Super Garden is back on RTÉ Television in the Spring, and the people behind the show are seeking applications from emerging garden designers.

“Amateur gardeners, student designers and start up landscapers who feel they have what it takes to become Super Garden champion 2014 should apply promptly,” says Vision Independent Productions.

Vision Independent will “provide the garden, budget and cover agreed travel expenses”.

The winner and their garden design will receive a much-coveted place at Bloom Festival 2014.

To apply, email: supergarden@vipmg.tv. Closing date for applications is Thursday February 27.

View full sizeHeather Clawson of Habitually ChicJulie E. Washington

Grab a cup of coffee and enjoy these links to information and stories about home, garden and design news.

CHIC BLOG: Heather Clawson, writer of the design blog Habitually Chic, recently wrote about the design website 1stdibs and its founder, Michael Bruno. Bruno was recently featured in the Wall Street Journal magazine.
Clawson loved this quote from Bruno: “Our rooms are very collected, not
decorated. A decorator looks at a space and then imagines what should
be bought to go in it. I buy things I love and then I find a place to
put them.”

REPAIR OR REPLACE? When is it worthwhile to repair an appliance, and when is it a better bet to buy a new one? Consumer Reports has done the homework, and an article with year-by-year advice for more than a dozen common home appliances, electronics and lawn and snow equipment is in the February 2014 issue of Consumer Reports.

“Repairing broken items or keeping them going as long as possible isn’t always the best way to save money,” said Celia Kuperszmid-Lehrman, deputy content editor of home and appliances for Consumer Reports. “Our report spells out how much repairs usually cost, brands that break down and those that don’t and cheap fixes you can handle to save money.”

SUSTAINABLE LANDSCAPING: The Association of Professional Landscape Designers (APLD) Ohio Chapter and The Holden Arboretum is sponsoring the 2014 Designing Green Conference, Permaculture and Storm Water Management on Wednesday, March 5.

The conference will broaden participants’ knowledge of native plants, storm water management and sustainable practices.

The conference will be held at the Holden Arboretum Warren H. Corning Visitor Center, 9500 Sperry Road, Kirtland. It runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Registration cost of $85 includes lunch.

Registration deadline is Friday, Feb. 28. Register online.

BROWNSVILLE — A group of students at Texas Southmost College has put together a number of designs for the Brownsville Wellness Coalition to consider as the next phase for the city’s community gardens begins.

The collaboration began when BWC Executive Director Melissa Delgado met Murad Abusalim, an architecture instructor at TSC who teaches the college’s Design II class.

From there, the students in his course were tasked with researching and incorporating best practices from community gardens across the country into what will be three new gardens in Brownsville.

Delgado and a group of experts will evaluate each design individually to determine which one will be chosen for the three parks.

The project was a great opportunity for students to get involved in the community, Abusalim said.

Designing for a budget of $10,000 for each garden, students got to work, taking pains to make sure each design was cost- and space-efficient while also being creative, Abusalim said.

“I can’t think of a better teaching methodology in which we can foster responsibility and social awareness while also promoting creativity,” he said.

It’s a hands-on approach that works, Abusalim said.

Students were a bit under pressure because work for the community gardens is moving very quickly, Abusalim said. But they rose to the occasion, he added.

Jose Muñoz, a 22-year-old architecture student, said he learned a lot while working on the project.

Muñoz said the students had to take into consideration wind patterns and the sun’s footprint, but the task of making the garden wheelchair accessible was the greatest lesson.

The project is close to the type of work Muñoz would like to continue in the future. Being involved in the community was one of the reasons he chose this career path, he said.

“I love this kind of assignment because you are really involved with the community,” Muñoz said. “The reason why I chose to become an architect is to have that positive impact in my community. It doesn’t matter what city or what state I’ll be at, I’m just looking at how I’m able to impact my community.”

Architecture student Aleida Gonzalez said she worked hard on the project and learned by trial and error about the requirements needed to have a successful community garden.

“It was all pure research, and the two of us learned it little by little,” Gonzalez, 22, said of working with a partner on the project. “But between each other and the other groups in class, we all supported each other.”

For Delgado, the BWC executive director, the student project allowed the designs to be out of the box.

