iLandscape.com.au
iLandscape.com.au
Ah, thinking of those warm mediterranean evenings….
‘Vegetables are not growing well in my windy garden, but I am reluctant to plant windbreaks of trees or hedges, as they will create shade and take moisture from the soil. What alternatives are there?’
If you want to avoid the costs of installing a fence/trellis with openings to allow the wind to percolate through at an acceptable speed, I think the answer lies in putting in a screen of synthetic wind break material, obtainable from most garden centres or online. The strength and quality of this varies and some is fairly costly, but a 1.5- 1.8 metre high wind break around your plot would give dramatic results. I found a 50 metre x 2 metre roll of knitted net on offer online for around £170 or much the same on Ebay for about £40, and £13 for a 10 metre length. Make sure the posts are anchored firmly in the ground (corner posts may need to be reinforced and they should ideally be bedded in concrete), as the netting takes a tremendous strain in high winds.
On the subject of vegetable or kitchen gardens, is yours laid out for maximum efficiency and growing space?
Traditionally vegetables were grown in large plots, often 6-9 metres wide and as long as the garden allowed. The vegetables were arranged with a lot of wasted space between rows. Today we know that vegetables can be grown far closer together without any adverse effects; indeed, there is a a trend towards abandoning rows and growing vegetables with equal spacing between the plants in each direction, in blocks or patches.
Narrow beds in the Kitchen Garden at Old School Garden
This compactness lends itself to smaller, narrower beds, say 0.9 – 1.5m wide, which can be any length you like. These narrower beds are easier to manage from either side (so avoiding walking on the bed itself and opening up the possibility and benefits of ‘no dig’ cultivation) and the denser planting also helps to crowd out weeds. here at Old School Garden, my kitchen garden ahs been laid out along these lines, though I still have a one large bed which I’ve effectively split into two by creating a ‘boardwalk’ path out of old pallets.
Boardwalk made of old wooden pallets, used to split a large veg bed into two
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All about the leaves- Fatsia japonica
Other articles in the ‘Style Counsel’ series:
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A grass -free ‘Floral Lawn’ has been opened today in Avondale Park, West London. It’s plants, which include daisies, red-flowering clover, thyme, chamomile, pennyroyal and Corsican mint, create a “pollinator-friendly patchwork” – with 25% more insect life than that found in “traditionally managed grass lawns”.The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea commissioned the biodiverse floral lawn from Lionel Smith, a Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) sponsored PhD student, and RBKC’s gardening team. It is the first time that a public park has featured this new form of lawn.
Planting a public space with specially selected and researched plants will give Lionel a valuable insight into how the public will react to this non-traditional lawn. Previously all his research has been on experimental plots at Reading University. The idea has prompted questions about ‘just what makes a lawn a lawn’. Lionel says:
“Lawns are normally associated with closely trimmed grass but mine are, I believe, entitled to be called that too. They are not only beautiful and easy to maintain but also environmentally friendly. It will be interesting to see how visitors to Avondale Park, where this public trial sward is to be being planted, will react. I hope to get some feedback as part of my research.”
Traditional grass lawns, if regularly mown, might look good, but have you thought about:
What do you think about this? Have you got a traditional grass lawn in your garden or have you turned it (or some of it) over to wild flowers or other uses? Should we turn over more areas of traditional grass lawn in public parks and spaces into grass- free or more diverse habitats? I’d love to hear your views!
Further information:
‘Rethinking the traditional grass lawn’ -blog article by Lionel Smith
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One of the finished planters standing alongside the Playground
I followed the guide produced by Garden Designer Mike Rendell (you can access a pdf of this here). It was fairly straightforward and with some help, the children managed to do most of the tasks needed to achieve some pretty flowering planters which now adorn the edge of their playground.
1. Sawed off the ends of the slats so that there were solid timber sides to the planter – the children coped with this with a bit of help now and again (it didn’t help that my saws weren’t that sharp!).
2. Removed every other slat to provide space for planting – this proved to be difficult, especially for the children, as it involved a lot of strength and using claw hammers and the like.
3. Nailing two of the spare slats, one to the top, the other to the bottom of the planter – the children enjoyed using hammers and nails (it was helpful being able to use the nails and pre set holes already in the removed slats).
4. Painting the planters – we chose a rich blue paint suitable for outdoor furniture and the children enjoyed painting, though some of the younger ones had to be encouraged to ensure every bit of wood was properly covered!
5. Stapling some spare landscaping fabric to the back of the planter. I’d pre cut the size needed (allowing for a double layer joined in the middle and overlapping it around the sides and top of the planter). The children found it very difficult using the staple gun, which was designed for bigger hands, so I had to do this for them, whilst they held the fabric in place.
6. After this the children nailed the remaining spare slats to the back of the planter to provide reinforcement. Again, with a bit of basic ‘hammer tuiton’ the children managed this pretty well, though we did use some spare nails where some of the old ones got bent in the process.
7. The children then filled and compacted the compost into the planters, starting at the bottom and planting up as they went. We used about 40 litres of peat free compost per planter, a little loose, but with compaction and wetting seemed to hold together reasonably well. The children tired a bit towards the end, so I made sure the compost was properly compacted and roots covered. Once tidied up, the planters were thoroughly watere. Incidentally the plants were kindly donated by a local nursery woman who had held a plant sale at the school a few weeks before. We have a mix of Petunias, Antirrhinums, Dahlias, Geraniums and Impatiens- quite a mix and it will be interesting to see how some of the larger varieties fare in this vertical world!
8. I had fixed some cup hooks to the top and rear of each planter so that they can eventually be hooked into the fence to avoid them falling over, though for now the planters are at an angle to allow the compost and plants to become firmer.
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Recycled windows with mirrors replacing glass provide an attractive, novel garden feature, echoing ‘trompe d’oeil’ (tricks of the eye) of older gardens
‘Work is nearing completion on our new insect hotel which is located on our Georgian Ride! This fantastic structure has been built using a variety of natural materials and will attract various Heligan insects such as solitary bees, earwigs, spiders, lady bird, maybe the odd toad and much much more!’ The Lost Gardens of Heligan
Nigel Boldero aka 'Old School Gardener'
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