“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”
– Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Computers, Inc.
Our society has many unrealistic expectations, and often, our mental health suffers from the weight of it all. While our home gardens should be a place for healing, the quest for landscape perfection can often steal our joy.
Perfectly shorn turfgrass and immaculately trimmed hedges have been the hallmark of theideal traditional residential landscape for decades. These landscapes feel dated and are often nearly lifeless except for hordes of pest insects and diseases. A healthy ecosystem and sound horticultural practices are afterthoughts at best. Meanwhile, plants decline, and native wildlife, especially birds and beneficial insects, struggle to find enough food to remain.
Bottom line: Perfect gardens suck. They are neither realistic nor sustainable.
A paradigm shift in urban and suburban landscape horticulture is emerging as many brave gardeners are rebelling against traditional landscape expectations to create beautiful, vibrant, healthy landscapes that are sustainable, environmentally friendly, interesting, and, best of all, easy to implement and manage. (Read about how this Charleston County resident embraces native plants in his home
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If you're after a completely free-to-enter garden to relax in and explore this summer, then Manchester's Ordsall Hall has it all — a gorgeous garden, a historic hall, and a lovely allotment. Everything at Ordsall is free to explore, making it a must-visit this season. Want to find out more? Our team took a tour this summer to show you what Salford's oldest building has to offer. The Gardens Ordsall Hall has lush sprawling grass to the front of the property… But to the back? This is where you can find their impressive time capsule garden. The rear garden is designed in a traditional Tudor style knot, similar to what would have been grown back then. Rose bushes stand out among carefully pruned hedging.
In Jade Pearls and Alien Eyeballs I talk about the journeys plants have made with us – crisscrossing the globe and leaving Earth entirely for missions in space.
The political weather has been stormy of late, and as the sun has come out to play at last, the garden seems the safest place to be. There’s a lot to be done to get it ready for the growing season, so time spent outside is never wasted. A lot of what I’m doing at the moment could best be termed ungardening, clearing out the contents from last year’s containers, and reusing the potting compost in the bottom of new pots, or as a soil improving mulch.
A fad in modern architecture and gardening or a necessity to bring back nature into industrialised densely built urban landscapes? Living green walls are becoming more and more popular, so we decided to explore the benefits, installation and maintenance process of these structures. Read on to find out how long they have been around, why so many buildings are having them, and how you can make one for your home.
In Yorkshire we are lucky to have several gardens designed using the theme of a Himalayan Garden. The Hut near Ripon at Grewlthorpe is  ‘The Himalayan Garden’ with all the plants you would expect in such a setting including
Britain has some of the best gardens in the world. The choice of which to visit is far larger than this selective list but at least it gives you somewhere to start planning this years outings.
In the cold wet winter it is a good time to plan where to visit as the year improves. The South West is the obvious place to start your visiting tour of gardens containing exotic plants.
China is one of the great destinations for visiting gardens. The influence over garden design and the vast array of plants and flowers is secondary to the investment in time and dedication demonstrated in so many great locations. This is just a selection of those you may consider visiting if you can make the journey..
Peace is not just the absence of war it can be a reflection of a personal inner tranquility. To many gardeners peace may be a state of harmony with nature. It is a theme of several ‘hard landscape’ projects and sculptural works as shown by the selection of Peace gardens below.
Holland Park has some Zen like features but fails my Zen test. The classic elements of a successful Zen are stone, sand or gravel, water, plants and space. Then there is a question of balance between yin and yang. Cramped or cluttered gardens inhibit the flow of spirit so space is potentially the key ingredient of a Zen garden.
I was picking the Czar plums to make more jam when a wasp was disturbed from eating it’s lunch. Wasps go for my plums just as they are at their sweetest best. My problem was I couldn’t see which plums had a wasp in the fruit if they were above head height or facing away from my hand. The resulting sting set me on the trail of other stingers in the garden.
Not what you would expect for a garden called ‘The Phoenix Garden’ in the middle of Tottenham Court Road near Crown Point. It isn’t a phoenix from the ashes of a great fire or a WW11 bomb site at but was built on a disused car park in the 1980s. It may be part of an overflowing burial ground for St Giles-in-the-field church back in the 1600s and is reputed to be the last surviving Covent ‘Garden’. The entrance is located in St Giles Passage