“I was having to design them, and I was doing it block by block,” Delgado said.

Abusalim said he expects to incorporate these kinds of projects into each class he teaches.

“That’s the beauty of whenever we have service-learning projects,” Abusalim said. “(Students) want to contribute. They like to be part of positive, life-changing projects.”

You’ve heard about kale and how it’s supposed to be so good for you, but you don’t know much about it?

Kale and many other garden topics will be explored Saturday, March 8, during “Adventures in Gardening IX,” a daylong spring seminar at Maquoketa (Iowa) Middle School.

The event is sponsored by the Iowa State University Extension Outreach Jackson County Master Gardeners and features three keynote speakers, four mini-sessions (participants may choose two) and nine info stations (to be explored at one’s own pace).

 ISU Extension entomologist Laure Jesse will deliver the first keynote speech, talking about how to diagnose plant problems that will help gardeners determine whether the cause is a disease, an insect or an environmental factor.

The “do’s and don’ts of landscape design” will be discussed in early afternoon by Sara Carpenter, landscape designer and manager at Steve’s Ace Home and Garden Center, Dubuque.

A demonstration on the practical care of gardening tools will follow. Roger Rittmer, a Clinton County Master Gardener, will help you evaluate your gardening tools and demonstrate how to care for, and sharpen. them.

The mini-sessions are:

• “Backyard Wildlife Management,” by Rebecca Christoffel, ISU wildlife specialist. The challenges and opportunities presented by wildlife, from rabbits munching on plants to the use of bats as a form of integrated pest management.

• “How to Grow and Cook with Herbs,” by Deb Monroe, Clinton County Master Gardener and manager of the Crossroads Garden Café, DeWitt, Iowa. Informative tips, recipes, samples.

• “Small Space Gardening,” by Sara Carpenter, landscape designer and manager at Steve’s Ace Home and Garden Center, Dubuque. Clever and unique ideas to maximize small spaces.

• “Bugs That Bug You — Good, Bad and Ugly,” by Margo Hansen, director of programs for Bickelhaupt Arboretum, Clinton. Information about the most prominent pests, including emerald ash borer, Japanese beetles and Asian lady beetles.

Info-station topics and presenters include:

Aronia berries, Mitch Gravert, Jackson County Master Gardener

Asparagus and spinach, Judy Tonderum, Jackson County Master Gardener

Blueberries, Mary Ann McLaughlin, Maquoketa Garden Club

Edible flowers, Lee Karabin, Jackson County Master Gardener

Flowers of the Bible, Doris Currier, Jackson County Master Gardener

Kale and rhubarb, Sharon Bullock, Jackson County Master Gardener

Questions and answers, Margo Hansen, director of programs, Bickelhaupt Arboretum, Clinton

Weed identification, Mary Lou Johnson, Jackson County Master Gardener

Gladiolas, Alice Mans, Jackson County Master Gardener

Sally Court collects the Award

The brief was to transform a steep, sandy hillside in Moscow’s affluent Barvikha suburb into a breathtaking, romantic English country garden. It took a staggering seven years to complete, but garden designers Sally Court and Helen Billetop are now reaping the rewards as their hard work was recognised at the recent, prestigious Society of Garden Designers’ 2013 Garden Design Awards.

London-based Sally and Helen of cgd landscape design had to contend with numerous challenges in the creation of this spectacular garden – which earned them the coveted Gold International Award at the ceremony – such as freezing temperatures, navigating the Russian planning process, liaising with an onsite team who didn’t share a common language and sourcing materials both locally and internationally.

The judges recognised the unique complexities of the scheme commenting: “A very difficult brief successfully implemented to create a sophisticated and accomplished piece of design that is the essence of an English garden. There was a good sequence of spaces and a high standard of execution despite logistical challenges.”

“It’s the cherry on the icing on the cake,” says Sally. “We were just overwhelmed. This award means our peers have recognised the work – and the high quality of the work – that we have put into the garden.”

Recognition by the SGD is just the latest in a string of awards. In 2013, the Barvikha garden won Landscape of the Year and Gold Best Overseas Garden/Landscape at the New Homes Gardens Awards as well as First Place in the Residential Gardens category at the Dom ne Brestskov Landscape Architecture exhibition in Moscow. In 2012, the American Association of Professional Landscape Designers (ALPD) gave a Gold Award for Planting Design and a Merit Award in the Residential Design category.

