WHIMSY IN THE GARDEN

Every year at the Chelsea Flower Show there’s always one designer who separates themselves from "the pack" in the design of their garden, perhaps with a bit of whimsy, tongue in cheek or simply just choosing not to take themselves too seriously.

In 2009 there was a magical garden created out of plasticine, designed and organized by James May, which elicited childhood memories of "Play-Doh" and plastic fruit “still-lifes” on dining room tables from the crowd.  It was essentially a sculpted art installation framed in the guise of a mystical secret garden. Dozens of people contributed to this garden, across all strata of British society, from children who never handled the material to war veterans that remember when it was the latest invention to professional model makers.

In 2010, “Welcome to Yorkshire’s Rhubarb Crumble & Custard Garden” (a mouthful in more ways than one), a bowl of Yorkshire rhubarb takes center stage.  Yellow Sedum acre ‘Golden Queen’ symbolizes a generous serving of overflowing custard, and the crumble is represented by a stonewall.  A Yorkshire handcrafted oak spoon doubles as a seat on the stone patio.  Rhubarb forcing pots create focal points. According to the designer, bronze fennel is meant to suggest the brown sugar sprinkled on a crumble.  The idea for this garden was envisioned while the designers were having lunch!

This year I’m looking forward to the Hae-woo-so garden. This garden is inspired by the Korean belief in the cathartic and spiritual experience of using the toilet.  Looking forward to the audience’s and critics comments.

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Winterizing Evergreens Anti Desiccant Spray

Winter cold and winds can be harsh on your landscape. Evergreen trees and shrubs maintain foliage throughout the winter months where they continue to lose moisture. With winter temperature fluctuations, moisture loss and the ground still frozen, transpiration occurs from the needles and leaves increasing water demand.   If the roots cannot keep up with these demands the needles and leaves start to turn brown and die.  Winter burn or desiccation is a dehydration of the plant due to water loss from the leaves through transpiration. This is caused by long dry periods of cold and thaw along with winter winds. Some broadleaf evergreens such as holly, rhododendron, cherry laurel, skip laurel, mountain laurel, Japanese skimmia, leucothoe, aucuba and boxwood are even more susceptible to winter drying and long-term damage.  An easy way of avoiding winter damage to plants is to apply an anti-desiccant spray to the upper and lower parts of the foliage before the temperatures drop below freezing or during a winter thaw.

PLANTS PRONE TO WINTER BURN: broadleaf evergreens such as holly, rhododendron, cherry laurel, skip laurel, mountain laurel, Japanese skimmia, leucothoe, aucuba and boxwood.

WHEN TO APPLY: Apply anti-desiccant when the daytime temperatures start falling below 50 degrees (late fall/early winter). Apply when the temperatures are above freezing and there is no threat of rain or frost within 24 hours. (This tip applies to areas going into their winter season-temperatures dropping below freezing: 0 degrees Celsius or 32 degrees Fahrenheit.) Anti-desiccants are organic and break down under heat and light so it is recommended to spray again in late winter.

DANGERS: Be sure to read all directions on the label since anti-desiccants can cause photo toxicity on some narrow needled evergreens such as Arborvitae and Spruce that could cause more harm than winter burn.  Spraying in freezing temperaures will do harm to the plant.  Do not spray in freezing temperatures and allow time to dry before temperatures drop below 32^oF or 0^oC.

HOW OFTEN DOES IT NEED TO BE APPLIED: Sudden warm spells can trigger your evergreens to open their pores allowing for more water loss. If there is a winter thaw part way through the season it is recommended to re-spray your plants but only if the temperatures are to remain above freezing for at least 24 hours.

WHERE DO I PURCHASE ANTI-DESICCANT?:  The most commonly used brands of anti-desiccant are Wilt-Pruf, Vapor Guard and Transfilm that can be found in nurseries and garden centers. There is a new brand of anti-desiccant on the market which requires only one application. Ask your landscape professional for more information.

HOW IT WORKS: Anti-desiccant spray is organic and biodegradable.  It adds a protective waxy coating to the tops and undersides of the leaves of broadleaf evergreens to help slow the process of transpiration which causes water loss and winter damage.

Author: Lee @ A Guide To Northeastern Gardening Copyright 2010. All Rights Reserved.

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5 Tips to Summerize Your Patio

I found a great article, courtesy of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, showing five simple ways to summerize your home and outdoor living space. Color, seating and comfortable landscape features are the way to make it happen.



Painting with vibrant colors can really warm up old chairs, tables and benches helping bring them to life. All you need is a few cans of spray paint and some tape to make give seating areas some personality. Apply an even coat of paint to the entire chair, let it dry, then apply a funky criss-crossing pattern of painters tape over the chair leaving certain areas exposed, then apply a different color paint to the chair. Another concept is creating a stencil out of cardboard. You can paint a bench, chair or other seating areas and then create funky shapes on cardboard, cut out the shapes and then spray paint through the stencil on your seating areas.



Larger seating areas in general are a focus in the article as well. More and more people are extending the outdoor living and entertaining time in their backyards and patios. This directly relates to the fresh coats of paint. Grab some old chairs out of the attic and the spruce them up with some warm colors and patterns.



A third inexpensive way to summerize your home is to go thrift store shopping and accessorize your patio with throw pillows, baskets and planter boxes for flowers. This is a great way to add depth and function to your outdoor entertaining area on a humble budget.


Landscaping is a fourth way to make your backyard more inviting. In heavy traffic areas where people tend to walk and congregate most, add some paver stones to protect surrounding bushes and flowers and add a sleek look to your main garden paths. Also, mulch is a great way to help retain moisture around flower patches and at the base of trees, all while giving your yard and clean and tidy look.


