Retaining wall Archives - Landscape Knowledge

Results of our poll regarding our eBook.

Landscape Knowledge eBook

First of all thank you for all the replies.

Let’s start with the written requests –

1. Could we add information about Green Walls?

The short answer is certainly, this fully structural Green Wall was designed and built by us in 1984, it won an award, happily we know quite a bit about green walls, designed to last around 50 years they do not require any tie-back as they are designed as a ‘gravity wall’ . We will add a chapter about the How to and Where best to use these lovely walls.

2. Composts, Native and Perennial plants ?

A little more adventurous, next to a small pond.

We may need to add another eBook for this, what we may well do is add more about Allergies with this rather broad topic.

3. Removing and replacing a lawn – right time of year, plus best ways to water establishing new planting?

We will add a chapter on lawns and how best to use them, if you are in an area of long standing drought it is often wise to consider an alternative. It rather depends on how much area is involved , how much impact will be made. The picture above shows an area that could easily be ‘planted’ with alternatives. Sometimes a small green space in a compact garden is beneficial to the overall feeling of space – green is after all a very significant colour, and probably the most important in nature.

So the top three requests were –

Help with Veggie Growing

An eBook for consumers.

Help with water conservation.

Ann and I have taken out our quill pens and started to scribe…..the first ebook will be free for all subscribers to our blog site.

If you would like to write to us with other requests please do..

Ann & Chris

Growing Trends – you can hear our latest interviews at www.growingtrends.org or on iTunes at Growing Trends

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”

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

How long should a garden makeover last?

Ann and I were sitting down planning a new season of information shows, that we are calling ‘Gardenesque’ on our ‘Growing Trends’ podcast ( you can find us on iTunes) when an interesting question popped up.

‘How long should a garden makeover last?’

There are really two parts to this:

The first is how much durability should we design and build into a project?

I recall many years ago, when we first started our ‘Designer Drives’ division, using the now almost standard dry lay method, we consulted the manufacturers and settled on a standard that was expected to last 2 million yup 2 million axle loads – that’s a lot of traffic in case you wonder.

In the case of a brick drive as above, it would also depend on climatic conditions ( although this drive is built with an engineering brick so basically impervious to normal cold conditions), as well as vehicle actual weight ( again this drive should withstand easily a 20 ton load).

I think we had two occasions where a client called to ask what they should do because the drive had deflected about 20mm ( 3/4 inch) in an area, we simply lifted and relaid the area without charge for the client.

So for a dry lay paving the construction is likely to outlast the clients .

A mortared terrace like the first picture or a mortared brick area such as below is a little different.

The most likely area to fail first is the pointing, which by definition is a weaker area than the bricks, here we are using a 23kn second hard stock brick, with a 1:1:3 cement,sharp sand, soft sand mix. My feeling is that it should comfortably last 20 years. After which it might need some re-pointing.

This leads on to the second part.

After how many years would a project be considered old enough to change?

This timber step detail is definitely a point in case, being made from old sleepers that contain among other things tar – something to avoid in today’s garden landscape.

The answer would most likely be when the client wanted a change or a new owner was looking for something different.

Would this then mean completely changing the entire area, or perhaps utilising some of the materials in a newer look, particularly if they were ‘natural materials’ such as natural bricks, and stone which tends to last for a great many years?

This white trellis, terracotta pot of herbs and brick paving was completed 30 years ago, it’s not really that out of place today is it?

So now the question becomes, over the past twenty five or so years what has really changed in how we approach a landscape project – is it just where we live and work?

Here we have what I would considered an ageless feature, which being in the UK is probably subject to a preservation order. I can only imagine how much this wrought iron and stone feature would cost to build today – that;s if you could find the wrought iron and someone to ‘lead’ caulk the uprights into the stone !

Is it the availability of skilled labour?

Or is it the availability of new tried and tested materials or methods?

This very old ‘knapped flint’ wall requires some age old skills to build, not least because it needs a lime mortar ( one that doesn’t contain cement) for it to work, this is because the flints are impervious to water and without some movement in the joints the wall would crack.

The flints are not really suitable for many of today’s landscapes as they are very sharp and likely to harm someone who casually ‘knocks’ against them.

One area that we probably do need to keep for many more years are mature trees, although I’ve seen some pretty large specimens moved.

I guess as always it is in the hands of the client as to what they would like to achieve, and for us to ‘solve the practical problems’ that may arise…

Which is why for almost 40 years I can honestly say it’s been really good fun……… what say you?

I think it’s all in the details…..

You can listen to Ann & Chris’s weekly podcast at www.growingtrends.org

Could we ask for a little help from you?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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 !

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.

Would you like to be part of our show?

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.

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.

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…….

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’

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.

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.

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 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

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.

From “Concept to Completion” – a complete project!

Ever wondered how a landscape project is conceived, designed, planned and then implemented?

We have created quite a few over the years, so we thought we would attempt a trial of one here that we did some years ago.

