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
In our second interview discussing the changing market for Garden Centers.
Ann visits Paris, France to talk to Valerie Langendorff, President of a Women’s Garden Executive Club.
Valerie looks at Garden Centers from the ladies perspective in France. Her ladies group have identified a number of interesting trends..
Women make 70% of the purchase decisions.
Currently 90% of Garden Centers are managed by men.
Their Executive Club have developed an annual awards program judged by women.
Ladies nights are arranged in the Garden Center – in our earlier interview we heard that a Garden Center in Switzerland had ‘Pole Dancing’ nights for ladies, as a way to exercise !
They have an award for the most women friendly Garden Center.
They have discovered that women like innovation more than men……
You can listen to this fascinating interview here or on iTunes
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?
Creating movement
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.
Listen to our digital library anytime
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 and I interviewed John Stanley recently about his new book, he jointly wrote with his wife Linda, aptly named – Food Tourism – A Practical Marketing Guide.
The fastest growth in tourism today is the culinary sector.
Listen to John as he explains the overall direction of food tourism, including how he sees future development.
A few snip bits:
25% of the food we buy comes from 2% of the farmland around our cities, which is being swallowed up by development.
Farmers used to make 38 cents on every dollar now its down to an average of just 6 cents
Eating local seasonal food saves you around 25%, and is actually healthier for you!
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.
Fushia
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.
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
Today’s interview is really fascinating, our friends Bill Sosinsky and Rich Sapienza of Energime University discuss, coming trends, in particular the growing sense of community involvement. Community gardens the modern name for an ‘Allotment’ is a case in point.
Allotment
The growing popularity of farmers markets, are helping to provide locally grown produce, that is grown in season, rather than having all food always available. There are some real benefits to eating ‘for want of a better word’ the right vegetables for the season.
Could you grow these?
We talk about water usage and the changes coming. To how we will all have to change some of our habits in these new times. In the meantime we all need to reconnect with nature, spend time to just take a stroll in a garden or park.
Our interview this week is with Bill Sosinsky and Joe Ravet, it’s all about the amazing properties of algae and the work being done today that could transform many areas of our lives. This fascinating interview is in two parts, with the second part coming next week.
Algae has some fascinating uses :-
As an Energy Source – a 737 plane flew from Houston to Chicago on fuel derived from algae, way back in 2011
As a Fertilizer – from as long ago as the 16th century, seaweed has been used a fertilizer.
As a source of Nutrition – China has been consuming Algae for over 2000 years, they harvest over 70 species as does Japan, Ireland, Chile, Wales, Korea, California, New Zealand, Hawaii, Scotland, Greenland and Iceland to name a few. It was an ingredient in Aztec foods.
Oils obtained from some algae have high levels of unsaturated fatty acids, others essential omega 3 fatty acids.
As a Pollution control – treating sewage with algae, reducing the use of toxic chemicals that would be used. They can absorb fertilizer run off from fields. Aquariums can be filtered by algae
As a Pigment – alternative to chemical dyes
As a Medicine – helping fight malnutrition, immune health, reducing cholesterol
Amazingly there could be more than 72000 algae species worldwide.
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.
Quiet garden in Primary School
The garden won a multitude of awards , there was no vandalism, with everything establishing well.
A Quiet School Garden
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.
Hello again everyone, this is Ann & Chris from Growing Trends – you can listen to our podcasts at Growing Trends
Yesterday we started a new series of Growing Herbs & Veggies in a variety of easy ways at home, rather than the more traditional row crop method.
One of our Hort Cuisine Kits
Just to recap they are :
1. Introducing Herbs & Veggies to an existing flower or shrub bed.
Can you spot the herbs & veggies?
The Herbs & Veggies blend in and are almost invisible to the untrained eye.
2. Growing Herbs & Veggies in a container.
Stacked herb pot.
Growing in pots is great for those with restricted or small spaces. There are a few extra considerations you need to take for success, which we will explain.
3. Square Foot Garden
created by Mel Bartholomew, square foot gardens are one of the most efficient ways to grow your herbs & vegetables
4. Traditional ‘Allotment’ or ‘Community Gardens’
Allotment
Allotments are particularly European ,
in Denmark they date back to 1778, in 2001 there were around 62,000 !
Finland started around 1916,
France, Czech Republic, Germany, Holland, Norway, Sweden, Poland, Russia, Portugal, England, all have long traditions of ‘Allotments’
Community Gardens are more an American version, which often started as a ‘Victory Garden’ in the second world war, and has developed into a Community Garden.
So lets start today with.
1. Introducing Herbs & Veggies to an existing flower or shrub bed.
There are usually lots of different places where you could insert herbs and veggies in an established garden, the secret is to work with the design.
A good time to find those elusive spaces is now as you start your spring cleaning of beds.
Remember to think about the plants final height, most will require at least 6 hours of sunlight
How often you will need to get close to the plant to gather the crop.
Check regularly for pests and diseases and to feed & water.
Use low growing herbs, colourful cabbages instead of annuals for instance
Remember to add compost to the soil as they will still need nutrients
Place taller growing herbs and vegetables with taller shrubs towards the back of a border
With the lower growing herbs and vegetables towards the front of a border.
Remember flowers like Nasturtiums, Pansies,Orange blossom,Squash flowers and Marigolds are edible ( but not if they have pesticides sprayed on them) – take a look at Eat your Roses for more ideas
Now you can visually enjoy as well as enjoy eating.
You can listen to more great ideas on our Podcast at Growing Trends
Tomorrow we will talk about growing herbs & veggies in containers.
Chris & Ann are landscape designers, gardeners, inventors , radio show hosts, we live in the MidWest , are passionate about food, cooking, wine and love to interview people who share our passion for the environment.
We would love to hear from you …
Hits: 12
Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
