The Chelsea Physic Garden – Linking people to plants and nature

It’s not often you find a garden that was founded in 1673.

The Apothecaries’ Garden.

Ann was on a trip to Europe recently and dropped in on the beautiful Chelsea Physic Garden on the side of the River Thames in London.

The gardens purpose was to train apprentices in identifying plants. Located close to the river Thames created a warmer microclimate, significantly increasing the many non-native plants that could be grown.

chelsea physic garden

In 1700 the garden had started an international botanic garden seed exchange system, which continues to this day.

The gardens cover some four acres. They are leased on what is known as a peppercorn rent in perpetuity.

They are with out doubt one of London’s secret ‘gems’ and thoroughly worth a visit.

chelsea physic garden

The gardens mission  ” Linking people with plants and nature”

The interview starts with Ann talking for around 8 minutes to a group of school children on a field trip, the gardens have over 100 such visits a year.

Ann then talks to Michael a very knowledgeable and extremely helpful member of staff. We kept all the typical inner city sounds on the recording – the enthusiasm of the children is very heartening.

Integrated pest management is the preferred method of bug control…

They have a project called “Shelf Life’ it is just an incredible way to show children where their food comes from

You can listen to Ann’s interview on www.growingtrends.org or on iTunes at Growing Trends

 

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Fracking – is this relatively new method of oil & gas extraction the way of the future ?

WorldWideWEsponsibility

Some of you may know that Ann & I have a new podcast as well as this blog.

Many years ago, whilst at school.I learned to write  ‘joined up’ or ‘cursive’ style with a quill pen , you can imagine in my ripe old age, it takes me a little time to catch on to new methods of communicating.

quillpen

That said Ann & I have made a quantum leap forward by using Internet Radio and Podcasting, we call the show Growing Trends.

Our latest podcast is all about Fracking.

shale_gas_extraction

This newish method of extracting oil and natural gas has caused quite a stir around the world.

Prices at the pumps have more than halved, there are stories of polluting and even earthquakes caused by this method. Then there are the stories of the huge drop in carbon emissions by countries using this oil production method.

We thought it would make a great interview for Growing Trends so we found, with the help of Bill Sosinsky, an expert, Rich Sapienza to talk to us about this oil extraction method, come and listen to the interview.. Growing Trends Podcast

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Growing Trends is listened to in 48 countries, our new program is all about people like you, from all over the world.

An opportunity from Ann and Chris, but first we wish you all a very Happy and Prosperous New Year.

We would like to hear from you with ideas, comments and suggestions for our shows drop us a line at info@grotrends.com

We have been making changes to Growing Trends our internet based radio show.

Listen at www.grotrends.com
Listen at www.grotrends.com

Our new daily show starts in January 2015, we will have five segments:

Time to Eat – All about growing Herbs & Vegetables

Gardenesque – Everything to do with Gardens & Landscapes

World Wide Wesponsibility – A more serious look at sustainability and how we might all help our planet.

Face Time – Interviews with experts on topics of interest

Book Reviews – Interviews with authors of books relating to the environment, nature and garden landscaping.

Perhaps we could interview you for our Face Time segment? …. just drop us a line and we will contact you.

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What do our kids really know about plants?

I was reading an interesting article the other day, it was discussing what today’s children know about plants.

The part that caused me to sit up and wonder was this line..  “Today’s children can identify about 1000 company logos but only identify 10 plants outside

I wonder how accurate this statement is?

So a quick test – could you identify the plant below?

IMGP1106

or perhaps this one.?

Herb

Thinking a little about it, brings to mind the simple realization that many  children do not really understand where much of our food comes from.

We really need to change this for many reasons, perhaps our internet radio show, can help?

Listen at www.grotrends.com
Listen at www.grotrends.com

We want to engage ‘Granny Growers’ and introduce them to the ‘Growing Uppers’ , to start this rolling we’re heading off to interview a few senior citizens  in our retirement community, to ask them what they learned and how they think we can help our grand children.

if you have some ideas , we would love to hear from you to… just drop us a line

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How do you see garden landscapes evolving ?

