Nature Archives - Page 9 of 10 - Landscape Knowledge

Some unusual landscape moments ……………

I’ve spent years designing & building some fabulous projects all over the place, thanks to the staff I was fortunate to employ, we were rewarded with a huge number of awards and prestigious projects, some came with extremely unusual moments :-

These are not in order, more how I recollect them…

Let’s start with the Tower of London, a straightforward design and instal irrigation system to the Queens terrace ( that’s just outside where you queue to see the Crown Jewels).

The design was completed, setting out of the lines completed and we had started to trench the main lines when, suddenly we exposed some bones – human bones.. when this happens it’s extremely wise to contact a few people in no particular order they were the facility manager ( they have a wonderful name here – The Keeper of the Keys), the coroner, and I suppose the local constabulary, although it was very doubtful that this was indeed nefarious.

Indeed it turned out to be the remains of a priest who had been buried there in the mid 20th century and forgotten. As the area was close to the infamous ‘Block’ we waited until everyone had left and a quiet consecration service was held.

The next was a tad more mundane, we had just completed a large ‘cut & fill’ project covering many acres on a setting out ground for a new power station, we were preparing one area of about 30 acres for seeding when suddenly the bomb squad pulled up, I kid you not…

they had been told that a lady across the way ( about 1/4mile) had just recalled a flight of German bombers had dropped

their loads just where we were working in the 2nd world war, and some had failed to explode…

so they dug around for a few days, messing up our seed bed and left.

Some ten years later, whilst preparing for the new Queen Elizabeth Dartford bridge, the said 15 or so unexploded bombs were indeed found in the hedge row not 70ft from where the bomb squad had poked around !!!

Only in the USA… well maybe

I was called to see if we would like to be involved in a project involving large rocks and trees, it seemed that a wealthy gentleman was in a hurry to complete a fully mature landscape – he’d been working on the project for about 10 years, so it probably wasn’t that much of hurry.

When I arrived he was indeed pushing the boundaries….

This tree was about 600 tons in weight and perched at least 15ft in the air, the wooden columns were due to stay in place, as we approached the site manager was asked by the foreman if the position was ‘OK’ , he was asked how far off the angle was. He replied “about 6 inches’ and was told it had to be closer, this one comment made me think that this project was due to be ongoing for a long time..

Here’s a picture of an even bigger tree moving down the road….. it took about 2 years to prepare each tree for lifting.

I know what fun……..

Back in the days when unrest descended on London, we had a project in Lambeth, a childrens play area with a huge wooden stockade, it might still be there to this day.. As you can see from the picture the logs were huge some 16ft tall and at least 10 inch diameter, all pressure treated so they would last a long time.

They had just been delivered to site when there was a particularly vigorous riot, cars turned over and set alight, windows smashed, police stations attacked that sort of thing.. my insurance broker called me in a panic at 7am to ask how things were, I told him fine was just having a cup of coffee and an egg sandwich, “why?” I asked. Then he told me he forgot to put my logs on ‘All risk” as I had requested the day before – it’s funny how you get to hear about these sort of events if you engage the locals..

Later that day I did go and visit the site, all was perfectly fine, apart from 4 or five burned out cars in the surrounding streets and the little matter of 15 rapid deployment police vehicles with full riot shields carrying about 10 fully protected policemen surrounding my site… I guess it could have been a proper panic as we say !

The hardest part was to figure how to pick up and place these huge poles, a bobcat with a then newly added 4 in 1 bucket worked out just fine.

Mind you, tracking over soft ground in wet conditions makes a terrible mess, destroys the soil structure, slows the progress down and makes a site look pretty dirty – best to try and avoid if possible.

so now for some ingenuity.

This project was quite prestigious, a large roof garden on top of the Museum of London tracing the history of London’s plants and garden from the middle ages to the present day.

As is always the case working in odd places their are a few obstacles to overcome for access… in this case access was this smoke vent set halfway up a wall in an underground car park. the tunnel extended some 27ft before the main vent went to the roof.