There is an ulterior motive for this, Ann & I would like to attempt to follow a project from ‘Concept to Completion’ on our radio show ‘Growing Trends’

This project started because the owners, a young couple, were starting a family, and wanted the swimming pool that dominated their back garden removed, partly for safety reasons and partly because as you can see it didn’t leave much space for a user friendly garden.

The first step was to survey the garden, in this case we needed to take fairly accurate levels to enable us to quantify the amount of work to do.

This has a number of benefits ;-

When working in tight areas , there was only a side gate access, it is very wise to design in such a way as the least amount of material is taken away or brought in to complete a project – all that hauling is wasting the clients budget.

Secondly it is jolly hard to accommodate too much material when the entire site is being worked on.

With such restricted access the design whilst needing to be imaginative, had to be practical and effective.

The solution was to use the existing access path level as the main level, demolish the pool surrounds, break out the base of the pool, to allow for drainage, then backfill in layers the excavated pool , paving and surplus material to bring the levels up to create a much larger patio.

We even salvaged some of the brick wall to mix in with the new london stocks to create the imposing planter that acts as a statement as you walk around the side of the house to the rear garden.

The new paving extends all the way around the house to give continuity, we added a stock brick edge to the paving so we could link the low black stained timber retaining walls, the raised patio diaz, and the black stained timber edged step to the rest of the garden.

The stained timber edge is protected with polythene sheeting and has a gravel pressure release drain set behind, to prevent water incursion onto the light coloured patio stones, which would stain very easily otherwise.

There is now a much enlarged patio area ideal for young children to play on, which is both safe and secure.

The step detail is modulised to provide continuity and ease of use when walking on, planting the edges will over time soften the strong straight lines and allow the planting to seamlessly flow into the step area.

The steep banks are now lost in the planting, supported by the low stained timber wall, creating a feature rather than an aftercare issue as before.

The completed project, is much easier to maintain, has a huge amount of safe space, opens the garden up, into an interesting useable space, for play, entertaining , whilst giving more light to the inside of the house and a feeling of spaciousness.

You can hear Ann & Chris talking to garden owners and the experts that help them on Growing Trends ( just click this link) it will send you to our internet radio show.

If you have an interesting garden or story to tell do drop us a line, we will get back to you in a few days.

We would love to hear from you..

Ann & Chris

Alternatively take a look at our web site at www.grotrends.com it’s packed with helpful hints.

Why natural materials invariably look superb.

There are a number of reasons why, let’s start with this picture of a French Restaurant not that far from Lyon.

Natural materials, always weather well, they tend not to lose their colours so quickly, being much less affected by UV light. The wood for instance changes colour slowly, blending into the other colours, with a softer patina. The natural stone stays basically the same colour apart from the addition of dirt and moss etc., the rendering isn’t really natural, it was something started in the 1950’s for some reason in villages throughout France, some have returned to a more natural stone look by hacking the rendering off, others as here have allowed the rendering to weather and blend in.

Of course it helps to have the walls half covered in virginia creeper, with the windows festooned with trailing geraniums. The over all effect is soft on the eye and pleasing.

When selecting materials for a project, it’s always a good idea to see what natural ones are available first.

All the materials in the picture above are ‘natural’ as you can see they have a softer look to them.

They ‘weather’ in much better and seem to last longer.

This beautiful driveway was constructed with natural bricks to form the rain water gulley run offs – it actually took three bricks to form the channel.

The top wearing surface is a double coated natural dried Pea Gravel that has been applied with fibreglass rovings and a special binder to form an impervious surface. Surfaces like this need to be re applied every 5 years or so to keep up appearances.

The beauty of such a surface is that the gravel isn’t likely to ‘fly around’ much, and the surface lasts longer because it is more or less water proofed.

This attractive Gravel and Granite surface, will basically never change colour, it will always looks warm and inviting, sure it will need some aftercare to keep weeds and encroaching plants at bay, but it will be the same in twenty years time as it is today.

This secret garden, is really easy to construct, its basically larger gravel rolled into the soil, with stepping stone flat rocks leading to a a stone bench with a small statue acting as the main focal point… a great place to listen to Growing Trends our downloadable internet radio show.

Here we used a low natural stone rockery with a low bridge across a pathway around the garden, as a starting point for an artificial stream, adding differing sized stones and rocks into the stream bed to create a natural appearance.

We will be having an interview with an ex Head Gardener of one of England’s great Estates shortly.

Do listen to Growing Trends and let us know what you would enjoy hearing about.

Ann & Chris

Creating mystery & intrigue with Timber Walls, Fences & Trelliage

Last time we talked about paths, so today I thought it might be advantageous to discuss ‘Timber Walls & Fences’, we will include Trelliage as they all have a role to play, helping to create a certain kind of mystery within a garden landscape (We’ve discussed hedges recently so you can scroll down to that article if you would like )

These ‘vertical materials’ are acting as a visual or physical barrier between differing areas, leading the eye on to a new discovery or perhaps just creating a contained space. At some time fairly soon we should add ‘Green Walls’ which are gaining in interest and can look absolutely superb. I wonder how long it is before we develop these to grow edibles ?