Many years ago, we often introduced new ideas and products into our designs on a fairly regular basis. Some were because we developed our own ideas, products and subsequently ‘different’ offerings, we then ‘sold’ them to our customers.

Natural brisk drive hand pointed

When we started offering irrigation systems, we had to find a way to sell them to our more affluent customers, without making the costs too high, but most importantly by not disrupting or destroying the landscapes we had put in only a few years earlier.

Hydraulically installed irrigation
Hydraulically installed irrigation

We achieved this by finding a rather interesting hydraulic mole from Germany that used compressed air, it worked really well at a depth of 900mm and was pumped a distance of around 5m , which when reversed pulled the water pipe back through the drilled hole. This simple tool saved huge amounts of time and reinstatement costs – more importantly it amazed our clients who were thrilled that we could install such sophisticated systems without a huge amount of disruption.

Next came low voltage lighting systems, which made landscape lighting safe and easy to instal, the picture below isn’t our work  it’s a Park in Paris, but it serves it’s purpose quite well.

Park  in Paris
Park in Paris

Today we seem to have slowed down on major changes or have we?

Commercially vertical walled gardens are becoming quite popular and are definitely a recent development.

A Green Wall

Whilst in Gardens we have built for over 30 years eco friendly  ‘Green Retaining Walls’ such as this one

Treated Structural Green Wall
Treated Structural Green Wall

Roof Gardens have been around for years, we were designing and building them back in the distant 1980’s

Wooden pathway on Roof Garden
Wooden pathway on Roof Garden

Home owners are developing a taste for their own food production.

An example from a Chelsea Flower Show exhibit
An example from a Chelsea Flower Show exhibit

Herb & Vegetable gardening is becoming very popular today.

Weekend Garden Kit from Picagardi

I’m seeing a huge demand for food production, but currently the solutions are traditional cold frames, cloches or greenhouses, all very time consuming and with varying degrees of cost.

Today with all the concerns over GMO crops, with apparent excessive use of pesticides, more and more people are either buying from local organic farmers or starting out on the incredibly satisfying journey of producing their own fruit and vegetables.

We’ve been developing an easy to use kit that makes selection, planting and growing much easier and for a much longer time frame.

We call it ‘Hort Cuisine’ our way of saying it’s fun, friendly and offers tasty treats when you gather your crops.

Hort Cuisine Grid
Hort Cuisine Grid

The patented system enables almost limitless combinations of plants to be selected, enabling designs for any climate region.

Creating those beautiful ‘Knot’ gardens just became a simple process.

Potager 1

So here are a few questions……

What new ideas have you seen recently?

What would you like to see developed?

In the last 5 years what is the best landscape invention you’ve seen?

What would your customers like to add to their garden landscape?

Drop us a line with your replies we will  have a follow up blog shortly.

or follow our internet radio show at www.grotrends.com

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How much do we really know about soil?

Healthy Living,Growing Trends is all about people who are passionate about Nature, their Gardens & Landscapes along with the Experts that help them. With interviews from home owners & experts all around the world discussing projects, trends, ideas, designs, sustainability, construction, planning and just having fun.

“We know more about the movement of celestial bodies than about the soil underfoot.”  – Leonardo Da Vinci

Living a healthy lifestyle can mean many things, regular sleep, exercise, reduced stress, enjoying work, balanced eating, learning something new everyday, exploring new sights, meeting friends & relatives or a gentle stroll around a park.

Japanese Gardens Portland

Almost all involve going outside at some stage, or even spending time outside. Like this walk across the Jura Mountains in France.

Walking in France

When we were kids we used to dig in the ‘dirt’ , now it turns out this passed beneficial microbes to us. Plenty of microbes on the Farm.

On the Farm

Today we hear of parks and recreations departments that are banning pesticides and herbicides from play areas, and sports fields – 40 years ago we were more concerned with flint stones breaking the surface of the grass and ‘skinning’ kids knees when they played sports.

Field hockey needed a very even playing surface of grass to be played well, so it was often heavily compacted and over fed to keep the grass green & growing !

Field Hockey

Research shows time and again how beneficial taking a walk in a woodland is, or sitting under a tree, or making a garden or landscape.

