Construction and Maintenance Archives

Jenny Peterson – The Cancer Survivors Garden Companion

Ann and I were fortunate to interview Jenny Peterson, just after her new book was published. Jenny is an amazing, extremely positive lady who is an inspiration for us all.

A Garden that Heals
Pittsburgh, Pa. (October 5, 2015): When Jenny Peterson was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2012, it rocked her world. Her cancer treatment was hard, emotional and often deeply depressing. But Peterson, a garden designer and Master Gardener, did not let the cancer diagnosis define her. She used her desire to garden and dig in the dirt again to pull her out of the darkness. And she discovered that gardening is good medicine –for the body, mind and spirit.

The Cancer Survivor’s Garden Companion: Cultivating Hope, Healing and Joy in the Ground Beneath Your Feet
(St. Lynn’s Press, January 2016) tells Peterson’s story and explores the therapeutic benefits of this vital “earth connection,” including inspirational profiles of other cancer survivors, both men and women, whose gardens became their partners in healing.

With gentle empathy, beautiful photographs and easy how-to steps, Peterson shows others how to create their own backyard haven for healing – a personal restorative garden – with well-grounded guidance about diet, exercise, mental focus and spiritual renewal. Her book adds a fresh voice to the growing fields of horticultural therapy and therapeutic gardens.

What others are saying about The Cancer Survivor’s Garden Companion:

“Jenny’s tips for incorporating gardening into your life for mind, body, and spiritual health are ingenious! As a cancer coach, I will definitely be suggesting this book to my clients.” – Susan Gonzalez, BSN, CPCC, co-author of 100 Perks of Having Cancer Plus 100 Health Tips for Surviving It, and editor of The Savvy Sister blog
“Jenny’s beautiful book reminds us all that life can be found in the healing, meditative act of gardening. By lovingly tending a garden, we can learn to nurture ourselves, restoring our mind, body and spirit in the process.” – Ray Anne Evans, Executive Director, Breast Cancer Resource Centers of Texas

“Jenny’s connection with gardening, garden design, and simply being in nature remained strong throughout her cancer diagnosis, treatment, and recovery. In fact, it was part of what helped her through. And now she is helping others to learn from her powerful experience.” – Naomi A. Sachs, Founding Director, Therapeutic Landscapes Network; co-author, Therapeutic Landscapes: An Evidence-Based Approach to Designing Healing Gardens and Restorative Outdoor Spaces

The Cancer Survivor’s Garden Companion will teach readers how to use the garden to heal, find hope and feel joy.

About the Author
Jenny Peterson is a landscape designer and Master Gardener specializing in xeriscaping and small urban spaces. She is a cancer survivor who found hope and healing in her garden, even during the darkest days of chemotherapy and radiation. In the process, she made deep connections with the cancer support community, including physicians, nutritionists, bodywork practitioners, psychologists and spiritual counselors. Peterson co-authored Indoor Plant Décor: The Design Stylebook for Houseplants (St. Lynn’s Press, 2013) with Kylee Baumle. She lives in Austin, Texas, with her fiancé, 19 chickens, two dogs, two quails and a goat.

You can listen to the interview here : Interviewing Jenny Peterson

If you would like to purchase the book : The Cancer Survivors Garden Companion

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Moments to remember over the years

Sailing

We all have moments that become pivotal in our lives. Setting us on a course that sets us on the journey to …….

Mine was learning to sail around the age of 9 years – well 8 years if you include the first time I went sailing. In what appeared to be a very slow gaff rigged, slow sailing boat.

Being shipped off to boarding school at a tender age. My father was a merchant ships Captain.

The school had a lake with a mixed fleet of dinghies. I learned to sail first in a Cadet – a small but lively dinghy you could race. Of course, we did with some success.

The school also had quite faster ‘Enterprise’s ‘ which provided a very pleasant afternoons racing, not to mention quite a workout…

Progressing to 420’s a much more modern design and an impressive workout. I preferred to helm, flying around on a trapeze whilst fun was a sure way to get soaked.

