion!

A new blog will be rising through my new website - www.rosewarengardens.com - once it is up and running and I hope some of you will join me there. It will be focusing on topics and tips for the month including a top garden to visit and monthly garden tasks that you might want to consider, plus some good finds on the supplier front and maybe the odd anecdote on the project front.

Thank you for your comments and feedback and for reading thus far.

Exhibition fallout

2010-07-04T20:20:00.002+01:00

I am demoralised having seen a posting and publicity round by the college principal featuring exhibition work from only a few people.

Lots of pieces but from a few people.

To then be asked to 'promote' it is really a bit much.

comments.please !

2010-07-03T21:36:00.001+01:00

I have changed settings on the comments, which I should have done ages ago, I hadn't seen that it was asking people to register to comment...duh me...all changed now, at least I think so

down to Dixter

2010-07-03T17:51:00.006+01:00

I must admit that two gardens in one day is a bit much and after the frustrations and disappointments of Sissinghurst I had high hopes for Great Dixter home of the late Christopher Lloyd with unconventional and supposedly spectacular gardens.

It was easier to find and MUCH less hectic than Sissinghurst and if the gardens are the comparison point there is no earthly reason why. Dixter is by far the more impressive place. The mock tudor Lutyens house sits within its surroundings perfectly, conjuring up images of the rural idyll that it may or may not have been in it's origins.

From Great Dixter

The sunk garden was by far my favorite spot and my first port of call it is striking all at once. The colours. The level changes. the buildings surrounding it. The views through it. The planting. The colour. I will admit to be a bit taken aback by the chaotic-ness of it all plants seemingly jumbled in together in ones, twos and maybe mores, colours clashing and offsetting and fabulous contrast of form and shape. I was making photographs and this makes me look more carefully, but there is a point where I simply had to stop shooting and just revel in the gloriousness of the plantings - I am a plantaholic, no apologies there - I walked around it three times in different directions, sat in the barn-ish building to one side and breathed it in. I suspect this is not the plan for this upper pathway as it is narrowish and one needs to navigate flopping plants with one's footsteps but nevertheless it was enthralling.

From Great Dixter

Stepping through the walled gateway into a courtyard of rather garish pots was a contrast and not necessarily welcome yet the paving here was intricate and to be marvelled at - and photographed of course. Down on into the back gardens and more contrast and rule breaking to be seen. The last 3rd was right up against the 2nd and 1st thirds (if you are a designer you will know this rule of thirds, if not...well you only have to ask!)

From Great Dixter

I should have followed a map but wandering took me through a tropical garden sheeted in shade cloth to protect the plants from the scorching heat into more meadows and across a brick path back up to the long borders. FIlled with colour and vibrant flowerings the wide borders show off the Great Dixter style in a truly unforgettable way they lead up to a bench which was occupied on both my meanderings so I didn't get to sit and just admire but I did stand a stare for a long time, camera in hand.

Walking up through yew hedges (Taxus baccata) on impossibly decorative and yet functional steps into the orchard continues the magical feel of the place, tiny pathways - yay plants rule! - leading behind borders and around borders and through borders.

From Great Dixter

Swathes of floriferous herbaceous and shrubby perennials making their sumptuous summer statement.

From Great Dixter

The high garden was too chaotic for me, undoubtedly plantings of note but chaotic and rather hysterical, if planting can be hysterical. There seems no rhythm here, structure but a bit more of a conglomeration without the story. perhaps I needed longer to understand it.

My second favorite part is the bench facing the topiary garden between house and nursery. An Alice in Wonderland-esque spot with towering topiary yews and meadows scrambling at their feet. The cat and I, for they have a cat or two here, sat and watched the world go by. Cat was watching for ice cream laden punters, to sweet talk into a mouthful or two of creaminess I was hiding from the heat of the day and reading the Dixter booklet.

From Great Dixter

This was my favourite garden of the day though even here not one plant tempted me.

Sizzling Sissinghurst

2010-07-03T16:25:00.008+01:00

A friend just pointed out I was two weeks too late and he was right, two weeks in the south makes all the difference apparently...but let me start at the beginning.

Traveling to Sissinghurst on a Friday morning is no mean feat 3.5 hours of traffic mostly M25 chaos, in the hot sun too. The gardens of the National trust only open at 11am which seems late and odd as it's not a great time to see a garden, in the heat of the day but still there are clearly priorities to be observed and visitors are not top of the list.

It was disappointing to be 'informed' at the entry gate that no tripods were allowed due to the smallness of the gardens (?) and the vast number of visitors. I was also suggested I 'pop back' on Wednesday when the garden was closed - handy - then I could use the tripod. After a conversation with staff it turns out this might be a photography day but they weren't sure and it's not advertised by NT - nor is the fact that you can't use a tripod in the gardens. Frustrating but bearable if this was a 'house rule'. What made it annoying was seeing two other visitors with monstrous tripods perhaps they had special dispensation? who knows.

It was a nice garden but not that exciting floriferously. The usual suspects to be seen, roses, delphiniums, lupins, salvias, a few grasses. The white garden was 'over' with fairly gappy borders although several of the other areas, cottage and herb gardens, remained interesting. Of course the structure is there and some excellent specimen plants in mature and full glory but but but....hmmm a bit institutionalised? and one has to ask should the institution of the NT really be in charge of what used to be the playground of the elites of the Bloomsbury set?

From Sissinghurst

The White Garden

From Sissinghurst

Camomile seating in the herb garden - but under no circumstances sit on it!

From Sissinghurst

It was calming and predictable I suppose typical of an NT property, although I must say I was surprised to be told, on one notice board, not to smell the flowers as it might cause damage? It seems these gardens are too popular for their own good and people are now in the habit of trampling them with tripod and boot to smell or photograph. Perhaps I went on a quiet day as I gather from http://www.gardenvisit.com/blog/2009/07/17/please-do-not-visit-sissinghurst-castle-garden/ that normally it is rammed.

From Sissinghurst

I managed several good shots minus people so it must have been quiet!

From Sissinghurst

No-one in sight!

I imagine if they opened, in summer, a little earlier and closed a little later they might have a less over-crowded garden.

off next to Dixter

SLP and garden visiting

2010-07-01T10:01:00.001+01:00

Off to Sissinghurst and Great Dixter tomorrow to photograph their borders for our final piece of work.

Business linking?

2010-06-30T11:10:00.006+01:00

Attending the first of the business link courses was exciting. Only 7 out of 14 turned up which was a shame but it was an extraordinarily hot Saturday so probably not that much of a surprise.

Really it was more of a 'things to consider' event for those who have just started thinking about new businesses and indeed I was the only one who had actually committed to starting. Nevertheless fun to hear all the varied ideas for new businesses.

The business plan is underway as is searching and applying for local new business grants!

Work experience

2010-06-30T11:09:00.013+01:00

I was lucky enough to have two days with Charlotte Rowe and her assistant last week. Full days with site visits, clients, 3d modelling and planting plans crammed in.

Interesting to see a thriving practice on a day to day basis how hectic it is and how much work goes into all those fabulous looking gardens not to mention the PR & marketing of the brand.

Great to learn some SketchUp tips from Tomoko and also to be able to pass some on!

Seeing gardens that have yet to be photographed was a treat sadly my camera card decided to develop a fault so I lost all my images :( I will have to wait to see them in print sometime in the coming year.

Are herbaceous borders still PC?

2010-06-30T11:09:00.010+01:00

The day after a big downpour of rain is not usually the best day to visit a garden full of herbaceous borders however we have had so much sun and heat of late that my thinking was they would be perkier and less wilty than they have been laterly.

After a cool start the sun battered down in the huge circular herbaceous gardens at Angelsey Abbey. Not a spot of shade to be had on any of the benches. It looked, as a whole fabulously floriferous and he budding Hemerocallis (day lily) and Crocosmia (montbretia) promising great things to come later in the season. But really, on closer inspection it is somehow odd to find every plant so ferociously staked and tethered into place. Each delphinium had a pole, the Thalictrum flavum subsp Glaucum staked similarly. Others with more stamina, Echinops, Achillea and some monstrous Cephalaria were un-bound and none the worse for it. With such dense plantings it seems a laborious task that fetters the view, does it really need to be like this?

I can hear the head gardeners railing that it must look good at all times and the only way to stop delphinium flop is to bind them mercilessly to a pole. Indeed at well over 2m I suppose their weight would make them susceptible to sharp gusts of wind though shelter from the thick 3m high Fagus sylvatica hedge must provide some protection?