The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art , Sculpture Park

Yet most of us, move from one hermetically sealed air conditioned room, to our hermetically sealed air conditioned car,

Car

to our hermetically sealed air conditioned office – is it any wonder we are losing a connection with nature?

Offices , New York

Those folks lucky enough to live outside cities and away from the urban sprawl , are indeed fortunate.

Le Poizat, France

They can leave windows open at night, refreshing the air inside, removing stale contaminated air, rarely using air conditioning.

Hedge

We figured a hedge around the house and a tree canopy above was more than enough to reduce the inside temperature 20 degrees or more. It creates its own microclimate between the hedge & the house.while also providing a fair degree of privacy.

The planning process hasn’t helped much either with 140ft set backs, single story developments , individual car parking areas for each business and strip malls, that encourage you to ‘hop’ in the car to go from store to store.

Strip Mall

Then same style sub divisions, with all vegetation ‘stripped’ , the topsoil structure almost non-existent at the construction stage, then hardly any landscaping to create interest, shade, or harmony with surrounding areas.

In fact it wouldn’t be too far to say that the effect is boring !

I wonder how many years it takes before this picture changes?

Sub Division

All this contributes to built in obsolescence within 25 years, the developments have very little diversity of style and worse a total lack of walking from home to the stores, – one of the healthiest pursuits for us all.

One of the major advantages of living in towns or cities is this easy connection with homes, stores, work places and amenities.

A tree lined sidewalk

We all tend to be creatures of habit, so this routine is a hard one to alter

There are signs of a healthier approach.

Trams making a welcome return

Mass transit provides a wealth of benefits, less pollution, easier and quicker commuter travelling, safer travelling, an opportunity to connect with fellow citizens. A more relaxed journey.

Green walls in the urban environment soften an otherwise ‘hard’ landscape, reducing the carbon footprint of the area, making a much more ‘pleasing’ view.

A Green Wall

Roof gardens make a more focused impact, they improve the carbon foot print, offer a new habitat and an amenity for the buildings users.

New York Roof Garden

It seems all those ideas, methods and activities from yesteryear were not all that bad for us.

Our connection with nature is again expanding  with more and more people exploring the option to grow their own food, or seek out farmers markets.

Could you grow these?

I suspect for this to become even more popular there will be a need to initially at least simplify the mysteries of growing your own?

The Community Garden or Allotment is a great way to learn the ‘tricks of the trade’ – these are either individual growing areas  ‘Allotments’ or the more common these days communal ‘Community Garden’

Allotment

Of course there is the local ‘Pick your Own’ farms for all those inseason goodies.

These look yummy !

From ‘Farm to Table’ might be best said as from ‘Grower to Consumer’ – if this were local, it would have a huge impact on carbon emission reductions ( a lettuce travels 1400 miles to reach your table, not sure how that could ever be described as fresh!).

Weekend Garden Kit from Picagardi

The more we as professionals make this process easier the greater the likely uptake by households in towns and cities, where new skills will need to be developed.

A really easy start.

A stacked group of herbs, perfect for a compact space.

Stacked herb pot.

or much more complex, this lovely exhibition garden shows how to create small garden boxes of produce.

An example from a Chelsea Flower Show exhibit

Now all we need is a simple method for the consumer… It will need to have an option which includes a growing medium as many urban yards have very poor soil conditions.

This system can be found at www.picagardi.com

herb cube

Using a unique patented layout grid. enabling almost anyone to place plants in the correct positions is an option.

Listen to our up coming internet radio show all about developing gardens at www.grotrends.com  we call it ‘Hort Cusine’ !

Hort Cuisine Grid
Hort Cuisine Grid

The very popular and effective Square Foot Gardening Foundation, developed by Mel Bartholomew has been around for many years, with countless books, examples and users.

As has the New Organic Grower & Four Season Harvest to name but a few from Eliot Coleman, an amazing grower in Maine.

It’s time to really try and add herbs & veggies into our urban landscapes.

We as landscape professionals need to promote home grown food more when we plan new landscapes for clients.

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Could we ask for a little help from you?

An exhibition garden

I’ve been really surprised at all the positive comments the site has been generating from everyone – Thank you all so much, it’s fun to write, improves my awful spelling, maybe my grammar as well ?