Our challenge to move over 400 tons of materials through and up to the roof without damaging all the cars around..

Here’s a picture of the roof before… had become over grown and untidy

Here’s after we have cleared all the planting, set out the new and commenced bringing in materials..

I’m the guy with the bald head in the suit in the middle of the folks on the left – yup had to wear a suit in the city of london !

Here’s the finished result…which was open to the public for 3 months, with us supplying the staff that took folks round ..

( well ok the ladders were removed and the gate swung back into place..)

Paths

Granite sett path

Seeing as we have snow today, I thought it might be an idea to talk a little about paths and paving materials.

Not all paving is equal as they say, concrete for instance is often more slippery than say asphalt ( there is a standard called CBR – California Bearing Ratio, but often only used for roadways and cars)

So lets take a look at some paths

This gravel path works great, except when frost is just coming out of the surface, when it gets very sticky.

Gravel paths are both attractive, economical and if laid on a suitable base long lasting, a simple rake and roll often restores the path to its near original state. Keeping on top of surface weed growth is essential.

Paths should be at least 5ft wide to allow a couple to walk side by side..

This beautiful path leads all the way around the garden, making it a fabulous way to explore the differing views created.

We used old railway sleepers and camomile to create this pathway, the camomile grows and covers the widened joints. When you walk on the camomile a lovely scent rises up.

Here the path is dressed in graded limestone, to create a much more formal garden for the client.

Here a zig-zag brick path leads from one section of the garden to another

Using stock bricks that compliment the house colours is a good way to ‘link’ a garden design to a house.

Walking on a larger sized clean gravel, is both fun due to the noise and a safety feature as you can hear someone or something approaching.

Here we used a larger stone size to add that lovely crunching sound as you walk on the path

Perhaps the most expensive form of path, the steps are laid in natural random rectangular stone, which is expensive to purchase and time consuming to lay..

It was a hot day when they completed these steps….

To finish with some of my favorite materials.

I’ve always tried to use natural materials on projects as the colour does not fade with time, they are often long lasting – if laid correctly. They always look soft and blend in so well with the surroundings..but natural comes with a significant cost increase..

A quick word about patios, if you are using the patio for entertaining a normal table with four chairs requires an area of approximately 10ft 6 ins ( 3m) x 10ft 6 ins (3m) to accommodate the table and chairs.

Laying small unit sett paving of almost random size in a radiating pattern requires skill and patience.... — Laying small unit sett paving of almost random size in a radiating pattern requires skill and patience….

Dri-lay Drives

We developed ‘Designer Drives’ almost 30 years ago..

How it started..

We had worked for a London Parks Department, on some of the projects we were doing we needed to use a strong material, at the time Marshalls were testing a product called Monolok, it had been developed in Europe for use at bus stops to prevent the vehicles sinking into the tarmac.
These ‘monolok’ blocks were differing sizes and worse ‘z’ shaped, so a nightmare to design with.but a really clever idea as they interlocked together, without using mortar.
Our contact rushed in one day with some new ‘brick shaped’ grey blocks, telling us red would also be available soon.
We immediately saw an opportunity as using traditional bricks required a heavy duty version and worse it took days to point … see below.

This particular in and out driveway too 10 man days just to point the bricks, where as this drive below took 4 hours to sand in with kiln dried silica sand..

Saving so much time, significantly increased our profits on each project, so we were soon demanding new more interesting colours.. here’s one using a brindle colour mix..

We then refined our techniques, adding our own recessed manhole covers and canting the edges so homeowners knew where they were as they drove around their garden – the slightly raised edge looked great visually too and set us apart from any competition.

and here a well constructed and cut in recessed cover… but this time using a softer stock brick.

when well done its very hard to see, as in this picture..

We soon added ‘fish- scale’ granite setts and phorphery setts to our collection..

Here’s some granite…much more expensive but they look superb !

When using ‘natural’ products, such as the granite and real bricks it is important to remember that they are often differing sizes, this means that it is very easy to lose the design matrix if you have too big an area with out adequate changes in direction.