Finally, adding fire features, such as fire pits, tiki torches or hearths to your backyard can create a focal point for entertaining and conversation. We are all naturally attracted to fire and a fire pit will make for the perfect gathering point for guests, perfect spot for adding seating and can help extend the day outdoors on a chilly night. Natural gas or propane fire pits also bypass most local fire burning restrictions as they are controlled and safe to operate.

For all of your outdoor custom fire pit needs, please visit us online and give us a call with any questions you may have regarding outdoor fire features. Well be happy to help you make the most out of your outdoor entertainment space.

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Behind The Scenes Raised Culinary Garden

Ive just finished a raised herb and vegetable garden for a garden care client with a beautiful predominantly indigenous garden. Weve been discussing the options for this area for a while - she wanted an area that she could grow some herbs and veggies.
The area planned for the vegetable garden was an area that hasnt been very successful as an ordinary garden bed. Sweet potatoes seemed to flourish though, so it seemed like the right spot.
We would both liked to have used a willow weave edging for the raised beds, but couldnt find a supplier that had stock and would be priced reasonably. We settled on log edging, as this would have a great rustic, yet neat look to it.

We moved the existing plants into pots, or other areas of the garden. The uprights were cemented into the ground and then the logs were cut to length, and placed in position. We used Bidim to keep the soil from leaking through any gaps between the poles. We kept the large Melaleuca tree in the corner, as it does a great job of softening the high wall behind.

Im quite happy with the final result. My client wasted no time populating it with tomatoes, lettuce, peppers, coriander, beans, sage, lemon grass and some sweet peas for colour. This was a relatively simple solution to a problem flower bed, that took just 2 days from start to finish.

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A Garden’s Best Font Size

Really a question of appropriate scale of plants and plantings, if you can’t read it without straining your eyes, then the font is too small.  A dizzyingly detailed landscape that is busy with a million colors and textures and fine leaves and so on cannot possibly be quickly rationalized.  Details are fine if there is an opportunity to be close to the landscape and if there is time to explore the landscape.  However, if it is being passed by at any pace or viewed from any distance, then a certain bold font, that is, plantings which are in some context massed together, is helpful if the garden or landscape is to be understood by those from certain distance or at a certain pace.

The size of font symbolizes the size of particular swath of species planting.  The size, at which reading or seeing the text or planting accommodates the most common and/or the most important readers or viewers, is the most appropriate.  Within a planting en masse, the gardener may plant more details on the interior, a more leisurely pedestrian level, to satisfy his or her need for finer points.  Or, a planting that appears en masse for its similar hue may reveal itself upon closer inspection to be a quite detailed undulation of multiple species without overwhelming the passer by.           


So...  is this font too small?

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The best choice of Exterior Shutters

Selection of modern shutter

Modern Exterior shutters

Adding modern shutters to your property can reasonably accommodate quick way to style and color to the outside of his house to be able to. The cover can be found in historical and modern buildings can and will benefit from eternity style of blinds. Since the quality of the blinds last longer and are a unique addition to the houses of this type of home improvement and evaluation should think before to install the new shutters.

Modern Exterior shutters

Luckily for us, modern blinds can be found in many shapes and materials available, with a huge market for manufacturers and designers. A very common choice is jail vinyl shutters that are easy in most hardware stores, generally available, because they are simply the cheapest blinds. The only problem with vinyl shutters is that they often look like plastic and they can not be dyed.

Modern Exterior shutters

If you have to think of a classic prison likely to be a classic wooden shutter in mind, but remember that there are many types of shutter . As the highest quality cedar shutters is because of their outstanding durability and resistance to decay, because this is perhaps the best shutter for outdoor use. Cedar offers long with little maintenance in applications such as mud sills, window sashes, sheathing under stucco or Brick construction, gas benches, fences, grilles and shutters. Cedar is widely used for the outside before, since it is dimensionally stable and holds paint better than a deterrent to bugs.

Modern Exterior shutters

The reason for shutters is like a perfect place for a prison is that produced by a type of tannin, cedar oil, which prevents the ingress of moisture and Error hate it. This is the main reason that shutters wood makes a good wood for exterior shutters.

Modern Exterior shutters

While cedar is a kind of natural protection, it is always advisable to provide for additional protection and prison, while the color can be brushed, it is advisable sprayed. Most House Painters will spray shutters with their airless spray systems for latex. Probably the best tinted basis for the protection of the prison primer coat of oil so close to the final desired color is possible. The action that protects the shutters and prison is that the oil penetrates the shutters , so a combination with it and protect it. The first two layers of shutters should be a premium grade exterior latex. The big advantage is that an outer layer of latex will not fade away like chalk or oil paints. When the shutter release capsules are used to paint, and the upper edge is particularly susceptible to moisture penetration.

Modern Exterior shutters

Installation of blinds can be a simple task, no longer appointed as marketing of the panel, the House or the doors to the main window. For better security at home, it is also possible to install and activate the blinds that can be closed over windows for protection against storms, they are very popular as hurricane shutters and storm shutters, and a variety of hardware options available. If you are looking for hurricane or storm shutter serious and stable material is constructed of solid hardware with a coating against rot and be sure to complete your perfect, do not forget that these covers are designed to protect the property under storms.

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Sustainable Landscape Design

Sustainable Landscape Design

A film by Bob Brzuszek about designing for the future in Mississippi. Interviews of students and staff at the Department of Landscape Architecture ...

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