It just seems too much somehow. I like my delphiniums un-hampered and elegantly swaying in the breeze although truthfully mine (also pacific giant) rarely last in the garden for long and are cut for floral gestures and grandeur inside the house

SGD Photo competition

2010-06-30T09:44:00.005+01:00

Each year the Society of Garden Designers hosts a series of competitions for students to show off their work. This seems to be aimed at final year students in degree courses given time scales but some of the OCGD year of 2010 will be entering examples of their work this year.

The Photographic section is due today, 30th June, and I sent of the required CD (well DVD in fact) yesterday with almost all the competition information filled out!

The night before we had an exceptional downpour of rain followed by weak early morning sun. Perfect for flower shots. So in my PJ's I pottered in the garden at home currently burgeoning with floral offerings and shot a fabulous Philadelphus which has lurched to my side of the fence from next door. They have hacked it into submission on their side, on mine it flops and flows with abundant white blooms.

I often shoot in the garden in the early morning, camera and sometimes tripod in hand. I sit on a chair waiting for the sun to pas the big Bay Tree and filter over the roof tops for just the right amount of light on a subject. A south east facing garden turns out to be delightful it terms of good morning light!

Strutting your stuff.......

2010-06-18T08:14:00.005+01:00

The final exhibition (some 20 marks of the whole) was hosted yesterday at St Hugh's College in Oxford. Beautiful airy light room with ample parking directly outside, next years students are very fortunate to have this as their new venue for studies.

Anticipation was high after a late night helping friends complete some documents for the big hand in, we arrived to erect boards and gather our 9 month hard work onto big blue boards for inspection and admiration from friends, family, examiners, tutors and other interested parties.

It is always exciting to see what other people have come up with and our exhibition stands were no different each had his or her own feature and layout and selection of work. One person covered the entire blue board with wall paper, to tone down the vibrant colour, some had photographic banner boards with their shiny new logos and evidence of photographic excellence, there were an assortment of wonderfully creative business cards and of course the work.

To see it all displayed together is striking, how far we have all come and how much we have all achieved. Each one knowing his or her own struggles but all showing highly competent work to the public and no one failed to impress.

In the morning the friendly external examiner chatted to each of us about our work, our journey and our strengths. A positive experience and the first of many unguarded compliments about my work.

Duncan and Carol kicked the more public events off with champagne and thank you flowers and suddenly there was a flow of guests and visitors. Talking to people about my work was interesting and their comments sometimes surprising. I was genuinely surprised by how many people commented on the quality of rendering as I haven't felt it was that appealing to anyone but me!

later in the afternoon our essays, freshly marked, were handed back and having gained a distinction I was completely thrilled.

and on a completely different note.....

2010-06-16T09:34:00.004+01:00

http://www.fennelandfern.co.uk/

How about this for a fabulous idea for wedding favours......not that I am planning on getting married but the idea is transferable to other gift givings methinks!

And they got them from......
http://www.wedding-tree-favours.com/

Moody Board

2010-06-15T10:51:00.007+01:00

How I hate the mood board and it seems it hates me right back!

I completed 4 in one evening, late in the evening and although they look, to me at least artistic and moody I am clueless as to whether the 'client' will think they capture the mood of the garden.

What do you think?

planting plans ...DONE

2010-06-09T19:11:00.005+01:00

Planting plan around the hot tub deck, 1 of 12 plans for project 3.

Final straight is in sight amazingly. Planting plans completed this evening and VW sheets all tarted up beautifully to look elegant and professional.

It did occur to me that whilst I am struggling away vociferously through the course and the trials it has brought, I have in fact learnt and ENORMOUS amount and am incredibly proud of the work I have achieved, ok so it's not perfect but it's first stages of a new career, it's not likely to be perfect, just yet anyway. I suppose that is something else I have learned how to let go of being perfect and to prioritise enough to get things complete.

The exhibition preparation might even get a whole 5 days...maybe 4 is more realistic though.

the cascades

2010-06-08T22:49:00.004+01:00

Cascade drawings complete. I cannot quite believe they are all completed, just need to be printed and bound and they are done.

Cascade drawings are the lower level of details required by the contractor, setting out, drainage, paving, contour and level changes and so on down to the tiniest detail in construction drawings.

A whole bunch of admin correspondence is also complete and the todos list is looking possible - almost!

No letting up though, having seen a couple of ex-student websites clearly the competition is high so a good final mark is vital.

Competitive moi?! I think so!

last legs?

2010-06-08T08:56:00.004+01:00

As I head into the final week of the course, well the course before the Exhibition I am realising there has been no down time to speak of since December. The garden, mine that is, is looking a bit bedraggled. Plants flopping where they want, things in need of pruning lolopping wildly wherever they find some light and seedlings (weedlings!) spreading madly. NO TIME NO TIME. I have sat staunchly at my lovely new iMac for about 2 weeks now producing key plans, setting out drawings (curvaceous HELL), cascade drawings, a specification document. Amidst all the fiddling with found errors and fixing found problems.

I resolve to find some work in the coming months to make me practice practice practice all the technical sides, something possibly uncreative but where I can hone my skills, my experience so that this all becomes second nature and not a dive for folders and files from college lectures.

I am pleased with some of the results although tbh atm I have no idea what the whole will look like as Friday is the day for printing it all out and collating. (Thus leaving myself 5 WHOLE days for exhibition prep).

Planning permission, finalising letters, finishing mood boards, finishing planting plans - doing the drainage (does a chalk slope really NEED drainage I keep asking!?), title blocking it all and making sure the cross referencing matches up. As I found out in my first design career the job is much more about execution than creativity...and I used to think I was good at execution, not so certain now, but more practice will help that I am sure.

Last night as I was put the finishing touches to a construction drawing (above) and in true multitasking form chatted to my great friend Ju in New Zealand (it was 1am)I realised I was quite pleased with the result.... I might even say it looks quite professional!

How many blog posts does it take before you actually invest time in reading a whole blog?

2010-06-02T09:22:00.005+01:00

Long title I know but today as I surfed through some of the many blog posts I am RSS fed daily I realised that I don't automatically read a whole blog. No one has that much life to read every blog that is going!

For me it is about 3 or 4 interesting postings that then trigger a desire to read much more of a blog. Let me say I am not talking about much of the verbal diarrhea out there but the postings that equate to real, valuable content. Stuff that you have to set time aside to digest and comprehend, that enriches your life.

Don't get me wrong I am not some highbrow bloggerati type, I read plenty of drivel postings willingly, keep up with friends chatter and some of the more bizarre blogs but on the whole I skim read it, speed read it or 'glance the title' read it.

Some bloggers though just warrant stopping and reading and as it usually takes me several excellent postings to take the plunge and invest my time in an extended 'good blog' read. That said it takes much less to turn me off a blog something like spam posting the same blog post all over the net! nasty.

Like most folks I want one point of access to minimise re-reading the same thing multiple times. Perhaps that's a self prompt to review how much social networking I am doing, along with a spot of compartmentalising.

What inspired this post? This blog, which IMHO is well worth the read.http://www.thebusinessofbeingcreative.com

Writers block.... AGAIN

2010-06-01T21:12:00.001+01:00

sorry no posts I have an aversion to blogging atm.

can't seem to say anything worth writing about :)

will be back at some point

Chelsea Flower Show 2010

2010-05-29T07:12:00.011+01:00

Half way down the motorway I discover my ticket is still pinned to the kitchen notice board. That scuppers my pre-Chelsea supper plans and means a very early morning on Tuesday, 1st day for RHS devotees.

There is always a buzz and even though I know RHS Chelsea Flower show is a humongous marketing, self-promotion and selling event not to mention gross waste of money and other resources in the name of, well I am not sure in the name of what, possibly not good design(!) but that said I am still excited about attending.

It's busy even at 7.35am when I arrive and I begin snapping (photos here) as I wait for my Chelsea companion to battle her way through rush hour after a late arrival at Paddington. I hate being jostled and having only a few minutes to see the gardens so arriving early seems like a good plan. Gardens take time to get to know, to inspect, to touch to smell to engage with. 5 mins jostling with the crowd is not my idea of 'seeing' the gardens, but it has to do as there is no other choice. Being greeted by Roger Platts traditional garden is pleasant if not challenging, beautifully executed and perfectly planted (he gets gold unsurprisingly). Apparently his last garden some 8 years ago was much the same, though I cannot comment as I didn't actually see it.