On leaving school, the opportunity to sail diminished somewhat until a friend who Ocean sailed invited me to crew on a Contessa 32, suddenly sailing became serious, a superb yacht with great handling characteristics, a rather steep new price back in 1979. A vessel still going strong today..

Field Hockey

When sailing wasn’t possible I played grass Hockey across London for over 25 years…it was a different level of energetic playing from September until April with tournaments across Europe in the summer, my favorites were trips to Hamburg and Amsterdam, although I did arrange one to Lyon which was a little different.

On moving to the USA in 1999, it took me a little while to rediscover lake sailing.- Lakes here are much larger , with commensurately larger sailing boats. It’s way more fun and convenient.

Sailboat Racing

Sailing over the weekend, a pastime that is both enjoyable, exciting, fun and yet very calming. The winds were as always very variable, around 10 mph gusting to perhaps 20mph – sufficient to heel our boat, driving her forward quickly.

Stiletto - Capri 25 — “Stiletto” – our Capri 25

The question is – how long can you keep the cocktail upright?

On a more peaceful run down the lake we talked about ‘Those Moments that stand out in your life”

Sedate Sailing

We still own ‘Stiletto’ but have added a rather more salubrious Catalina 28. ‘Quinley’ has many more creature comforts as our ages march onward. A galley, showers, a wheel, bimini, open transom, inboard diesel power, hot and cold pressurized water. all manner of instruments. Recently new sails and a bowsprit…

Work

When we reached work moments, some were amusing. I was asked to write them down. So here are a few. Let me know what you think ?

During college days we, that is the student committee – I was Social Secretary, liked to produce lighthearted pranks from time to time. Being Social Secretary it fell to me to help create, vet and often implement said pranks..

We often had outside groups visit the college for talks, or demonstrations or even just to visit.

This particular day, the Women’s Institute was coming for some reason, the day was warm and sunny, so the night before we decided to ‘decorate’ a crab apple on the lawn just outside the main house.

When the coach arrived the next morning the ladies were confronted with a new strain of ornamental fruiting tree – “The Spaghetti Tree” was fully covered with over 20 lbs of the very best spaghetti, soaked for 10 mins and boiled until soft enough to adorn the tree. The tree was also attracting a large colony of birds who took particular liking to the delicious fare.

Many pictures were taken of this phenomenon as a sign explained the tree only fruited once every 12 years !

This spurred on to more things horticultural, so a few weeks later yet another plant was discovered , this time outside the refectory a paving slab had been pushed up and a new strain of oak tree had emerged – Quercus australis inverta was indeed a site to see, this Upside Down Australian Oak Tree had it’s trunk buried in the ground with a full compliment of roots spreading out to a height of 5ft.

Some years later I came across this amazing tree…the Andansonia

As I have time I will add more such escapades.

Growing Trends new look and our first interview from a visit to China

Hello everyone, we hope you like our new logo ?

We have some great interviews planned for the next few months.

Our first is with Bill Sosinsky , CEO of Energime University. Bill has recently returned from a trip to China. He talks to us about how the Chinese are adapting, planning and coping with the enormous growth the country has seen over the past few years.

The interview is one of those must listen to events… we all have seen or heard of the Great Wall of China, a quite amazing feat of building, as seen here.

I wonder how many of us can comprehend the current building program? 100 million homes in the next 5- 10 years…!

Truly a monumental task of ingenuity, engineering and collaboration, Ann and I were just amazed talking to Bill about the growing issues they are trying to solve.

We will have two parts to this fascinating interview you can listen to the first part here – www.growingtrends.org

We would love to hear from you with ideas or suggestions on programs, either fill in the form below or just send us an email to info@grotrends.com

Ann & Chris

Heaven is a Garden

A few years ago I read a paper about how grasses ‘moved’ to music, then I read about the effects of harmonious sounds on plant growth.

Just using white summer bedding is very effective in such a large garden

Why do I mention this, well a few weeks ago we were talking about Tesla and his discoveries, which led us to talking about vibrations, sound waves, force fields etc., then a strange thing happened.

Ann and I interviewed a wonderful lady landscape architect Jan Johnsen, about her new book “Heaven is a Garden” we talked a little about how at a very young age she discovered during a science fair competition – which against all the odds she won – the effects early morning birds singing have on plants. The sound waves, which are similar to a violin stimulate a plant to open its stomata taking in carbon-dioxide to help it grow quicker.

