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Botanical garden growing history

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20/06/2013

“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.”

Robert Louis Stevenson

The first botanical garden in Carniola was established in 1781. Its founder,Karl von Zois , an amateur botanist, set it in park of his family estate, Brdo Castle. With help of his brother, Sigmund Zois Freiherr von Edelstein, prominent figure in Enlightenment Era in the Slovene Lands, he planted not only indigenous plants, but many foreign as well. Plants were collected from Carniola, there was set first alpinum, and others bought from abroad. In 1782 first hyacinths arrived in the garden. Captain Cook sent some plants from his Tahiti expedition to the owner of the garden, yet they arrived in poor condition as Karl sadly wrote in his garden diary

Lack of money and love for botany, as difficult growing conditions for alpinum, all together resulted in Brdo…

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PicPost: Food Container

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19/06/2013

PicPost: Urban Farm

Shipping container greenhouse – urban farm unit by Damien Chivialle

What goes on underneath the greenhouse (heating?)?

Does the whole thing rotate on the turntable its standing on?

Tags: container, food, greenhouse, urban gardening

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Great Garden @ Thorpland Hall, Norfolk

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Well, we had a great day out on Sunday visiting this garden near Fakenham, Norfolk. A Tudor Hall with some fantastic chimneys and gables plus a superbly crafted and well-kept garden. Not normally open to the public, on Sunday the St. John’s Ambulance Brigade were the beneficiaries of the garden day.

Thorpland Hall is a sixteenth century hall set in 6 acres of quintessentially English country gardens. It is a gem of a place with some very nice touches:

grass cut to varying heights to create informal paths and visual interest
subtle shrub and plant combinations
well stocked, traditional kitchen garden with Broad Beans as well as peas held up by brushwood and interesting intermingling of herbaceous and other perennials
A stone flag path with side planting pockets from which various ‘low growers’ soften the edges
Use of ‘saved’ architectural features from local churches as well as its own ‘ruined chapel’
a vast variety of trees and shrubs all looking mature and well cared for
a lily covered lake excavated by the owners, Nigel and Annabel Savory, with a ‘nod to Monet’ in its wooden bridge
a delightful ‘shepherds hut’ summer house and ‘his and hers’ rustic chairs.

Well worth a visit, if and when you get the chance!

Tags: fakenham, garden, heritage, listed, norfolk, thorpland hall, tudor

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WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

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gwenniesgarden

wordless wednesday

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Street play: can you have too much of it?

Filed under: Play — Leave a comment

18/06/2013

Rethinking Childhood

I have written before about street play, and plugged the Playing Out project, whose community-based approach to opening up streets for play is spreading fast. A couple of weekends ago I witnessed a whole Playing Out session from beginning to end (and you will have the chance to see the edited highlights on primetime TV [Update Weds 3 July 2013: watch a clip from this blog post of mine]). It was a thrilling event, welcomed and enjoyed by people of all ages. But while I shared their enthusiasm, I was left wondering if the sheer energy of the occasion could paradoxically weaken the initiative’s prospects. I’ll come back to that thought later – but first, let’s set the scene.

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Patience is a Virtue

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Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse

Working as a Heritage Gardening Trainee here at Gressenhall Farm & Workhouse means experiencing a lot of variety over the course of my twelve-month contract. Occasionally this is manifested in not spending as much time in the garden as you would expect!

Things have been rather dry of late and so I’ve been taking the opportunity to pop into Cherry Tree Cottage garden at the weekends to do a bit of watering. All the vegetable seeds at Cherry Tree Cottage are direct-sown and require warmth and moisture to germinate properly, hence the extra-curricular efforts. When I do this I am usually wearing ‘civvies’, meaning visitors have no idea I actually work here, and which can lead to a few ‘honest’ assessments. One recent Saturday afternoon I was watering away when a visitor approached and opened the conversation by saying that the garden “didn’t look very good this year. No offence!”

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There is a truth in simple words, there is a power in slender cords, a message in a flower may be, just these two words remember me.

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Shine A Light

By Wayne Kett

Whenever we accession new objects into our collection we take a great deal of care to record as much detail as possible. If information is missed at this early stage it might prove difficult to obtain later.

Norwich museums have been collecting objects since 1825, as such our collection is extremely diverse, but it’s also huge in volume. This means that inevitably from time to time we encounter objects that don’t have full records. In some cases by undertaking research it is possible to fill in any gaps in our knowledge, but other times the best we can attempt is an educated guess.

To illustrate this issue I have the perfect object! Whilst auditing box 19 (10 down 14 boxes to go!!) I found this decoupage screen. Decoupage is taken from the French word decouper and simply means to cut things out.

The screen is on a wooden…

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PicPost: Walk down the avenue

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PicPost: Walk down the avenue

ilandscape.com.au

Tags: avenue, cathedral, trees

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Pallet Projects – more creative ideas

Filed under: Design, Gardening techniques, Play, Recycling projects, Soils and soil improvement — 4 Comments

My previous articles and pictures on projects in the garden using wooden pallets or other recycled wood have featured some wonderful ideas. I’ve been amazed by the response and the articles seem to have also stimulated projects, not only in my own gardening activities, but for other gardeners, some of whom have sent me pictures of their creations. So here is the latest batch of Pallet Projects for you to look at, think about and maybe emulate!

Keep your ideas and pictures coming in!

Cut down pallets being used in construction of a raised bed inside one of ‘Growing Spaces’ greenhouses

The result after lining the wall with metal (inside) and chicken wire and black paper with render to the outside.

A play teepee made out of natural wood and recycled pallets

A compost bin made out of pallets by Katherine Jacobs. The front fits snuggly into the sides and is removable. Kathereien isn't sure abotu the bag- itm was suggested as a way of keeping the compost warm and preventing 'too much' air getting in- I'm not convinced its a benefit.

A compost bin made out of pallets by Katherine Jacobs. The front fits snuggly into the sides and is removable. Katherine isn’t sure about the bag- it was suggested as a way of keeping the compost warm and preventing ‘too much’ air getting in- I’m not convinced its a benefit.

My own attempt at a Trellis screen made from two pallets fixed to posts in a public garden for under fives. The screen has diamond trellis fitted to the back, has been stained and will have climbing Nasturtums growing up it.

Polished Primary Pallet Planters

Pallets Plus – more examples of recycled wood in the garden

Pallet Power- the sequel

Pallet Power

Raised beds on the cheap