You can let me know on that one !

Some of you asked if I would make it possible to donate on this site, I’ve tried to avoid that, as well as adverts as I was trying to be impartial, with the content.

Growing Trends a new style of garden Show on www.cravingtalkradio.com

As you may know we do have a fun internet radio show, where we interview folks from around the globe about their Gardens & Landscapes.

When we started this radio show the aim was to find interesting people who had a passion for their Garden or Landscapes. Little did we know what would happen. In just a few months we have an audience stretching across the globe in 43 countries.

ww.grotrends.com

We soon added a web site www.grotrends.com to provide details of schedules, information on guests and sponsors, and a growing information area with details of techniques, ideas and examples of projects.

Working to complete an exhibition garden

The show Growing Trends concentrates on the clients, the designers, the creators, the maintainers and the experts that help them, we would welcome any suggestions on who we should contact – the schedule is filling quickly, which brings me on to how you can help.

Note how clean the working area is

We have two one hour shows a day seven days a week, with a little funding help we can update the interviews more often, and tell the story of you, or your friends work, or your garden or landscape.

Can you help us in just a small way ? Contributing just $5 ?

Here’s the link to StartSomeGood   the crowdfunding source we are using for this fund raising campaign

A Japanese style garden exhibition

Growing Trends is fun, friendly, informative, interesting, amusing & entertaining.

A project in Florida

This one acre pond has a water change almost once per hour !

A final interesting project from just outside New York. This fully structural gravity wall is almost 27ft high !

Fully structural timber wall

Note the access is less than 4ft !

We really would appreciate your support, so we can interview maybe you, or your colleagues or friends, across the globe – thank you all for your support & comments.

You can also find us on Facebook 

Ann & Chris.

 

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Planting plans made easy to use at home!

It’s been 40 years since I first grappled with a traditional planting plan. All those lovely latin names – like Fagus sylvatica,  Fritillaria meleagris, etc.,

Hand drawn

In the drawing office, it was a matter of using a thick graph paper so the electric eraser didn’t make lots of little holes in the paper as we repositioned plants, or corrected the many mistakes or changes in mind. Sometimes we used a plant stamp, then labelled by hand. As you can see interpreting the labels isn’t easy.

The whole process was time consuming, difficult to make into a quality finished drawing.

This next version once CAD was introcuded is a combination of hand drawn and CAD drawn, easier to interpret, but still not easy to set out.

Using CAD system
Using CAD system

On  site, in those days these were cumbersome beasts, usually printed on dyeline, so it was dark, difficult to read with scribblings and such in the margin, fragile, and ruined once wet. Wrapping in plastic sort of helped, cutting into smaller sections then laminating was better..

Checking off plants

Wielding  one of these around on a damp morning picking out the plants, with the planting foreman, and then placing took for ever.

Setting out plants

Trying to mark off those plants you had placed and then moving on to the next batch, with a few areas missing….

For some odd reason even though the nursery managed to price  all the plants, they never seemed to be able to deliver them all to site completely in one go, or even to the company yard, so the whole process was both time consuming, expensive and worse annoying to a client who by now had had enough of three or five members of staff working in what was their space.

I hear a gentle nod of agreement or perhaps sigh of frustration?

It got so bad that we used to change our standard estimate to something like..

” To carefully prepare ground, incorporating peat and fertilizer at each planting station, to supply & plant  in  ‘xxx’ number of flowering & ornamental shrubs, carefully watering in on completion, then applying a 50 mm depth of planting mulch”

Here’s a plan without specifics..in this case a veggie garden area.

An Isometric plant plan.

This gave us a contractual escape clause, but wasn’t what we wanted to portray to our clients. We even tried to restrict the planting selection to plants we knew we could obtain, but designers & clients have pet likes and dislikes being restrained to just a few varieties caused all manner of objections!

We even tried an even more generic look – with areas just designated for planting.

Plan with Artist's Impression

We also found most of our clients actually really wanted to do some of the work themselves, the idea of planting was often the most appealing, as the ground was prepared, the turf laid and all the ‘hard’ structural stuff was completed.  The feeling was that just a bit of planting wouldn’t take long and they could then say ‘we did this ourselves’….