Jan has written a new book called Heaven is a Garden, it’s a really fascinating and informative read. Jan has ‘connected’ the dots so as to speak, between the natural world and our emotions. How the Four Winds are important when laying out a space,the careful use of curves, and my favorite Golden Rectangles and the Divine Proportion. – Phi is the mathematical proportion ( 1 : 1.618) we see in every natural form. Using this proportion ensures a sense of harmony in any outdoor space that contains it. I’ve always tried to use these proportions in my designs.

Jan then talks about Trees – natures rechargers as she puts it… The Celts called it shunnache, the Hindu tree devas, and Greek dryads…the Japanese consider the health giving properties of trees the basis of a medical therapy called ‘ forest bathing’ .

Jan then discusses the magnetic attraction in a Zen garden – rocks in these gardens reflect a deep understanding of the geomagnetic properties of stone and its impact on a place.

Finally the benefits of color in a garden.

Be inspired by Jan Johnsen's Book — Be inspired by Jan Johnsen’s Book

You can listen to our truly fascinating interview with Jan Johnsen at www.growingtrends.org or if you prefer on iTunes at Growing Trends

We would love to hear from you our listeners

A rare moment of peace in the perfect haven of a garden brings us renewed harmony with nature

“A rare moment of peace in the perfect haven of a garden brings us renewed harmony with nature”

A little more adventurous, next to a small pond.

Today as the weather here in the Mid West is again unusually British – it’s ‘Raining Again’ I thought it might be fun to see what happens when you oblige a client and work in the rain..

So the four are indeed ‘Wet’ at first, it’s really counter productive as it takes even longer to clean up the mess created and even longer to return a site to attractive…

and after a little horticultural magic…this project featured in ‘ A Vision of Britain’

Here’s another one :-

This one required weeks to dry out before we could even start to develop the hard play surface inside the stockade.

This next one was really challenging.. how the builder left the site..

How we left the garden sometime later.

Brick edged, bound gravel wearing surface

If you would like to subscribe to this series please just complete a contact form or send us an email to chris@chriscoope.com

We will be producing an ebook that will have many more observations , ideas , examples from the past 30 years of landscaping.

A Growing Trend – is going on a plant safari …

“A rare moment of peace in the perfect haven of a garden brings us renewed harmony with nature”

A Growing Trend – is coming on a plant safari with us, to find those plants you need for our ideas…. it’s fun, it’s friendly and it’s great exercise….

First another in our series of before and after garden pictures –

Completed project, with garden 'opened up' and pool filled in. — Completed project, with garden ‘opened up’ and pool filled in.

It's amazing what a little planting can do.. — It’s amazing what a little planting can do..

or maybe like this…

Today’s pictures highlight the benefit of having a good designer when it comes to making changes…. You can see the ‘Before’ and then the ‘After’ in the pictures.

First the walls and steps are constructed

then the terrace and walls are constructed, finally the lawn and landscape.

Adding colour to a garden brings it alive !

We’ve started to take a ‘Hands On’ approach and show clients how to buy plants, how to place them and then how to plant them for maximum effect… it’s fun, it’s friendly and it’s good exercise now its time to enjoy …..

“A rare moment of peace in the perfect haven of a garden brings us renewed harmony with nature”

A fun low maintenance summer garden to enjoy.

You can listen to Ann & Chris’s fascinating interviews with industry experts at www.growingtrends.org or on iTunes at Growing Trends

We would love to hear from you with ideas, comments or suggestions..

“A rare moment of peace in the perfect haven of a garden brings us renewed harmony with nature”

Ann and I are going to produce a series of short daily articles that highlight

“A rare moment of peace in the perfect haven of a garden brings us renewed harmony with nature”

Today’s is a roof garden.

Some years ago, well alright 30 years ago we were asked to design and create a roof garden for a packaging company,

We had always designed to a module which enables you to replicate easily. In this case we took molds of rock faces and made some fiberglass containers that were deep enough to act as planters. This extra depth enabled the plants to really take root and grow, it also prevented the roots from interfering with the roof’s drainage system

Here’s how we made the planters..

