DO you know which soil you are on?

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

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

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

OCGD going from strength to strength

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

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

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

Coming soon

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

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

Have you seen the Garden Museum or Piet Oudolf?

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

Are design competitions worth the time and effort?

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 ;)