Archive for November, 2014


gardeninacity's avatargardeninacity

We visited the Portland Japanese Garden as part of the 2014 Garden Bloggers Fling. I wouldn’t put Japanese gardens at the top of my list of favorite gardening styles. However, I’m very glad I was able to spend some time in this tranquil place.

Trees of the Pacific Northwest tower over the entrance to the Portland Japanese Garden. Trees of the Pacific Northwest tower over the entrance to the Portland Japanese Garden.

The Portland Japanese Garden is actually five different gardens on 5.5 acres surrounded by protected woods. While the gardens are traditional, trees native to the Pacific Northwest are also included so as to blend in with the natural surroundings. This creates a larger sense of scale than is generally found in this type of garden.

2014-07-12 12.19.18

The five gardens are the Flat Garden, the Strolling Pond Garden, the Natural Garden, and the Tea Garden. Throughout, stone and water matter just as much as the plants.

The Strolling Pond and Natural Gardens were the ones I…

View original post 210 more words

heat sink greenhouseHeat Sink Greenhouse- heat is absorbed by the stone trough during the day and relased at night.

Old School Gardener

Met Office Press Office's avatarOfficial blog of the Met Office news team

There are some headlines in the media today which suggest the UK faces another stormy start to winter before conditions turn cold into January, based on the latest Met Office three month outlook for contingency planners.

As we’ve discussed previously, the outlook is not like a normal weather forecast. It’s an experimental and complex outlook based on probabilities which is designed specifically for those who plan ahead for various contingencies based on possible likelihoods.

It assesses the likelihood of five different scenarios for both temperature and rainfall for the whole of the UK for the whole three months, based on the most probable prevailing weather patterns.

It’s a bit like the science-equivalent of factoring the odds on a horse race and like any horse race, it’s always possible the favourite won’t win.

This is why the outlook has to be used in the right context. So it’s useful for…

View original post 318 more words

WP_20141102_11_45_49_Pro

Here’s my last compilation of the latest outdoor projects using pallet and other recycled wood. This is a bit of a mixture of things, but hopefully you’ll be inspired by them. All courtesy of the Facebook site 1001 Pallets.

Old School Gardener

canwefeedtheworld's avatarOne Billion Hungry: Can We Feed the World?

ID-10052509Evidence that investing in agriculture in developing countries as a way of tackling poverty and hunger is growing. Given the sheer number of people working in the agricultural sector, investments can have benefits on a large-scale but there are also risks and big investments can, in some cases, harm the rural sector, taking land and resources away from local people. Aiming to illustrate these risks and benefits are a couple of recent reports.

A paper from the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, Impacts of foreign agricultural investment on developing countries: evidence from case studies, brings together FAO case studies on “the impacts of foreign agricultural investment on host communities and countries”. These studies show that large-scale land acquisitions, particularly where land rights are tenuous and governance poor, can have detrimental consequences for local communities, depleting natural resources and harming livelihoods, factors which increase rather than reduce poverty. Such…

View original post 817 more words

Natalia Maks's avatarNatalia Maks

I visited the Vigeland Park last summer. It is the world’s largest sculpture park made by a single artist, and is one of Norway’s most popular tourist attractions.

The unique sculpture park is Gustav Vigeland’s lifework with more than 200 sculptures in bronze, granite and wrought iron. Vigeland was also in charge of the design and architectural layout of the park. The Vigeland Park was mainly completed between 1939 and 1949.
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

View original post

 

topiary montrealMontreal, Canada

Old School Gardener

Signs outside the Cafe Royal, Edinburgh.

Catherine Arcolio's avatarLeaf And Twig

DSC01767
the single leaf
contains all of fall’s
colors and transitions

View original post

Finding Nature

Nature Connectedness Research Blog by Prof. Miles Richardson

Norfolk Green Care Network

Connecting People with Nature

Discover WordPress

A daily selection of the best content published on WordPress, collected for you by humans who love to read.

Susan Rushton

Celebrating gardens, photography and a creative life

Unlocking Landscapes

Writing, photography and more by Daniel Greenwood

Alphabet Ravine

Lydia Rae Bush Poetry

TIME GENTS

Australian Pub Project, Established 2013

Vanha Talo Suomi

The Journey from Finnish Rintamamiestalo to Arboretum & Gardens

Marigolds and Gin

Because even in chaos, there’s always gin and a good story …

Bits & Tidbits

RANDOM BITS & MORE TIDBITS

Rambling in the Garden

.....and nurturing my soul

The Interpretation Game

Cultural Heritage and the Digital Economy

pbmGarden

Sense of place, purpose, rejuvenation and joy

SISSINGHURST GARDEN

Notes from the Gardeners...

Deep Green Permaculture

Connecting People to Nature, Empowering People to Live Sustainably

BloominBootiful

A girl and her garden :)