Tom Stuart Smith wow's the crowd, well he wow's me that's for sure, I want to climb the barrier and wander into the woodland and discover what plants are in there, then dangle feet in the york stone clad pond.

Andy Sturgeon wins best in show which surprises me. Not because I don't like the garden, bits of it are great but having heard much about it pre-Chelsea it feels like a bit of a let down in the flesh (or maybe that should be 'in the cambium'). It is also the first sighting of the ghastly brown/purple bearded Iris.

side note: I feel strongly about it for some reason, possibly because it is SOOOOO tasteless and the fact that there are near 2000 TB's to choose from makes it's appearance almost unforgivable - if anyone gets the impression that I hate this variety, they would be right. It appears several more times in show gardens and stands, though never in quite such an offensive way.

Robert Myers' immense cloistering structures are pleasing except that they turn out to be an almost direct copy of the Australian pergolas, which were put on hold from the year before due to financial restraints in 2009....this makes it somewhat passe not to mention a direct crib.

James Wongand David Cubero's Malaysian Tourism garden also wow's in an understated perfection kind of way. Taking less is more to a perfect execution and filled with really useful plants, if only I knew what they were at the time, I would have been even more impressed. It is fun to watch the BBC filming him on the terraces all of there feet clad only in socks.

We tramped through the entire exhibition missing only the floristry marquee. Loving the Eden projects 'Places of Change' for shear size and statement factor not to mention that the grower and planters were groups of homeless people thus making it less of a money pit and more of a learning and 'growing' experience for those involved. More of this at Chelsea please. We bump into Elspeth, one of last years students doing the showground the other way and pause for a 15 minute comparison of what we have seen so far.

Was I inspired by the designs? frankly? not really. Did anyone break boundaries? well, no not really, was some of it inspiring, well yes of course. Would I like much more information on the day? yes please. Will I try to do it differently when I do a Chelsea garden....well lets see when that happens!

I very much enjoyed Ann Marie Powell's comment that what she wanted to do next year was 'a big garden', it seems to me that most of the successful, visible garden designers are men where as most of the students are women. Glass ceiling anyone?

And of course my real reason for attending is that the plethora of nursery men and women from all corners of the country who bring their finest for our delectation, not to mention endless seeds and big glossy plant catalogues. I could spend a great deal more time wandering the floral pavilion picking their brains

Exam preparation

2010-05-26T09:15:00.001+01:00

Tomorrow we have our final exam which has been hard to prepare for. Last year with RHS exams we had a plethora of past papers to consult and practice with, the topics we studied matching the topics tested. Hard work and a bit of a slog but worth it.

This year our OCGD exam is a bit more of an unknown. No past papers and no more info on what will be tested than "2 hours professional practice and 1 hour of multiple choice" Not entirely sure which specific topics but I suppose one has to assume anything we have studied in the last 9 months. GULP.

My usual control freak, 'study the hell out of the topic' character has just given up and is in 'don't care' mode. No time to revise it all in detail as Project 3 and an exhibition has to be finished in about 12 day time so as it forms only 10 marks out of the 150 it can't be a priority. Shame really I like getting top marks on exams. Oh Well.

In my 'other life' things are happening

2010-05-23T06:17:00.004+01:00

As part of a small partnership I grow Miniature Tall Bearded Iris. We are in the process of applying for, and in fact were provisionally accepted to hold the National Collection of them.

This is the time of year when they all burst into bloom for about a month, making all the slog of weeding, feeding and tending worth it!

Out of 34 varieties 16 are showing their blousey blooms with the remaining 18 either about to burst forth or putting up flower stems.

The full set can be seen on our blog beardedandblousey.blogspot.com but I couldn't resist this taster

Surveying trees at Harcourt Arboretum

2010-05-21T18:10:00.002+01:00

After a race through test on 30 top British native trees we headed out into glorious May sunshine to practice our tree surveying at the beautiful Harcourt Arboretum. Following a tour of the car park area with Teach pointing out what to look for and how best to evaluate each specimen the idea of surveying sites and the trees upon them a lot less daunting. I must admit it helps to be fairly familiar with the species and so have an idea about it's habit and likely age but with a good Collins book no doubt gaps can be filled.

Some fabulous Mature specimens at Harcourt were recorded as we went around individually making our own first tree surveys.

Garden Photography for 2 whole days

2010-05-16T10:37:00.005+01:00

I must admit really looking forward to this part of the course. Only 2 days but my favorite subject. An additional 6 people joined our group, all either on next years terrestrial course or following the new online OCGD pgdip course.

Having it broken down into simple chunks and advised it was about Making not just Taking photo's one realises, once a again, that it's not all that difficult to do but like driving you have to learn the basic chunks off pat - remember how terrifying the old mirror signal manoeuvre thing was the first 100 times?! I do - Taking it our into the field was fun but the Oxford Botanic Gardens probably groaned as we descended on it to practice panning, isolating, story telling and action shots.

To tell truth I got a bit flustered, my lovely and reliable Nikon D70 was playing merry havoc once set to the A (aperture priority) setting and though the book covers all settings, once you start fiddling it becomes like winning the lottery with chances of getting it just right at 1:14,000,000

Finally it played ball, sort of and I focused (pun intended) on the subject matter along with the technical side of making the picture.

On our second day the documentary nature of photography featured and telling the story of Waterperry gardens in 8 shots was our task: establishing, overviewing, detailing and of course making it human interest. I met a lovely couple who were interested in what we were up to (20+ camera laden students raised an eyebrow or two) only to discover fellows of the Leica Society. Small world. Better images today although still plenty of scope for improvement on the Landscape work, I am a macro girl through and through and am toying with the idea of acquiring a lensbaby to further those studies.....just need to sell something first.

Final homework was to post to flickr with the results

Final project moving on a pace

2010-05-11T12:46:00.003+01:00

Although the new iMac has yet to arrive (19th May is the big day) I am forging along with what I can do on the now laboring Trusty Laptop.

Hand drawn sections complete and drawn up onto A1 architectural blanks, all to the revised/new ground plan and sketch up fiddled with to reflect most of new design I am starting on the Key Plans and cascade drawings which is the next big chunk of work to knock of the list.

This weeks 2 day photography course is long awaited and in preparation everything is polished, charged and formatted and now packed. Easy to be ready when you're excited about the long days of study (9am-8pm).

From Project 3 - Rural

iMac i5 !

2010-05-09T11:07:00.004+01:00

After a little more research and a few helpful hints from the Vectorworks forums I have taken the plunge and committed myself to an iMac i5 with a bit of extra RAM.

It feels like more of a commitment than just buying some hardware and no I am not talking about the whole Apple lifestyle meme thing either :). It is symbolic of committing to a design career in the garden industry. Thrilling if daunting.

iMac?

2010-05-07T20:56:00.004+01:00

My trusty laptop (TL) has done good service in harsh conditions and has finally met it's match in Renderworks. I have had to admit defeat and resort to checking out the iMac again this evening, online. It does come highly recommended though the question is, which one?

27" screen is a given as part of TL's problem is not enough screen space (a mere 17") for all the palettes and drawings but then which processor and which graphics card. The charming youth in MK Apple store tried to persuade me to go for the iMac quad core i7 (GULP!) which sings and dances and makes tea whilst it renders monster drawings in seconds, it oddly enough has a price tag to make strong men go weak at the knees (and not in a good way I might say!).

So any comments on which iMac I need (as opposed to the aspirational one that is beckoning) would be much appreciated.....

Winding down...apparently

2010-05-07T17:55:00.004+01:00

This week has been a lot less tedious than anticipated, mainly because instead of two whole days on professional practice an contract law we had two half days.

Disappointingly there was a no show from the supposed expert in contract law which meant we had a very familiar stand in. It is worrying to discover all this potential litigation lining up against us and almost more worrying because the person talking us through wasn't a lawyer so mostly it was based on experience and educated guesswork.

We all left knowing we will need to get a local solicitor on side to review potential contract issues and the standard T's & C's from the SGD.

Happily I took my cameras along on Thursday so headed out to Waterperry for some spring planting which was good in parts although not as spectacular as their summer borders.

En route home tonight I stopped at the Apple store in MK as my laptop has decided it cannot cope with Vectorworks rendering or site modeling (though it claims to be a gaming PC and has separate graphics card or reasonable spec!) So it looks like business set up costs are going to be earlier and more than expected. Funds are having to be diverted from other projects.

Business Linking...for FREE!