We have designed and built a huge number of gardens over the years, gaining valuable experience in what works best in a given situation.

Using Timber.

This garden, was primarily designed to reduce aftercare, taking care to keep the beautifully rustic boundary fencing, which blends in to both the surroundings and the new work so well.

It was necessary, to repair the odd arris rail, a couple of fence posts and some slats, re hang the side gate etc.,but overall by keeping the original the rustic feel was I think you will agree maintained.

Low hit and miss side fence with 6ft feather edged boundary fence & framed gate

It’s nearly always best to work with what is already there, rather than ripping out everything. My first task is always to look up and see how the tree canopy is, then beyond the space we are working with to see what impact we may be making without perhaps realising how a neighbour might view our endeavours.

Very low maintenance, Mediterranean style

In small gardens complete barriers tend to make the garden smaller, so it is best to create more of an illusion of a barrier, this is often best created by using trellis, here is an example that we stained black. (A word of warning, trying to make a gate from trellis is fraught with problems if you do not add a full frame that is braced, when you add this it tends to upset the look of the trellis, so think carefully before using as a gate, as without the frame the gate will change shape over time!)

The trellis here was primarily to separate the more formal ‘Front Garden’ with the more relaxed ‘Play Garden’ at the rear and side of the property.

To improve the strength of this gate we added metal framing at each corner, both inside and outside, it was only partially successful.

If a more substantial barrier is required, say in the form of a structural wall to hold back a bank then there are a number of ways to achieve this.

Low Timber Retaining wall

Here we used vertically set timber as a retaining wall, we did place a waterproof membrane behind the timber and a gravel pressure release drain so as not to have unsightly stains running across the light coloured paving.

A quite pleasing effect can be achieved.

The softer low timber wall looks at home here.

Roof Gardens

Roof gardens benefit from the light weight of timber and its ability to be ‘modulised’ , as can be seen here..

Structural Timber Walls

Some years ago now, we discovered, well perhaps I should say a local native of our area wanted someone to test a new product he had found lurking in New Zealand, so, as we had won a number of awards for our work, and our teams were well known, he persuaded us to try this product..

It was fantastic, ok I should add some provisos, it is treated wood, it lasts a very long time, I have pieces from 30 years ago that are still unblemished, maybe bleached a little but otherwise fine. It will twist if not constructed correctly, although it is unzippable and thus fairly straightforward to repair. If you introduce plants into the wall it looks amazing and infact the plants protect the timber.

Here’s a much taller one we completed.

It is essential to use a structural engineer to carry out the necessary survey, and calculate the design criteria for these ‘Gravity Walls’

Once established they can look like this..

Some years back we were even asked to build a play area within a timber stockade, the posts were about 16 ft long and required some ingenuity to place correctly..

Here’s how we did it..

Moving to more decorative uses, lets explore trelliage and low walls..

Wishing well feature with trellis back drop

We sometimes add some whimsy to our designs, here we used a rather deep drainage shaft, disguising it as a wishing well, to make it stand out we added a trellis surround to enable us to plant climbers to enhance the visual impact. Here its just been completed.

Pergola with Wishing Well at end of path

Ornamental Trelliage

Here we used a cloud trellis to add some movement to the landscape and to help hide the boring stepped trellis in the neighboring garden.

Here the trellis has been painted white next to the house it gives a very clean look.

Here we had a custom made heavy duty trellis, note the pencil edges soften the whole fence.

Ann & I will spend a little time on the radio show talking about materials, when we interview our next guests who will be Designers. In the meantime do come and listen at Growing Trends

We would love to hear from you with ideas, comments, suggestions and requests…

Ann & Chris

The Hedge

Hedges,

Often used to create a boundary between sections of gardens, or to lead you around a garden, or to act as a privacy barrier, a hedge can be a very useful garden tool.

We’ve even used ones for security – by choosing a suitably thorny subject it can make it impossible for someone or something to get through it.

Here the hedge is used as an entrance into a garden, creating some privacy and yet leading the eye to the main terrace doors.

A hedge can be grown using any plant material that will withstand clipping , so the list is quite large. At the smaller end you have the traditional box hedging often used in kitchen gardens, or to surround ornamental flower beds, as seen below.

To create a less formal barrier, you could use forsythia – but remember that forsythia flowers of last years wood, so pruning and shaping should be restricted to just after flowering if possible. Hornbeam, Beech, Rose , Escallonia, Cotoneaster, Laurel, Yew, Leylandii, Thuja all make a nice hedge .

of course the height you desire makes a difference in choice

The height is also dictated by how often and by what method is used to keep the hedge clipped. As can be seen below, this hedge would take many hours to keep it in this condition.