NOTHING ADDS MORE TO A GARDEN THAN WATER. Just ask the birds, frogs, and insects—oh, and human visitors, too. It’s a magical element, providing sustenance and visual fascination (auditory, too, if you can make it move). I just hauled my simplest, seasonal water gardens—two big, glazed troughs I fill spring through fall, then stash—out of winter storage, and ordered the plants I need to get the look above. The details (and no, nothing to worry about re: mosquitoes, really):
Yes, mosquitoes: That’s the most common question I’m asked when I lecture, when people see these photos, above and below, among my slides. “What about mosquitoes?” After that: “How often do you have to change the water?”
Making an “instant” seasonal water garden—meaning no plumbing required—merely requires a watertight vessel, water, and some floating plants to shade the water surface. I top up the liquid as needed during the season, but do not swap it out completely.
Containers can be anything that holds water, including galvanized cattle tanks; earthenware pots with glazing at least on their interior surface (like my big troughs) and no drainage hole; or some other found object.
Level the pot or pots first (use a carpenter’s level), while still empty, and insert shims beneath, such as from an old shingle or pieces of slate, to adjust and stabilize. Once you add water, forget moving the pot if it’s off-kilter.
I prefer to place these temporary water gardens in a part-sun spot, rather than full sun, to keep algae growth down. The shade provided to the water by the floating plants like Azolla (fairy moss) or Lemna (duckweed) that I use helps with that, too (sold by mail by places like Waterford Gardens). If your garden will go in full sun without a full
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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.
Some animals can be a real pest in the garden. Their crimes include eating the wrong thing, digging in the wrong area, turning grass brown with urine and leaving a dirty mess. Some chose your favourite plants to damage as I know from some aggressive over fed pigeons in my own garden. In my experience the worst offenders are rabbits, cats, mice, deer, pigeons and dogs including foxes. Rats cause concern but have not caused direct damage in my 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.