2010-05-04T13:09:00.002+01:00

Business Link - A well kept secret, well probably not but it was news to me. Charlotte Rowe told us this was one of the best things she did on finishing her OCGD diploma. In need of cheering up and spending NO CASH I just booked myself onto 4 of the 6 courses starting the week following then end of term 3. Exciting and hopefully enabling and I am resigned to remaining an eternal student.

comments missing

2010-05-03T13:09:00.002+01:00

I have made responses to several comments I have received but they have disappeared, apparently an issue with Blogger which is being sorted out and they should reappear in due course.

The Landscape Man...is brilliant

2010-05-02T15:40:00.006+01:00

I am not sure what my peers don't find captivating about this prog. I loved it, the scale of projects at least and a chance to see really huge projects happening. We have been bombarded with the likes of Grand Designs for ages and now finally we, the nation of gardeners, gets something on this scale for gardens and not just public or charitable ones.....

Having watched two back to back at 7am this morning (I know it is Sunday!) I am enthralled by Keith and Ros Wylie in their Wildside Gardens and their insane work ethic. Good for them and how utterly inspiring to those of us at the 'wrong end of youth' to jfdi our dreams. I am hoping they put a PayPal button on their website so I can start canvassing people to donate to help the canyons get completed!

Headingham Castle was also a feat of endurance and one simply has to admire people (Jason and Demetra Lindsay!) with such determination to achieve their goals. Definitely planning to watch the rest of the series even if it's on 4oD.

Charlotte Rowe comes to visit

2010-05-02T06:52:00.004+01:00

Finally Friday comes and Charlotte (a fellow student not the alumni one) and I trudge up the hill in the morning, parking for only one student car at Cotuit, en route we make the most of practicing tree idents which we have as a test in a week or so. 30 trees to be ID'd from pictures of bark, leaves and flowers.

The morning is spent with Sally Court, the new VP of the college and a practicing (frantically busy!) garden designer. She is busy busy busy and flitting back and forth to Russia to see clients. Full of anecdotes, her lectures are usually short which is good as most of us are shattered from the last 2 days. We talk briefly about the new TV program Landscape Man, no one seems terribly impressed, I haven't seen it so plan to watch it if I have time.

The afternoon heralds the arrival of ex-OCGD student and probably most notable alumni Charlotte Rowe. A formidable reputation precedes her but she turns out to be delightfully straightforward and frank, without the usual mishmash of illusion and relevant exclusions that seem to be the model so far.

Her trademark work rolls on in a background presentation as she talks rapidly and effortlessly about her rise and current business. I am impressed as she is so honest about how she has come so far apparently so fast. Though it's clear it is down in good part to a lot of hard work and good business acumen on her part and not least that she knows how to play to her strengths.

I am inspired, if daunted as I don't have her credentials, but also breathing a sigh of relief that I have taken the chance to do some work experience with her, 3 days in June.

Glad to get home and plan to take Saturday off.

Project 3 client comes to visit

2010-05-02T06:40:00.005+01:00

Following our day of 3d we have a day with the client who is remarkably tolerant and sits through hours and hours of presentations, taking noted and asking lots of thought provoking questions.

We are reminded it is VITAL to meet the client in person and see the garden from inside the house to get the best start on a job.

I am nervous as curvilinear is difficult. DH takes the opportunity to point out the flaws in my ground plan/design in front of the client, which is a bit surprising. Not to worry though as she doesn't really like the rendering or concept and pretty much dismisses the whole thing. Unfortunately, for me, she demonstrates the fact that clients really like representative, fully rendered 3d drawings, so it's back to colored in plans from here on in.

From My Pictures

Happily though I sail though the nuts and bolts of the actual presentation, so much easier to present to a real client than a pretend one.

I am incredibly impressed with the presentations of a couple of classmates who are emerging as clear winners on the design and creativity front. Several people don't turn up due to work commitments (!) and others just don't show their work. Although it is a bit bewildering that not presenting, or even turning up now seems to be a common option I remind myself that I, at least, need the time and deadline to help me engage to the best of my ability.

3D Vectorworks

2010-05-02T06:35:00.005+01:00

A roller coaster first week back at college, scrambling to finish something resembling the required documents before a Tamsin led whistlestop tour of Vectorworks 3D.

Our two days has been crammed into one day for some reason which I can't quite fathom, something about 3d VW not being relevant which in fact turns out not to be the case as we wend our way through manipulating contours and building sweeping solids. My laptop, a supposedly wizard gaming machine, struggles to render at times....I ponder changing to an iMac and inwardly groan at the cost.

From Desktop

The course is nothing if not a rapid change of schedule and covered topics.

Inspired by the lighting?

2010-05-01T07:16:00.010+01:00

Villa Gamberaia by Balthazar Korab - http://www.balthazarkorab.com/03_store.html

At our penultimate masterclass of this year at Oxford College of Garden Design Luciano Giubbilei (pronounced Ju-bbillay apparently!) spoke about his passion and inspiration for the gardens he makes. Starting as horticulturalist at Villa Gamberaia and inspired by the images of Balthazar Korab (and who could fail to be inspired by this genius' images of Gamberaia?!) he studied at Inchbald (94-95) before launching into his, now stratospheric, garden design career. His first client was Kelly Hoppen and as he flipped through image after image of 'small' gardens in Holland Park, Kensington and Chelsea, Nottinghill etc we drooled at his budgets and use of soft and hard landscape materials. Not many designers can say they would fund £3/4 million in plants just to see a garden done, even if the client didn't pay at the end of it.. (they did pay of course and the garden looks divine). Alongside the trademark multi-stem Amelanchier the influences of Gamberaia are evident as is the drive for perfection in each exquisitely executed garden. It hadn't occurred to me that they were flowerless until he pointed out that his Laurent Perrier Chelsea Flower Show garden in 2009 was his first time using flowers in a garden. Hard to believe and yet his experience as a florist (before studying at Inchbald) clearly made him no novice. His genuine enthusiasm for Crocus, who supplied his plants and helped install them (even picking off slugs and every damaged leaf prior to judging!) was a good reminder that finding excellent partners to work with is vital if one is to succeed.

From 2009_05_20_Chelsea

Laurent Perrier Garden at Chelsea Flower Show 2009

If you have not heard him speak, DO. He is engaging and fascinating. His desire for perfection not hidden and his love of his work apparent. The last garden he showed is the beginning of the next phase for him, a vast spread in Morocco, classical, maybe minimal? but ethereal, Pennisetum and pink roses in 10x10m blocks swaying under glorious aged olives, he mentioned only two more species in the planting but that was it.

The appreciation for and skillful use of light shone through again and again capturing that elusive moment when a garden takes your breath away with the glory of nature.

Have you been swayed by an Edible Garden?

2010-04-27T19:14:00.007+01:00

I will admit to a moment of weakness this week and succumbing to watching TV. Two friends enthused about ALys Fowler's new show The Edible Garden and so great was the enthusing I flipped through it on the iPlayer, and ended up watching all three episodes at once. Thus inspired I hot footed it to the local nursery (ok Homebase!) to buy up anything remotely resembling broad beans and peas.

Not a wholly unsuccessful trip, the herbaceous borders (!) in the garden now host 6 broad bean plants, 8 sweetcorn and in the cold frame, 4 boxes/trays of seeds (peas, zuchs, squash, climbing beans, cleome, nasturtium and Orlaya). Then this morning at 6am, I recalled I had some Cavolo Nero seed from last year so I popped some into mini trays and that's in the cold frame too.

There is almost no space already as spring spouts but in AF mode I will keep plants as big as I WANT them this could be fun.

Next on the list? hmm that dog looked very cute!

Beth Chatto knows how to 'do' a spring garden!

2010-04-26T15:49:00.004+01:00

An unexpected jaunt to Elmstead Market and to the fabulous gardens of plantswoman Beth Chatto. The gardens look spectacular at this time of year which was a pleasant surprise. I had been in late May last year and was sadly disappointed by the very bedraggled looking dry gardens. This season though it was looking stunning and full of life and vigour. The dell also looked wonderful with the marshy pond edge plantings inspiring my next projects - also has a large set of ponds.

I promised myself no plants and managed to come away with only 5 which is a remarkable achievement in self restraint!

Well worth the trip in the next couple of weeks.

From Collages

Knoll gardens, a masterclass

2010-04-22T07:15:00.004+01:00

I am rather excited about visiting Knoll Gardens for a masterclass with Neil Lucas in the autumn (2010). After a visit last year I was won over by his use of grasses and the ethereal planting-scapes they have created at their gardens in Dorset.

