Xeriscape Archives - Landscape Knowledge

Walking the The Bibbulmun Track,Western Australia

Ann and I had the pleasure of interviewing Linda Stanley after she had completed this 1000km walk in Australia.

Linda.

Linda undertook this walk on her own. It took the best part of 8 weeks to complete and more than three months to prepare for.

Linda isn’t your average walker by any means. She suffered some serious injuries, breaking her back in an accident. Being a somewhat determined lady she set about challenging herself to literally get back on her feet again.

We interviewed Linda in her new home, a beautiful chestnut farm in Nannup, Western Australia.

Linda’s web site can be found here…Chestnut Brae.

‘Grandy’s Long Walk’ is written for young children, superbly illustrated about her walk.

Linda wrote the book out of a concern that children today are spending less and less time with nature. Spending instead more and more time in front of the small screen. She hopes to encourage more children to get outside. Discovering the same senses of wonder and joy of nature that she had experienced on her long walk in the forest.

Listen to her telling us all about this amazing journey.

You can listen to the interview with Linda here..Walking the The Bibbulmun Track

Bibbulmun Track.

We were so curious about this really long walk, that during our research we found some youtube videos of other people who travel from all over the world to walk this track.

Darren is one such person, he created a video and kindly gave us permission to include it in this article. His video is just a part of the walk, you can view it here Bibbulmun track video

Darren is raising money for Diabetes you can see his web site here Darren’s website

There is also a specialist web site filled with information for those who want to plan their own walk..The Bibbulman Track

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

We would like to grow our team – could you help?

Ann & Chris have been busy preparing a new series of podcasts for you all to enjoy.

We have interviews with experts in the field of sustainability, recycling, food production, hydroponics and aquaponics. Our list of author interviews is growing all the time, we’ve recently added children’s book authors connected with nature.

You can hear them at Growing Trends

We would love to hear from you all with ideas and suggestions for interviews or articles.

Garden Centers are changing ……

Garden Centers are Changing.

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

If I were to open a Garden Center today ?

Opening a Garden Center Today.

Garden Centers have evolved over the years. There are independent garden centers often in a local neighborhood. Then there are larger groups with multiple locations.

Many of the big box ‘Do it Yourself stores’ have larger and larger ‘Garden Center’ sections.

The question recently has been where are they all heading.

So Ann asked Sid & John – “If I were to open a Garden Center today what would be your recommendations?”

Our interview with Sid Raisch and John Stanley, two ‘guru’s of the industry may help to answer that question.

You can hear this fascinating interview at www.growingtrends.org or on iTunes at Growing Trends

What do you think?

Ann & Chris would love to hear your views.

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

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

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

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