As expected, the garden – the first of its kind in Moscow – has garnered plenty of interest from the Russian press.

Set in the grounds of a Dacha (a country house), the exuberant 2.5 acre garden contains all the elements one would expect from an English country garden such as a rose garden, a glass house and herb parterre, extensive fruit plantings, a summerhouse, woodland walks, wetland plantings along a drainage stream, a meadow area and massed bulb planting not forgetting the quintessential English herbaceous and shrub borders. Sally and Helen undertook extensive research to find plants that would create the same ambiance as found in our great English gardens but would survive the harsh Moscow climate, where temperatures can plunge to an icy -30° in the winter and soar to +40° in the summer.

Likewise, a creative approach was needed in bringing a truly English feel to the hard-landscaping elements of the garden.

“We are very capable of creating English style using materials found within the country if they are available, but in this case, they weren’t,” says Sally. “So we brought the stone in from Yorkshire, the bricks from Lancashire, the glasshouse from Hampshire and the summerhouse in Somerset. The bespoke fences, trellis and arches were made locally from our designs.”

“By using both local and international materials and combining these we were able to create and garden that had an ethos of an English country garden where you can walk from one small garden area into another, a natural succession of spaces that connect happily with each other; open spaces, secret areas, grassy areas and deep borders, vistas and intimate places.”

As many of the existing pine and birch trees were protected by preservation orders, Sally made sure that promoting the bio-diversity onsite became an integral part of the brief. Insect hotels, bug and bird boxes were made and fixed to the trees and wild flower meadows were sown. In order for that process to continue, the team has been teaching the onsite gardeners how to continue working sympathetically with the environment.

Working from a studio in West London, cgd landscape design has built up an impressive and varied portfolio of projects – ranging from large country estates to city gardens, from courtyards to roof gardens, from family gardens to public parks. Sally and Helen’s gardens have reaped numerous medals at both Chelsea and Hampton Court Flower Shows.

Heritage: The mystery of Gertrude Jekyll’s last Wimbledon garden

5:00am Friday 14th February 2014 in News

By The Wimbledon Society

Gertrude Jekyll, giant of garden design

Exactly a century ago in February 1914, Britain’s best known garden designer, Gertrude Jekyll (1843-1932), was commissioned to create a big garden for a new house in Marryat Road.

It was her third and final involvement in the Wimbledon area but unlike her other two local gardens, this one may never have been more than a phantom.

Jekyll was at the height of her career in the early 1900s. She designed more than 100 gardens together with the architect Edwin Lutyens and is known to have been commissioned no fewer than 346 times between 1868 and 1932.

Her last Wimbledon commission was for a house called Bowerbank and the original plans are still held by the Reef Point Gardens Collection at the University of California.

Copies can be seen closer to home at Godalming Museum, Surrey. Detailed illustrations appear in a book about her work published in 1992, yet no house called Bowerbank ever existed.

A century ago Marryat Road had only recently been laid out on the former 100-acre estate of Sir Henry Peek, the late MP who had led the campaign to save Wimbledon Common in the 1860s. (See Heritage story 16 November 2012).

A link remained as Jekyll’s client was Sir Arthur Carr (1855-1947), head of the Peek Frean biscuit firm founded by Sir Henry’s father. Sir Arthur lived at 10 The Downs, Wimbledon.

A document recently came to light showing that in September 1912, he bought a 1½-acre plot of land in Marryat Road and in 1913 engaged local architect Walter E Hewitt to build a house there. When work started remains unknown but Sir Arthur commissioned Jekyll the next year to design the grounds.

She provided detailed designs for both front and back gardens with complete plant listings for each bed, carefully chosen trees, shrubs, perennials and annuals. The back garden followed a symmetrical pattern around a large tennis lawn.

Her cost estimate went to Hewitt on 25 February and some plants were actually sent to a “new house Bowerbank” on 3 March. That much certainly happened but World War 1 may have stopped further progress.