From 2009-10-18 1

Vale of the White Horse gardens in a 3d model

2010-04-19T14:01:00.003+01:00

Ever more complex 3d models and using it to design in parts, for example the deck steps in which 6 steps need to go into the length of 3 steps...so using it a a design opportunity I flipped them sideways, hey presto 1 solved problem!

From My Documents

It isn't finished yet but it's a good way along and helping with the Vectorworks modelling

Is Spring planting so difficult to do well?

2010-04-19T07:18:00.005+01:00

I put off a trip to Wisely and The Savill 10 days ago due to the apparent lateness of spring. Friday rolled round and it seemed vital to a get out and get at least some of the spring colour on camera.

Wisely was my first stop as they had said their borders were looking good. I should have asked in more detail what that might mean! Indeed the magnolia were stunning as were some early Rhododendron and scads of formal spring bulb bedding, the camellia were mostly browned and over from rain and cold but what disappointed me was the lack of cohesive underplanting.

Oh there were swathes of sunny daffs and muscari bobbing about in the wind, even several large bed of mixed spring bulbs but the stunning spring flowering trees were mostly skirted by dirt or later flowering/greening plants. Where there was consistent underplanting it seemed to be a single block e.g. a large branching apple with a skirt entirely of blue muscari, beautiful, but.....

I will say that the beds were clean and tidy with nothing of a collapsed winter feel to them, inspiring from a horticultural view point, they just didn't fill me with glee in terms of design.

I skipped The Savill on the way home, wrongly assuming they would also have a similar set up, a friend tells me they have great spring borders....oh well my images will have to be 'late spring' borders for this year, next year it'll be down to Cornwall and Devon to see their stunning spring offerings.

From Collages

Splash! SGD Conference

2010-04-18T20:44:00.004+01:00

A rather mixed day, somewhat disheartening but nevertheless some interesting speakers.

I primarily attended to get a feel for the industry body to which I am likely to be affiliated. How professional would they be and what would the benefits of joining be.

An overwhelming number of middle aged women filled the room, never a good sign in my book there were a smattering of chaps but they were in the minority. This only says that more women attended the conference and not that this is the norm in the garden design world, though I suspect it is.

Apart from the technology calamities (and there were many) and the disruption of speakers and running order due to an erupting Icelandic volcano the thing that disturbed me most was hearing the Chairwoman of the SGD ask each speaker if they had openings for 'slaves'. Most looked slightly abashed as they said sure they had room for wannabes.

In an industry that is little valued by the general public, except for the notable celebrity few, it is sad to hear the person chairing the organisation diminish the standing of those entering the profession.

The membership team have high aspirations for new members and those of us mere mortals who deign to demand entry with only a PGDip behind us can look forward to at least 4 years of subs, scrutiny and hoop jumping before being considered worthy of applying for Membership.

Interesting talks especially William Pye's beautiful water sculptures. An interesting day but I suspect attending once will be enough!

Exploring Earthworks

2010-04-12T14:47:00.007+01:00

Writing the required essay on 20th Century gardens and their influences I am immersed in research (and writing of course!) around the Land Art movement of the late 60's and 70's and investigating how it has transformed our landscape design aspirations.

Some interesting individuals to look at are:

Robert Smithson

Michael Heizer

Walter de Maria

Christo & Jean Claude

Richard Long

Hamish Fulton
Andy Goldsworthy

Anthony Gormley

Charles Jencks

this is a sample of active artists and not a big one!

It's a glorious day and I would rather be outside...

2010-04-08T14:55:00.008+01:00

I am slogging through research for an essay. Something on the longevity and history of landforms, earthworks, land art. I have a question and a title and even a synopsis, but can I get inspired and actually write the darn thing? of course not. I am bargaining with myself about how much I MUST write before bed. Today it is 1500 words and not one word less will do.

This is partly due to the fact that I have a couple of short weeks to get the remainder of the tasks for holidays completed, namely project 3 sketch plans, sketch up model, elevations, sections, mood boards and so on ready for a possible client meet on my birthday of all days!

Instead I have frittered time away writing a spec for my new website, updating my HLP and tarting up project 2's specification document. Which makes me smile because when the last 2 were due I was doing anything I could to avoid doing them.

So it's all a bit of a game really. In 1 month I will be re-writing the essay happily avoiding doing my SLP!

In the meantime I have finished reading the excellent book by Malcolm Gladwell called OUTLIERS

and am going back to Marshall Rosenburgs series of books on good communication.

Fasciation is unpredictable.........

2010-04-05T08:48:00.002+01:00

Flattened, elongated shoots and flower heads that look like many stems compressed together are called fasciation. This strange-looking problem may be ugly or attractive, but is always interesting. The Forsythia in the garden, hacked last year, to within and inch of it's life has produced 3 fasciated stems covered in blossom.

From 2010-04-01

Contouring in Sketch Up

2010-04-04T20:42:00.004+01:00

An eventful Easter Sunday (no rest for the wicked as they say!) spent playing in the Google Sketch Up sandbox. It appears that it is only possible to import level surveys into Pro which is a good plan for making people buy pro a bad plan for us mere students who don't want both Vectorworks and Sketch Up Pro as there are too many cross overs in functionality and the former wins hands down on overall functionality.

So hand contouring it is, tracing over an imported .jpg file exported from Vectorworks where the levels survey is imported (not so professional, but it works).

The site looks precipitous which makes me think I have something wrong (scale maybe?). More contours make it look less so but then the steep banks and suddenly ending contours make it much more complicated to draw in with the sandbox tool.

Still I am pleased at least to have succeeded with the tool itself.

I think project 3 may find itself with much simplified contours and smoother shapes overall, steep banking is out!

From Project 3 - Rural

Skunk anyone?

2010-04-02T09:33:00.002+01:00

Although spring hasn't really sprung these extraordinary things have

From 2010-04-01

Lysichiton americanus: Skunk Cabbage

Spring is apparently delayed by a few weeks!

2010-03-31T15:14:00.004+01:00

From 2010-04-01

According to one or two of the top public garden spring is somewhat later than usual, even down in the normally clement Cornish regions. So in view of this how about some Hellebores to cheer us all up? Detailed by the Telegraph Garden section in Feb they should still be showing their glory if all is somewhat late.

"Hellebore extravaganza, Feb 15, 11am to 4pm, Goodnestone Park Gardens, Wingham. Talk on hellebores at 12.30pm by Tim Ingram (ticket only). Specialist nursery displays and sales of winter-flowering plants. Adults £5, seniors £4.50, under-16s £1 www.hpskent.co.uk).

Bosvigo, Cornwall
Special hellebore day, Feb 14, 10am-4pm, Bosvigo House, Truro, in aid of Shelterbox. Newly created woodland walk through drifts of snowdrops, hellebores, wood anemones, epimediums, erythroniums and scented narcissus. Refreshments available (01872 275774; www.bosvigo.com).

Ashwood Nurseries, West Midlands
Hellebore weekends, Jan 31 & Feb 1, Feb 14 & 15, 10.15am to 3.30pm, Ashwood nursery, Kingswinford. Guided tours (1h 30m), no need to book, go ''behind the scenes'' and learn about the hellebore breeding programme. Entry £2, proceeds to charity (01384 401996; www.ashwood-nurseries.co.uk).

Harveys Garden Plants, Suffolk
Hellebore open days, Feb 20 & 21, 9.30am to 4.30pm, Harveys Garden Plants, Bury St Edmunds. More than 1,000 hellebores for sale each day, advice and practical demonstrations, guided tours at 11.30am, 1.30pm and 3.30pm. Free. (01359 233363; www.harveysgardenplants.co.uk).

Coton Manor Garden, Northamptonshire
Open for snowdrops and hellebores, Feb 14 to March 1, 11am to 4pm, Coton Manor Gardens, Coton. Entry £3 (01604 740219; www.cotonmanor.co.uk).

RHS Wisley Plant Centre, Surrey
Hellebore heaven, Feb 14 & 15, 10.30am to 4.30pm, Wisley Plant Centre. Demonstrations at 11am, 1.30pm and 3pm by expert grower Hugh Nunn and Chelsea gold medal winner Richard Bramley. Hellebores on sale. No booking required, free entry (01483 211113; www.rhs.org.uk ).