The stock bricks below a work for about 1.8m ( 6ft) and then you need to add a break line or the pattern will start to wander off.

PicaGardi Weekend Garden Kits

Weekend 'Bite -sized' landscapes — Weekend ‘Bite -sized’ landscapes

This seating area would take the average couple between 4 – 6 hours to complete using one of our standard weekend garden kits, the seat, all the plants, planting compost, fertilizer & mulch.

This beautiful Herb feature would take less than 4 hours to complete, but remember the stone bath is very heavy.

Becoming much more popular is the Herb/Veggie/Plant combinations, here we have started a base ‘Knot’ garden. These used to be extremely complicated to layout and plant, our PicaGardi Design Mats have changed that, now they are quick and easy to complete.

Green Roof Garden

This green roof garden was constructed in London some years ago..just as ‘Green Roofs’ were becoming popular, we used this modular construction to great effect, managing to hide all the A/C vents etc, that usually clutter a roof..

The garden was an addition to the staff restaurant on the third floor, so we were lucky to be able to use a wide selection of plants, as it rarely got too cold, although snow loading etc, was a serious consideration.
By having a large amount of planting around the building edge we were able to keep people from getting to close to the edge , helping reduce the need for high barriers.

The project won a number of awards at the time, and gave us valuable insight into designing, constructing and subsequently maintaining a green roof.

Here you can see the simple framing that this modular system uses, not only is it strong, but having been treated it is very long lasting – at least 50years.

Beneath the grid is a typical weed barrier, free draining medium etc, to keep the roof from retaining any water. The grid cells were lined and filled with a soil less planting compost and a typical drip irrigation system installed on top.

Our only challenge was a couple of mallard ducks that insisted on nesting in one corner of the garden – we left them to their own devices !

A green retaining wall

Fully retaining gravity walls can be made from specially treated wood..this one is 25ft high!

These walls are quite easy to construct with a small crew, they are light weight and adaptable.

We have found that adding small planting ‘burrito’ works really well. The timber weathers much better if covered with planting, it helps to prevent the wood twisting, the planting looks really attractive.

Here you see a green wall some years after completion

A typical English garden landscape

We worked with this client for a number of years, developing his garden into this beautiful, peaceful retreat from everyday stresses..

and now for something completely different …..

I’ve always kept a camera handy, these days it’s much easier with smartphones etc., A few years ago whilst snooping around in the back streets of Amsterdam, we spotted some roadworks, being a sucker for looking at how others do their work we took a look… never expecting to see that the ‘Cannon Bollard’ really was an old cannon !

Some tips and tricks for that dream landscape

A somewhat larger residence, with a lovely brick gulley detail.

Our first green wall way back in 1984, this superb timber product (guaranteed for 50years) is fully structural to a retained height of about 27ft (9m), this wall is about 14ft in total, and terraced to make the best use of the available space. We added the planting to give this steeply slopping garden a softer look.

This larger residence was developed as a modern Arts & Crafts style garden, using random rectangular yorkstone paving, natural bricks and knapped flint walls – knapped flint is a difficult product to use, necessitating us to develop a modern approach to using a ‘live sand/lime mortar, we added stainless steel butterfly ties every 9 inches ( 250mm) to enable a quicker laying time.

Finally the classic English stripped lawn…from one of our clients gardens

Roof Gardens

Some years ago we started designing and building roof gardens, in those days specialised materials were not too plentiful, so invariably we ended up inventing our own solutions. This award winning project dates back to 1984.

Here’s how we did this :

Each plant grouping is planted inside a GRP container that has artificial rock sides, the larger rocks are free standing, the containers are filled with planting compost. The paving is laid on spreader pads, and the gravel is in free draining grids on spreader pads. This means the only variable is the snow loading.

Well apart from a particularly violent storm , ok, it was a hurricane in 1987 which lifted one of the larger rocks off the roof and blew it off the four storey roof into the Kingston upon Thames marker square. It was easy enough to recover, but being so large it wouldn’t fit in the building elevators so we had to haul it up the outside of the building to reposition it.