It was not until 1920 that Hewitt actually completed a house called Windyridge at 21 Marryat Road whose grounds matched those designed for Bowerbank. Sir Arthur Carr never lived there and Hewitt died before anyone else did.

There is no record of any direct link between Jekyll and Windyridge. The house was divided in two in 1956 and the end of the garden sold off for development of what is now Windyridge Close.

Windyridge House (Bowerbank?) in the 1920s, showing part of the tennis  lawn with one of the flowerbeds

Yet what remains looks uncannily like the mysterious Bowerbank plans now in California.

Jekyll’s two other local gardens both survived for many years but ultimately suffered sad fates. In November 1906 she had been commissioned by Sir George Stegmann Gibb (1850-1925), managing director of what later became the London Underground.

He had a large three-storey house built a few yards from Caesar’s Camp on the Common. Jekyll designed an elaborate garden with winding pathways, steps, a holly border, lots of flower beds, a rock garden, and a six-bed kitchen garden.

Sir George and his family lived at what became 35 Camp Road from 1907-1919 and the property was then occupied by various residents until 1959 when it was demolished, the site used for offices and the Jekyll garden becoming a car park.

The site is now Cedar Park Gardens but there is no reminder of Gertrude Jekyll.

Jekyll’s other commission was at Greystones, 29 Mostyn Road, Merton Park, in 1913. Her client there was paint manufacturer George Hadfield, the first resident of this Arts and Crafts style house built by local architect John Sydney Brocklesby (1879-1955) who also designed the neighbouring John Innes Park.

Jekyll visited Greystones several times and Brocklesby’s own sons helped her with the planting. Her design of box and yew hedging to separate narrow lawns and beds was still intact in the 1950s.

However in 1965 the TV actor Alan Stratford-Johns – known for the police series Z Cars and Softly, Softly – moved in, installed a large outdoor swimming pool and replaced Jekyll’s garden with a big lawn.

The house’s next residents investigated the garden’s origins and largely restored it in the early 1990s. It featured on the TV show Gardeners World and was opened for specially invited tours. But the couple moved out in 1998 since when it has been closed to all outsiders.

Garden lovers now have nowhere in the Wimbledon area to see an original Gertrude Jekyll garden.

---

The Wimbledon Society is working with the Wimbledon Guardian to ensure that you, the readers, can share the fascinating discoveries that continue to emerge about our local heritage.

For more information, visit wimbledonsociety.org.uk and www.wimbledonmuseum.org.uk.

Click here for more fascinating articles about Wimbledon’s heritage

Tweets by @WimbledonNews

TODAY’S TOP STORIES

• PICTURES: Large tree crashes down and blocks road in Wimbledon
• Father’s fear over change to autism care provision across south west London
• St Helier Hospital campaign group to hold public meeting
• Treats for taste buds at Garfield Primary School charity cake sale
• Family war memories transformed into theatre

 

Showbiz news

• Malcolm X family upset with Minaj

• Obama tweet backs House of Cards

• Whitehead: Guns help me to dive

• Blanchett: We couldn’t keep outfits

• Wainwright expected superstar life

• Juno actress Page comes out as gay

Heritage: The mystery of Gertrude Jekyll’s last Wimbledon garden

5:00am Friday 14th February 2014 in News

By The Wimbledon Society

Gertrude Jekyll, giant of garden design

Exactly a century ago in February 1914, Britain’s best known garden designer, Gertrude Jekyll (1843-1932), was commissioned to create a big garden for a new house in Marryat Road.

It was her third and final involvement in the Wimbledon area but unlike her other two local gardens, this one may never have been more than a phantom.

Jekyll was at the height of her career in the early 1900s. She designed more than 100 gardens together with the architect Edwin Lutyens and is known to have been commissioned no fewer than 346 times between 1868 and 1932.

Her last Wimbledon commission was for a house called Bowerbank and the original plans are still held by the Reef Point Gardens Collection at the University of California.

Copies can be seen closer to home at Godalming Museum, Surrey. Detailed illustrations appear in a book about her work published in 1992, yet no house called Bowerbank ever existed.

A century ago Marryat Road had only recently been laid out on the former 100-acre estate of Sir Henry Peek, the late MP who had led the campaign to save Wimbledon Common in the 1860s. (See Heritage story 16 November 2012).