Broadview Gardens, Kent
National collection of hellebores, Feb 15, 21, 22, 28, March 1, Broadview Gardens and Hadlow College, tours at 11am and 2pm, flowers on sale at Broadview Garden Centre. Entry £3 (0500 551434; www.hadlow.ac.uk).

Renishaw Hall, Derbyshire
Fanfare for spring, Feb 22, 11am to 3pm, Renishaw Hall, near Sheffield. Gardens and woodlands full of hellebores, snowdrops, bulbs and more. Specialist nurseries, refreshments. Entry £3 (01246 432310; www.renishaw-hall.co.uk).

Coolings, Kent
Hellebore weekend, today, 9am-5pm, tomorrow 10am-4.30pm, Coolings Garden Centre, Rushmore Hill. Hellebore display and sale. Free (01959 532269; www.coolings.co.uk).

National Collection, Staffordshire
National collection of species hellebores, open Saturdays in Feb/March, 10am-2pm, Hazles Cross Farm, Kingsley. Entry £2, plants for sale (01538 752669; www.nccpg.com).

This website with links to specialist nurseries and growers will keep you up to date on the latest star plants: www.hellebores.org

Does modern Garden Design have longevity?

2010-03-31T10:32:00.006+01:00

I am mid research on an essay about longevity of land art but it strikes me that, as a designer, I should be aiming for longevity in my garden design, although modern families move relatively regularly (in approx 5-10 year periods - source: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/STATBASE/Product.asp?vlnk=2639&More=Y 29/3/10) the number of years that equate to longevity might be a discussion point. So with this in mind should the aim be for a more relative longevity? one that is in relation to how long the client will reside in the house?

Of course under the OCGD philosophy the design anchors the house in it's environment so if this is successful, then the longevity might expect to be greater as new owners will enjoy the well designed gardens as much as the person moving. In theory!

Gardens Illustrated featured Timothy Mowl, Professor of History of Architecture and Designed Landscapes and Director of the MA in Garden History at Bristol University he is in the process of writing about the gardens of each county. A slow process by all accounts. So he is setting the scene of garden history before talking about the modern garden. The focus is apparently on gardens with potential longevity but that are falling in to disrepair. Is this because they are gardens and require constant attention? or simply that they are gardens and therefore not fixed entities but living breathing ever changing creations and is that not what makes them so appealing and compulsive?.

I am also surprised by the number of people following MPil and PhD's in and around garden design and I am inspired.

Do people really respond and donate to the 'Charity of Me' requests?

2010-03-31T08:04:00.004+01:00

I was reading a funny article about a shepherdess who had her wedding dress woven from the wool of the sheep she bred and in the comments was an link from a blog. I followed it and noticed that the woman, and actress in Canada had a donate by paypal button.

I wonder if people really do donate 'to the arts', as she put it.

There was the tale some years ago of the woman who found herself up to her eyeballs in debt from her own spending habit, now a book and a movie I believe, and at the time she created a website (Save Karyn)- pre-blogging days - to document how much she had made, saved, spent daily and how much people had donated to her. She paid it off in the end, then made a truck load on the book and film rights :D

I maybe adding this 'charity of me' idea to the blog, well, it could help me while I get started make a living as a garden designer!

First Commision almost done!!

2010-03-25T19:51:00.004Z

My first commission is coming along well. The planting plans are completed in Vectorworks and a few extra drawings have emerged as I think through the actual delivery of the work for the client.

So also prepared is a laying out plan, gridded up to enable a fast and accurate laying out of the planting, a 'before' sketch plan/site analysis which shows which plants will remain in situ and which will have to be removed, or moved.

It is very exciting to be working for a 'real' client and it is quite different when you are being paid for it. Just as I suppose it is quite different when you are paying for a service, you tend to value and appreciate it much more.

Further to this I received another inquiry for some work in London which will be a different challenge and an exciting one. If this keeps up I may well turn out to be gainfully employed for most of 2010!

From Planting Plans

Why do I need a land surveyor?

2010-03-20T06:34:00.014Z

The Leica Total Station

The last lecture of the week and indeed this 2nd term was with Land Surveyor Ian Humby. He has developed his practice to specialise in surveying things us garden designers crave on a survey. Not just levels and trees and so on (topographical survey) but house doors and windows, guttering, roof lines and even the facia (Measured building surveys).

Speaking at rate he guided us through 'why' to think about shelling out for a land surveyor in the first place and some of his examples were pretty shocking (one had approx 8-10m 'missed' on both sides of the 'already surveyed' garden another had buildings positioned quite differently). Although he did finish that section showing a survey by another garden designer that was almost perfect (!) to show it is not impossible for us to do well.

There were idiot proof ways for us to make our surveying better (equilateral triangle math and bean sticks rule!) and a revision of some of the finer points of using a Dumpy level and the popular zip level.

His own surveyor kit, a Leica Total Station, was most impressive although the price tag clearly makes it for professionals only!

Apparently a Dumpy level (150x cheaper than surveyor kit!) is perfectly acceptable but you should consider yourself reasonable at math - which I do, so I am off to source one this weekend but will be longing for the Total Station in reality.

Is an Electronic plant catalogue a barrier to sales?

2010-03-19T05:59:00.002Z

I have recently been trying to gather catalogues in preparation for projects with small and big planting areas. However I am now reliably informed, and have found in actuality, that many nurseries no longer print catalogue but have them on line either as flippable PDF booklets or an online search. I groan.

A great idea not thought through IMO.

Great not wasting the planets resources, not costing the company money on sending catalogues to people who won't ever really use them. Not so great for the designer though. The down side for the 'professional' user is
a) an expensively coloured 100+ page document to print on their own printer at home costing a great deal more in home printer ink and the quality is usually not great in colour repro. So in reality it doesn't get printed and hardly used - not good for building business.
b) 'flipping' through electronically is not the same as flipping through a paper copy, and frankly having several catalogues open at once on a computer is confusing and memory hungry - read NOT efficient use of my time and resources.
c) online only catalogues, well this is like going grocery shopping with a list and then sticking to it, you buy whats on the list and nothing else, no inspiration, no exploration, no business development.

Personally I am more than happy to pay for a colour catalogue and have monthly price/stock updates by email. It's business after all.

You tube gets the masterclass

2010-03-16T08:41:00.002Z

Extracts of the Brookes masterclass are now available on You Tube. Oxford College of Garden Designers now leading, not just keeping up with, the 21st Century!

Masterclass with Anthony Paul

2010-03-13T08:18:00.009Z

Another long time designer with 30 years under his belt Anthony Paul spread his enthusiasm for bringing true creativity into outside spaces as he talked us through his beginnings and major influences. Bringing with him a plethora of books for us to pour over, getting glimpses of artists who work is firmly bedded within the natural landscape. Artists such as Goldsworthy, Serra, Long, Randall-Page and others.

It is exciting to think our work could include inspirations from, or actual pieces by, these incredible creatives. His home is a testament to this enthusiasm as he and his wife, Hannah Peschar, open their gardens in the form of The Sculpture Gallery which displays the work of many artists within the natural landscape.

With so many diverse projects Anthony Paul has developed a strong philosophy about his work and his way of working, he encouraged us all to consider where we have come from, life experiences that have molded us, what has influenced us and how we might bring that into our design work. That in itself was inspiring for me as I find myself often dropping my past and starting again. A revelation, that it should, could all come in as part of who I am as a designer (the best ideas are the simple ones!)

Our final speed design exercise showed us all that we are indeed creatives and not simply becoming technical experts. And his critiques? Well they were delightfully and surprisingly positive.....

Meet the Designer masterclass with John Brookes

2010-03-12T06:14:00.005Z

Oxford College of Garden Design is hosting a series of meet the designer talks on Thursday evenings at St Hughs, Oxford. This week the Garden design legend John Brookes was the speaker. The mentor of our Principal, it was clear why such strong friendship and professional admiration has developed between them. John Brookes is undoubtedly one of the most influential garden designers of the late 20th century, renown for his design work, his teaching and his numerous books and writings. Brookes in person is a delightful and knowledgeable speaker, with a charming, understated humor flowing easily as he recounts stories of projects, clients and beloved gardens.

As he talked about his work over the last half century it struck me that what makes him a legend is probably his ability to work with people and transform their dreams into something universally elegant and appropriate to the building in which they have made their home or their professional workspace. Once can imagine that he is a consummate diplomat in the face of awkward clients and suppliers.

An uplifting and inspiring evening that has inspired me not only to examine his work and philosophy in more depth but also to get out there and design, write and photograph as much as possible, to be seen!