There was one small issue, understanding the ubiquitous planting plan. Setting out plants in the damp, with a tape, scale rule and a large piece of paper was a task best left to the experts.

We solved this problem with our Weekend Planting Grid. A really easy to understand ‘garden bedding system’. Today we even have this simple system patented, it’s even incorporated into one of the more easy to use CAD programs.

Photo Realistic Design

The system cuts setting out times in half, for anyone, acts as a  landscape fabric or paper mulch, reducing weeds and watering and makes the whole process as easy as 1,2,3 ! – costing only marginally more than just a landscape fabric.mulch.

No longer do you need a setting out plan, just a plant position is all that is required.

New style Planting Plan

It makes it very easy to place the plants in position, so now any combination of annual, bulb, corm, perennial, shrub, even tree  can be used with little risk of them being placed incorrectly. In fact there is no need for a planting plan at all ! Just a series of grids will do. The fabric is left to act as a landscape mulch mat, preserving water and reducing weeds, all it requires is a 2 inch layer of mulch to keep attractive.

Setting Out Grid

If you use the CAD program you can design your own arrangement , create them with photorealistic images and then print out their positions. The CAD program automatically generates the grid layouts, positions the plants, prints out a planting position list, even prints out a plant label with position for the plant pots, then generates a quotation and plant care notes – amazing really !

Difficult to set out designs are now easy…

Use four to make a quick 'Knot Garden"

Complicated Herb and Veggie gardens are a breeze. With positions shown on a simple patented grid system.

potager-3b

Even more fun is the simple PicaGardi that you can download and use it’s available on the iTunes store, Google Play and Amazon

We are planning a Growing Trends radio show just about design and designers soon, we would love to hear your comments, suggestions & ideas.

Ann & Chris

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Would you like to be part of our show?

Fall Colours

Ann & I have been simply amazed by the interest in our blog & our Growing Trends   (click on Growing Trends to go to the site)  radio show. Thank you all so much, we have been listened to or our blog read in over 40 countries in just the last three months.

Autumn Planning

As we plan the next series of shows & blogs, we thought we would ask you our readers & listeners if you would like to participate.

Fushia

So, if you would like to be part of the show, all we ask is for an interesting ‘garden or landscape’ project,preferably with before & after pictures, together  with a short note about how you were involved in the garden or landscape. – we do have a small request to ask.

Please could you send your description in English ?

We will pick a selection and the very best responses, who will be invited to participate in some short interviews for a show.

mums

Some suggestions to get you started.

Some of our more successful blogs have been when we have shown ‘Before’ and ‘After’ pictures of projects. Here are a few to give you some ideas, Let’s start with the usual mess that greets the team. Here’s a before picture just as the machinery arrives and the builder leaves…….

Before

Here’s how we were able to transform the mess above into a peaceful oasis, of course everything has to dry out first before you can work the magic,  then the skills of the team are paramount to obtaining a ‘finish’

Front drive

This next one, is actually in a book by Prince Charle called ‘A Vision of Britain’, we also received an award for the work. The very heavy clay was not easy to work with. As usual the builder created a huge mess.

Ok your turn !
Ok your turn !

The landscape architect for the project, Ian Doughill is seen carrying out a post completion inspection. We maintained the site for a couple of years to ensure complete establishment.

After working a little magic !
After working a little magic !

This exhibition site is both world famous, fun, hard work, but immensely satisfying to participate in.. a before picture of the Chelsea Flower Show. It’s not your usual mess this time, just an organizational nightmare, with so many firms attempting to bring in supplies and complete their superb work on time.

Chelsea Flower Show 'Before'
Chelsea Flower Show ‘Before’

The outlines of the garden can just be seen, with the low wall taking shape on the left hand side. We build a full 6ft (1.8m ) high retaining wall with 3ft (1.2m ) side wall to ‘enclose’ the garden.

The back wall is almost completed.
The back wall is almost completed.

The space has been transformed in three weeks for just four days of exhibition, when over 110,000 people will visit and millions view on television

. The completed garden

If you have some ‘Before’ and ‘After’ pictures you would like to share, Ann & I would like to hear from you, just send us a reply with a some contact information on the form below.