A link remained as Jekyll’s client was Sir Arthur Carr (1855-1947), head of the Peek Frean biscuit firm founded by Sir Henry’s father. Sir Arthur lived at 10 The Downs, Wimbledon.

A document recently came to light showing that in September 1912, he bought a 1½-acre plot of land in Marryat Road and in 1913 engaged local architect Walter E Hewitt to build a house there. When work started remains unknown but Sir Arthur commissioned Jekyll the next year to design the grounds.

She provided detailed designs for both front and back gardens with complete plant listings for each bed, carefully chosen trees, shrubs, perennials and annuals. The back garden followed a symmetrical pattern around a large tennis lawn.

Her cost estimate went to Hewitt on 25 February and some plants were actually sent to a “new house Bowerbank” on 3 March. That much certainly happened but World War 1 may have stopped further progress.

It was not until 1920 that Hewitt actually completed a house called Windyridge at 21 Marryat Road whose grounds matched those designed for Bowerbank. Sir Arthur Carr never lived there and Hewitt died before anyone else did.

There is no record of any direct link between Jekyll and Windyridge. The house was divided in two in 1956 and the end of the garden sold off for development of what is now Windyridge Close.

Windyridge House (Bowerbank?) in the 1920s, showing part of the tennis  lawn with one of the flowerbeds

Yet what remains looks uncannily like the mysterious Bowerbank plans now in California.

Jekyll’s two other local gardens both survived for many years but ultimately suffered sad fates. In November 1906 she had been commissioned by Sir George Stegmann Gibb (1850-1925), managing director of what later became the London Underground.

He had a large three-storey house built a few yards from Caesar’s Camp on the Common. Jekyll designed an elaborate garden with winding pathways, steps, a holly border, lots of flower beds, a rock garden, and a six-bed kitchen garden.

Sir George and his family lived at what became 35 Camp Road from 1907-1919 and the property was then occupied by various residents until 1959 when it was demolished, the site used for offices and the Jekyll garden becoming a car park.

The site is now Cedar Park Gardens but there is no reminder of Gertrude Jekyll.

Jekyll’s other commission was at Greystones, 29 Mostyn Road, Merton Park, in 1913. Her client there was paint manufacturer George Hadfield, the first resident of this Arts and Crafts style house built by local architect John Sydney Brocklesby (1879-1955) who also designed the neighbouring John Innes Park.

Jekyll visited Greystones several times and Brocklesby’s own sons helped her with the planting. Her design of box and yew hedging to separate narrow lawns and beds was still intact in the 1950s.

However in 1965 the TV actor Alan Stratford-Johns – known for the police series Z Cars and Softly, Softly – moved in, installed a large outdoor swimming pool and replaced Jekyll’s garden with a big lawn.

The house’s next residents investigated the garden’s origins and largely restored it in the early 1990s. It featured on the TV show Gardeners World and was opened for specially invited tours. But the couple moved out in 1998 since when it has been closed to all outsiders.

Garden lovers now have nowhere in the Wimbledon area to see an original Gertrude Jekyll garden.

---

The Wimbledon Society is working with the Wimbledon Guardian to ensure that you, the readers, can share the fascinating discoveries that continue to emerge about our local heritage.

For more information, visit wimbledonsociety.org.uk and www.wimbledonmuseum.org.uk.

Click here for more fascinating articles about Wimbledon’s heritage

Tweets by @WimbledonNews

TODAY’S TOP STORIES

• Flood preparations underway as rain continues
• Flood victims speak of their ordeal in Purley street that became a river
• Pensioner dies after ‘falling out of moving vehicle’ in Worcester Park
• Tree surgeon loses damages claim after over accident which left him in a wheelchair
• Doctor says give flowers, not sexual diseases, on Valentine’s Day

 

Showbiz news

• Beyonce backing for Prince’s Trust

• Kylie in secret London pub gig

• Mulligan and Nighy to star together

• Cowell jets back to pregnant Lauren

• Splash! star Kiely ready for finale

• Piers Morgan questioned on hacking

CHICO — Chico Horticultural Society’s regular meeting will be Wednesday February 19 at the Chico library, first and Sherman Avenues. There will be refreshments served at 9:30 and the program will begin at 10:00. The business meeting will follow at 11:00.