Sometimes it's about being in love with a fish!

2010-03-11T04:59:00.001Z

This talk is inspiring and makes me consider what is possible to achieve in our world in unexpected ways.

Writers block...

2010-03-08T18:29:00.002Z

Apparently I don't just have designers block I also have writers block atm....

The large Oxfordshire garden that we have been tasked with deisgning using curvilenear principles is proving challenging. DH assures us it is a learning curve that some have scaled in record time and some are struggling to even find the base camp. He says it took him 6 years to master, how we can even begin to master it in 3 weeks is something of a mystery to me but master it we must.

A the spring weather hits so does the pull to be outside gardening, crouching over a drawing board or computer day in day out is more difficult!

Missed Ecobuild....bad move!

2010-03-07T09:25:00.006Z

I noticed on other blogs that an exhibition called Ecobuild had been on, and I managed to miss it. There must be a list somewhere of all the good exhibitions (for garden designers) to attend, does anyone know of one?

Maybe I could start one here? but then I would have to remind myself to look them up instead of simply logging them as interesting!

Do post links to interesting shows here.

Kuler

2010-02-20T11:18:00.003Z

Just saw this fabulous little tool which should help with some colour combos in later projects.

"Discover Adobe® Kuler™ — the web-hosted application for generating color themes that can inspire any project. No matter what you're creating, with Kuler you can experiment quickly with color variations and browse thousands of themes from the Kuler community."

So Kuler it is!

From Colour

Original posting from Tracy McQue whose blog (http://mcquegardens.blogspot.com/2010/02/somewhere-over-rainbow.html) is filling up with useful tips.

Trip to France

2010-02-20T09:32:00.009Z

The class is taking a trip to France to see some of the chateau gardens and festivals. The first rendezvous post exhibition is Chaumont with visits to Amboise following. Teach has proposed including Villandry in the tour and one more whose name escapes me...maybe Marqueyssac

I have put these in my plan for coming years as this year I am focusing on another long trip in September so won't be making this trip.

Planting Planning

2010-02-16T20:16:00.004Z

Project 2 has been completed and much to my surprise, I have managed to catch up and complete it this evening. Tomorrow it will be bound and delivered to 'Teach', one day ahead of deadline. PHEW. A slight nagging feeling that it can't really be this straight forward but I am quashing that as simple nerves!

This section of work is a specification document, which will be used in a tendering process and along with it all the associated drawings - a Key Plan, Cascade Drawings (Drainage, Setting out, Levels, Paving) and of course Planting plans.

The Planting plan took me a good deal longer than I thought it would and after two false starts, one involving the full rendering of the plan before I realised it fulfilled nothing that I had set out to achieve. Being a confirmed plant-aholic it is hard to limit myself to the 20 species recommended. If I am honest I went over a little but not too wildly. It is a process of learning the balancing of grouping and labeling and this one is not perfect but it I find it pleasing and am hoping that those marking it agree with me!

From Finished Drawings

Tomorrow we have an afternoon of feed back on the Hard Landscape portfolio and the Bespoke portfolio handed in 10 days ago which will be fascinating to see the work of peers and find out how well, or not, mine went down.

It is Masterclass seaons - begning with Andy Sturgeon

2010-02-13T08:18:00.004Z

One of a series of Masterclasses run by Oxford College of Garden Design at St Hughs college Oxford.

A well known TV personality Andy Sturgeon talked us through his extensive portfolio of work residential and commercial and then a quick foray into show gardening for the RHS. Regaling us with tales of his early days, which to be honest was a relief to hear that all was not plain sailing, and that a smattering of speculative risk taking and opportunity making was required to establish himself early on. Sometimes it is just hard to hear over and over how tough it is going to be and how many people fail, sometimes it is simply good to hear 'you can do it if you believe in yourself' and, take steps to put you money where your mouth is.

Interesting to hear his philosophy on taking inspiration from artists, such as Anish Kapoor, and how it can be successfully interpreted for the garden situation.

A highly entertaining and informative lecture.

Chelsea preparations on GQT

2010-02-12T17:48:00.005Z

Good to hear Chris Marchant of Orchard Dene nurseries, one of the tutors on the OCGD Post Grad Dip course, speaking on GQT about the nurseries preparations for the show gardens of Tom Hoblyn at Chelsea flower show this year.

is NanoTech about to change how we live?

2010-02-09T07:11:00.004Z

A new development in the world of nano technology is going to be changing how a few things are done. This could mean eternal life for a timber post immersed in water for example....

Spray-on liquid glass is about to revolutionize almost everything

Imagine having an excellent local library

2010-02-09T06:29:00.004Z

Lucky for me I don't have to imagine.

Amazingly the county library, based in my home town, has yards (maybe that should be meters?) of garden design and horticultural books.

Over the seasonal holiday I trudged home with 12 heavy hardback volumes bursting with information and images to inspire me. This week yet more new books graced the shelves, how could I resist? I couldn't! A couple of samples of current reading are:

The Garden Design Sourcebook

Hardscape

Useful lists for Gardens to visit and seasons they excel during

2010-02-08T07:17:00.003Z

I am regularly hunting for recommendations for spectacular gardens to visit in each season. These lists are the ones I have found useful so far and any additions or suggestions would be most welcome. Surely there must be many more!

Winter

Spring

Summer - small gardens via the NGS

Autumn - Jane Perrone

Autumn - Roy Lancaster

Then of course there is
Future gardens

and for Top 50 gardening websites try this:
http://property.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/property/gardens/article6831347.ece

then she added one!
http://property.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/property/gardens/article2538034.ece

Last but not least is the very useful Garden Finder, which is worldwide.
http://www.gardenvisit.com/gardens/in/england

What is a Hard Landscape Portfolio?

2010-02-07T21:12:00.008Z

I was asked this lately and realise I have skirted around the details in previous postings.

The task was to prepare full construction drawings from Plan, Elevation and Section through to the Detail. Enough to allow a contractor to build each project successfully.

Furnished with some plans, some photographs and some written material the level of detail was up to each person to decide upon.

For some of the students, me included, this meant learning the 'how' of what to build i.e foundation width, depth and content, how does a retaining wall retain, what are the components of a decking structure and how do they fit together, how deep is a pond? and what sits beneath it? how deep is a step riser?, what are the dims of a brick?, a concrete slab? and even a roof tile? plus endless beams, joists, noggins, hoggin, mortar and sub-base components. This detail fathomed, how to brace, hang, support and wedge (!) together. Lastly to gather it all elegantly and efficiently into the CAD program of choice, Vectorworks 2010 which turned out to be stage two of the steep climb to knowledge.

Stage three was printing it all out with perfect titling, positioning, labeling and the right amount of information. Each requiring detailed knowledge of printer performance, features and why DPI might be relevant.

The learning aim was clearly about getting the written construction material off the page and into heads. Then from heads and sketch pads into Vectorworks. Upping skills in both areas, pronto. Having a real project is, for me at least, a blessing, something to actually 'do' rather than play at doing.

I leanrt more than I needed to in some areas and not enough in others.

The final part was a Bespoke portfolio of 12 pieces drawn with enough detail for a craftsman or woman to build for our clients. A creative exercise and most enjoyable although some of my crafts people will need to be magicians as well!

All in all my HLP and bespoke took me 192 hours (curtesy of www.tickspot.com) to complete. That's sitting down at the computer hours, not faffing about making tea, reading, researching, getting help, discussing with peers, tutors, sending 'help' emails, completing Vectorworks tutorial book, deciphering VW help text (bad, really bad!) and the many other tasks that surrounded it. For that, Tickspot reckons another 40 hrs, give or take.

All will be on show at the end of year exhibition in June (16/17), of course updated per instructions from those marking them in the coming weeks.

Winter Gardening

2010-02-07T09:43:00.007Z

A regular listener to GQT and today (well Friday!) Bob Flowerdew headed off to Cambridge Botanic gardens to investigate the winter garden there. Plenty of reference to Mahonia japonica, Lonicera purpusii, Cornus alba(dogwood), Berberis, Rubrus cobernii, Prunus subhertella autunmnalis, Festuca glauca and so on.

Night Lighting

2010-02-05T18:56:00.007Z

An interesting afternoon lecture on lighting with John Marriott of Lighting for Landscapes including the ins and out of armour cabling (!) followed by a demonstration in situ at the beautiful Greystone garden of Duncan and Carol Heather.