You can listen to Ann & Chris’s fascinating interviews with industry experts at www.growingtrends.org or on iTunes at Growing Trends

Send us an email to Landscape Knowledge.com if you would like to be added to our mailing list of interesting articles

Connecting with your landscape.

Recently Ann and I have been out on safari helping clients design & plant new landscapes.

It’s always nice to ‘keep your hand in’ as they say.

This time we tried a somewhat different approach.

We took the clients to various nurseries helping them choose the plants we were suggesting they would use.

Then we set out the planting on site helping them to plant, by using tried and trusted techniques we had learned over the years it helped to reduce transplant shock , giving the plants a great start. The clients learned a new way to plant.

It was really great fun, everyone enjoyed the experience, even the neighbors popped over to help.

We’ve already started to plan the next event… this time we are thinking of showing school children how, the last time we did this, some twenty years ago, every plant in the school project was planted at least five times.

The garden won a multitude of awards , there was no vandalism, with everything establishing well.

It’s time to teach our children’s children how to enjoy the calmness of a garden, to connect with nature and to learn so much more about our planet.

Some quick & easy ways to grow Herbs & Veggies at home.

Returning to growing your own Herbs & Veggies is taking on a new importance these days with the changes to our weather patterns, the realisation that many pesticides, insecticides and mass growing techniques are not necessarily the most efficient, cost effective or even healthy way for us to provide for our food needs.

Ann & I thought we would explore the various ways we knew how you can grow at home – we may have missed an idea or two, for which we apologise in advance ( please do send us your ideas and we will add them to our blog post).

Most people start by growing basic Herbs , then move on to the Tomatoes, Potatoes, Garlic, Lettuce, Spinach, Corn, Onions, Carrots, Beets, Garlic, Leeks, Chicory, Asparagus, Beans, Cucumbers, Zucchini ( Courgette), Squash, Sweet Potatoes, etc, etc.

Generally the ideal prerequisites for growing are, although these can be ‘created’ artificially these days.

A sunny site

Space to grow

Time to tend to plants.

1. Adding plants to an existing landscaped garden.

The easiest and simplest method is to introduce plants into your existing shrub planting beds. You would be amazed at what herbs and veggies can grow symbiotically with your favorite flowers and shrubs, some are even edible ( Take a look at a book we recently reviewed called Eat your Roses – by Denise Schrieber ) . .

When we interviewed the creators of this beautiful garden last year and found lots and lots of herbs, vegetables and fruits growing next to the flowers and shrubs.

2.Grow herbs & some veggies in pots.

You can use virtually any pot for this or you can purchase additional features to make the arrangement much more interesting.

Here a simple pot of herbs near to the kitchen door.

Painting trellis white adds interest — A simple herb pot

By adding a special rod system inside the pots, you can make the arrangement much more interesting and space efficient.

3. Square Foot Gardens – invented by Mel Bartholomew some years ago this is a fantastic solution for those with either a small space or for those who want an effective herb & growing method in a confined space.

If you want to you can add all manner of amazing refinements as seen here in this Chelsea Flower Show exhibit.

An example from a Chelsea Flower Show exhibit

4. A traditional ‘allotment or community garden.

5. From a bygone era when labour wasn’t an issue and doing things on a grand scale no matter what it was, was considered the way..

We will spend a little time with each style, in the coming days, in the meantime you can listen to our podcast at www.growingtrends.org as we talk to a variety of guests from a passionate young mother, to a group of school teachers and to Mel Bartholomew,

Do drop us a line with your thoughts and ideas..

How would you plan a new landscape?

With just a few more weeks to Spring, some of us are looking to make changes in the appearance of our garden landscapes.

As we plan some Spring shows we wanted to ask you our readers and listeners how you would plan a project.

Where would you look for ideas?

[polldaddy poll=8679930]

Thank you so much for your help,

Ann & Chris would love to hear from you with additional comments, suggestions, or if you need some ideas, just complete the form below.

You can hear our latest show at www.growingtrends.org or on iTunes at Growing Trends