The program is presented by John Whittlesey, and he will give us guidelines on how to have a beautiful year around pollinator garden. Sharing your garden with wildlife double the pleasure of your garden. He will discuss garden design, construction, and plant selections for a well-rounded pollinator garden; an area providing not only food, water and shelter, but life, color and interest to be enjoyed through out the seasons.

For 20 years John owned and operated one of the country’s leading specialty mail-order nurseries, emphasizing interesting drought tolerant, and regionally adapted perennials. Since 2008 he has focused his talents on designing and constructing gardens large and small. He supervised construction of the Native Plant Pollinator Garden at the Gateway Science Museum. He is co-producer of “Pollinators: Keeping Company with Flowers”, a traveling exhibit which includes his photography of plants and pollinators. He currently sits on the board of directors of the Chico State Herbarium. In April his book, “Plant Lover’s Guide to Salivas” will be published.

The public is invited to attend. If you have any questions, call Margaret at 520-0067.

As I start to get creaky in the knees, I find that truly inspirational. Brookes has won a fistful of awards, including an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) and four top medals at the Chelsea Flower Show. He conducts popular online courses in garden design from his home, Denmans, in Sussex, England. He travels regularly to give lectures, writes books (20 so far) and continues to design gardens for clients everywhere from the Middle East to Japan.

The themes of seven sins, community and Australia all feature in the list of show gardens at the RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show 2014

From the seven deadly sins, to the wilds of Australia – there’s plenty to look forward to in the show gardens at RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show this year.

Conceptual gardens

Each of the seven conceptual gardens is themed around one of the seven deadly sins. Rachel Parker Soden is creating a garden with a theme of lust, re-contextualising the flower show garden as a brothel in its own red light district and the flower show visitor as a voyeur.

Nilufer Danis’s design for wrath has been inspired by the instability of an eruptive volcano.

Marcus Green’s beautiful meadow planting has at its centre an artificial representation of the perfect lawn, depicting the sin of envy, while Sarah Jane Rothwell and Joan Ma Roig’s greed design depicts a confessionary and invites the viewer to consider the analogy between judge and sinner.

Katarina Rafaj’s gluttony garden focuses on the sin of food waste in a world where millions of people are starving, and Sheena Seeks is creating a sloth-inspired design.

Finally, Amanda Miller is creating a design symbolising pride. The conceptual gardens at Hampton are often thought-provoking, inspiring and often controversial and this year looks no different.

Community theme

Linking with the community theme at the show this year, the Monday Morning Club from Thetford in Norfolk is creating a show garden inspired by Thetford and its surrounding area, while Jeni Cairns is designing a community horticultural and arts space for Metal called ‘A Space to Connect and Grow‘.

Looking further afield, former RHS Chelsea Flower Show designer Jim Fogarty is designing a garden called ‘Essence of Australia‘ that recreates the feel of the Australian Garden at Melbourne’s Botanic Gardens. And World Vision is presenting the last of its trilogy of gardens inspired by the 30th anniversary of the Ethiopian famine – ‘The World Vision Garden‘.

Visitors can walk through the Jordans Cereals wildlife-themed garden designed by Selina Botham, and admire Rebecca Govier’s abstract legacy-themed design for Macmillan Cancer Support.

If you like contemporary gardens, look out for the bird’s nest-inspired modern garden for Ollies Place that will feature a Perspex cube, and Vestra Wealth‘s contemporary summer design.

Coolings Garden Centre is celebrating its centenary with a woodland-style garden.

Summer gardens

The summer gardens includes a design from the Bounce Back Foundation, which gives ex-offenders a second chance, while Horticolous has chosen to depict part of a country estate.

Children’s charity the NSPCC looks back over four eras of helping children since 1884, and the People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES) and British Hedgehog Preservation Society (BHPS) join forces to show back gardens that include features and good connections for hedgehogs.

Finally, Jonathan Marks’s contemporary garden celebrates the launch of his garden design business.

More information about this year’s gardens, including images and descriptions, will be available on this website shortly.