Features lit up in the pitch black - a rural property took on an eerie and mystical glow when lit by a variety of lamps including LED (Light Emitting Diode)and Metal halide examples.

The Hunza 'Euro' range being my favorite especially tiny spot in a coppery bronze, defining elegant details of individual plants or textures.

From Collages

Anglesely Abbey

2010-01-26T19:07:00.005Z

With the flurry of activity surrounding the Hard Landscape portfolio and Bespoke portfolio visits to winter gardens for shots to go into the Soft Landscape portfolio have all but been forgotten. But today, as the sun finally peaked out from the clouds, I felt I HAD to go to see the spectacular snowdrop display and glorious winter gardens at Anglesey Abbey. a quick jaunt up the A14 and back in time for lunch and more drawing(!)

From Collages

The winter gardens wind their way through a huge section of the garden, the path helping to divide the diffeerent section by bending so as to hide the next element. Glorious inter colour in the shape of yellow stemmed Salix, crimson coloured Cornus and ghostly white Rubrus, nestled in alongside Sarcoccoca confusa, Hammemelis, Chosiya, Corylus, Ophiopogon, Carex, Eleagnus and more in fact 150 species to cheer up a dreary English winter and this one has been particularly dreary!. The finale was of course the striking stand of Betula utilis var. jaquemontii. Stark against the rich dark soil, just sprouting daffs(?) beneath.

The snowdrops? two weeks late due to snow and cold weather! so I will have to go back again to see the Viburnums, Hammemelis and Galanthus in their full glory. Really, an inspirational garden for winter colour and interest.

Project two ......returns

2010-01-26T19:04:00.007Z

Marked but grades not revealed yet we have had our A1 sheets scanned in digitally. It seems an age ago that this was done but a mere 6 weeks.

Bubble diagrams: still a bit controlled for my liking, project 3 I plan to bring some artistic movement to it all -

From HLP

Plan view and 3d models: my favorite page, if one is allowed such a thing,. Close up the 3d models really come alive with the rendering and using a focal rendering style focuses the eye on different aspects of the design.

From HLP

Section Elevations: although they look a little bland here, they are in fact detailed section drawings showing key aspects of the design and features incorporated in the clients new gardens. They were the hardest to do, converting 1:100 to 1:50 (manually!) but the most rewarding to complete.

From HLP

So far the site analysis has not materialised, maybe that is a sign that it was not the best piece of work ever done!

Is admiting to being a student a disadvantage to ones professional credibility?

2010-01-20T16:36:00.012Z

A peer on my PostGrad Dip Garden Design course has discussed, all be it not in depth, the concern that publicly presenting themselves as a student, as I do here in this blog, will lead to potential clients perceiving them as unprofessional or inexperienced and immature in some way.

I can't deny I have pondered on this, however I AM in experienced in this profession, I haven't delivered scads of garden design and builds yet. I am NOT however inexperienced in dealing with clients, delivering costly IT & business change projects, on time and on budget, consistently buying products and retailing them at a reasonable net profit sit amongst many other skills I've developed in a 20yr career in business, volunteering and consulting.

Several of these roles has had budgets far far in excess of even the most exorbitant garden design project even I could imagine (ok, yes we are talking millions of the multi kind!) So I suppose I'm saying I bring several important and well honed skills to the proverbial party.

So dear reader should I quit this blog? Cease from showing the world my current inexperience? my frustrations at levels of learning? am I shooting myself in the professional foot?

n.b. I should perhaps also stake the claim that I qualified as a designer in 1986, in the form of a BA hons degree in Graphic Design ;)

The sense of achievement

2010-01-18T10:16:00.008Z

I have a sense of achievement which could be the prelude to a massive disappointment but still, the last 5 weeks struggling with Vectorworks, constructions notes, supplier catalogue blurb, plans, 2d drawings, grainy photo's and my own n00b-ness in the face of building anything that will stand up for more than a slight breath of wind, has turned out to be the expected steep learning curve and though I say it myself, successful. To some degree at least. The OCGD Hard Landscape Portfolio is well on the way.

Just one of the draft drawings

From 1 HLP

An email from 'Teach' reminding us to have planting plans for project 2 ready for the CAD course at the beginning of term ( 10 days time) slammed me into the wall of deadline pressure: delivering the HLP (85% done), the bespoke portfolio (not yet begun) and now a planting plan on top of that.

In a frantic half an hour I went from 'I can't do all this!' (think hysteria pitch) to ' S**t, I have to get this done! plan it woman' (terminator workaholic mode) and the consequent flurry of research, absorbing and cogitating that goes on around the actual 'sitting down and doing it' process.

An interesting change of head space which was much needed tbh. I may not complete on time but I will be skidding in to the finish post with my best attempt at it all, come hell or broken leg!

And in the background of all this I am steadily building my 365 project and discovering it's not that easy. Another learning process.

From Collages

Reality check

2010-01-12T19:16:00.004Z

Sometimes in the middle of crazy deadlines and the chaos of humanity something happens to make you remember there really is more to life.

Today, a friends beloved Dad died and another friend gave birth to twins (one boy, one girl).

A sad and a joyous day.

And then..... it's back to drawing construction diagrams in Vectorworks

What would it be like to represent every day with one image? - Creating a Book of Days for 2010

2010-01-09T09:27:00.006Z

I first heard the term Day Book years ago when I was temping for some senior training guru at Xerox. The day book/file was for any papers related to that day. Simple really but pretty effective in focusing attention on that one particular days demands and needs.

On Flickr I saw this http://www.flickr.com/photos/martintaylor/ gr8 version of a day book, things that are noticed by the photographer daily.

So this year I am going to do the same, with a bit of a hiccup in week one I'll admit, but from today I'll post daily images here http://www.flickr.com/photos/42165066@N03/

Do post if you have something similar going on

Bi-continental tech support rocks

2010-01-08T06:05:00.002Z

Back in like with Vectorworks after finding this http://kbase.vectorworks.net/. Donny from tech support really rocks!

And of course more locally but still virtually our tutor Tamsin Slatter, who made me realise how much I have to learn to be even a rookie at VW as opposed to a n00b.

Thanks Guys

Residential Landscape Architect...... in training!

More new blogs to read

NEW Blog!

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RAM's and Windows XP

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

DO you know which soil you are on?

OCGD going from strength to strength

Coming soon

Have you seen the Garden Museum or Piet Oudolf?

Are design competitions worth the time and effort?

Noel Kingsbury

Web Site Designer

Website Design

Can it really be done?

Which books get you enthused about plants?

Earth Clock - not on topic but fascinating nevertheless

Glorious Shropshire summer days

Seasonal portfolio in the print

Do you know what this is?

Going cross eyed with photographs and plant details

One of the top 10 gardens per the Telegraph readers... what do you think?

Are we done with the moral high ground in this country?

Gotta love Google Analytics

Fellows' Garden, Clare College, Cambridge

How wild is your wildlife garden?

Final postings

Exhibition fallout

comments.please !

down to Dixter

Sizzling Sissinghurst

SLP and garden visiting

Business linking?

Work experience

Are herbaceous borders still PC?

SGD Photo competition

Strutting your stuff.......

and on a completely different note.....

Moody Board

planting plans ...DONE

the cascades

last legs?

How many blog posts does it take before you actually invest time in reading a whole blog?

Writers block.... AGAIN

Chelsea Flower Show 2010

Exam preparation

In my 'other life' things are happening

Surveying trees at Harcourt Arboretum

Garden Photography for 2 whole days

Final project moving on a pace

iMac i5 !

iMac?

Winding down...apparently

Business Linking...for FREE!

comments missing

The Landscape Man...is brilliant

Charlotte Rowe comes to visit

Project 3 client comes to visit

3D Vectorworks

Inspired by the lighting?

Have you been swayed by an Edible Garden?

Beth Chatto knows how to 'do' a spring garden!

Knoll gardens, a masterclass

Vale of the White Horse gardens in a 3d model

Is Spring planting so difficult to do well?

Splash! SGD Conference

Exploring Earthworks

It's a glorious day and I would rather be outside...

Fasciation is unpredictable.........

Contouring in Sketch Up

Skunk anyone?

Spring is apparently delayed by a few weeks!

Does modern Garden Design have longevity?

Do people really respond and donate to the 'Charity of Me' requests?

First Commision almost done!!

Why do I need a land surveyor?

Is an Electronic plant catalogue a barrier to sales?

You tube gets the masterclass

Masterclass with Anthony Paul

Meet the Designer masterclass with John Brookes