We are always looking for sponsors to help with the running costs, this year we thought we would try a small campaign on StartSomeGood.

Our radio show is starting it’s fall funding campaign you can find details at Growing Trends .

Ann & I thank you all so much for your support and comments.

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It’s all in the detail !

Today, I thought some technical stuff was in order.

I’ll try and make it interesting, no doubt you will let me know ?

I spent almost as much time as a Quantity Surveyor as I did a Landscape Architect & Contracts Manager… the worst part was as you grow a business you have to give up various aspects of the work, allowing others to do it instead.

The secret is always find someone better than you to do the job you are relinquishing…

Then catch them doing it right and praise them, whilst simultaneously stopping them from doing it wrong, without to much rancour.

Quiet garden in Primary School

Some years ago, just after I graduated I found myself working in the minor engineering and technical department for a large London Boroughs Parks Department – today you would be called a Landscape Architect, but in those days the Parks Managers wanted folks with hands on experience. This meant we not only knew how to design, but we also knew how to build and even better we knew how to manage the project, including the labour, right down to the work study times it took to build a specific item. We looked after Schools, Parks, Playgrounds, Golf Courses, Verges, Allotments, Open Spaces, Housing Sites and the odd Airfield.

It's time to re connect with nature

I always wondered why we frantically completed a valuation of work ( right down to the allowed minutes of time each element took) every Monday morning , then rushed the ‘bonus’ sheets over to the treasurers department on Tuesday morning  so the staff could be paid their bonuses on time each Friday – hourly paid staff were paid weekly in England ( us salaried staff were paid monthly, we even worked flexi time with every other Monday off, those were the days as they say !).

In later years these standard minute values that had so painstakingly been obtained turned out to be especially useful when pricing large scale contracts, as they were actual times not  priced rates.

What was more interesting though was they enabled someone to build up a time and thus rate for all manner of projects. So we could accurately figure out how long a BBQ would take to build for instance, or how long 5 tonnes of tarmac would take 3 men to prepare, lay, roll and clean up.

Car Park

When semi automatic pricing came along in the form of access based databases it was easy to ‘plug’ these times into the program to use for pricing projects.

This worked great for projects where you weren’t tendering for a job, as you were usually able to produce a fair price, quickly and accurately.

Saddleback coping with dark mortar.

The projects that went out to tender were much more of a lottery, as depending on who was pricing and why, often dictated how the pricing went… No one minds losing a tender by say 1-2% and if everyone has a similar price. It would suggest that the bill of quantities , drawings and specifications are usually going to be an accurate reflection of the work in hand, without any unforeseen errors.

Exhibition

What is intensely irritating  from a contracting point of view is when you carefully price a project and then lose by more than 15%, I’ve often wondered why during the assessment phase a  tendering body doesn’t add up all the tender values, then divide by the number of tenderers and use that mean figure as the basis for the work – we found that more often than not when we did this in the parks department that was the final cost of the project. I believe the Dutch usually take the second lowest price as this makes it almost impossible to ‘buy’ a job by underpricing !

Street Planter & Paving

One of the early ‘tricks’ we learned, was how to be asked to price the better projects if we eliminated the ‘snagging or punch list’. The client put us to the top of their use list. More often than not our site staff ‘snagged’ as they went along, this saved us so much time we gave them a bonus.

Another trick was to put the projects up for a national award – we were fortunate to receive 17 national awards over the years, they were great for staff moral , even better for our clients who then asked us to price some fabulous projects.

Hand Asphalting

We have always tried to be professional, to do the best job we could for a client, avoiding confrontation as much as possible, sure we negotiate hard, but not too aggressively. – the saying ‘Under promise and over perform’ is a great way to work.

Consistent Pointing

The pointing above is typical of our approach, when it comes to the finish it is essential to maintain a clean consistent finish, it looks good, keeps everyone happy..

The finished raised brick patio

The real pearls of wisdom are ” Quality is remembered long after the price has been paid ”

Have you visited one of your old projects recently?

What did it look like?

Listen to Ann & Chris at Growing Trends 

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