Forest Garden has launched a new merchandising stand designed to better present garden trellis.

Front facing and pre-stocked with three types of fast-moving trellis designs, the stand has the added advantage of being movable by fork lift truck.

This flexibility means that the display stand can be relocated around the store and placed next to complementary product groups, such as climbing plants.

The three types of trellis compatible with the merchandising display are: Hidcote Fan Trellis – a fan lattice, 61cm height x 180cm width, to match the Hidcote lattice range (RRP £14.99), Traditional Fan Trellis – a fine sawn trellis, 61cm height x 180cm width, (RRP £14.99), Heavy Duty Fan Trellis – a sturdy fan trellis, 66cm height x 183cm width, (RRP £12.99).

The stand is supplied with pre-fixed merchandising header cards and priced shelf edgers.

For more information contact: Forest Garden ltd

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A FATHER-AND-SON garden design team from West Bridgford will take centre stage at BBC Gardeners’ World Live this week.

Creative Roots, based in Portland Road, is one of four winners of Metamorphosis – a garden design competition – and will get to showcase its designs in front of a large audience.

1. ​

   Innovative: Above, garden designers Neil and Keith Sutcliffe. Below, the garden that Creative Roots are building for the BBC Gardeners’ World Live show this week.

2. ​

Keith Sutcliffe, who runs Creative Roots with his son Neil, will be challenged to create the garden designed by Neil out of a set list of materials and plants at the show.

Keith has over 30 years of building experience and is a trained stonemason as well as a skilled bricklayer.

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His garden will be 6x6m in size and will receive approximately £6,000 worth of materials plus funding of £3,000 for plants and associated costs.

Featuring three waterfalls, its theme will be “back to nature”.

Keith, who is building the garden, said: “Neil entered the competition with his design without me knowing and I was very surprised when he told me we were one of the winners.

“It’s great and a prestigious competition, so we are very happy to be here.

“Our theme is about getting back to nature and working with materials to see how man has had an impact on nature.

“We want to take this success and see how far we can go.”

Cleve West, multiple Best in Show designer at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, is ambassador for the competition this year.

He said judging the entries to the Metamorphosis category was difficult.

He said: “It was a very tough decision to make as the quality of the competition entries was very high. The four winning designs really stood out for their innovative use of the materials, depth in design and clever use of space in a relatively small 6x6m garden.”

The show will be running at the NEC in Birmingham from tomorrow until Sunday.

Improving the healthcare provision in Welwyn Garden City and the surrounding areas, the new QEII Hospital has been designed as a four-storey facility, which will house 8,542 square metre clinical and community space. Upon completion, the new QEII healthcare facility will provide a local AE, outpatient, diagnostic and therapy services.

Aspiring for BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating, the sustainable design features of the facility include solar panels, a green roof, air source heat pumps, and the use of natural ventilation to reduce energy consumption.

The new facility is being constructed adjacent to the existing operational QEII Hospital. The construction work has started on the site in April 2013, and is scheduled to complete in spring 2015.

7 June 2013
| By Mark Wilding

Gillespies-designed sub-tropical garden will sit atop Rafael Vinoly’s tower

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Learn about and create a garden that is becoming popular across the globe.

Posted on June 7, 2013 by Dixie Sandborn, Michigan State University Extension

African Kitchen Gardens, or Keyhole Gardens, have become very popular in the world of gardening.  This garden design originated in Africa and was located near the cooking area, therefore giving it the name African Kitchen Garden.

The original design was an attempt from humanitarian charities to help families in impoverished countries with poor soil, hot weather and little access to water create a more sustainable gardening system. Gardening can empower families to grow their own vegetables and take control of their personal nutritional needs.   Many organizations taught school children how to construct the gardens from recycled materials, as well as grow nutritious vegetables for their families. Michigan State University Extension will be going through these simple steps to create your own African Kitchen Garden.

The basic design is a circle that is six feet in diameter, raised to about waist height, with a compost basket in the center of the circle and a pie shaped, notch-like cut away.

The outside wall of the garden can be constructed from any type of material that will hold the soil in, such as rocks, bricks, bamboo, boards or just about anything that you like.

The compost basket can be made from woven wire, sticks or other materials. Generally the basket is approximately 1 to 1 1/2 feet in diameter and extends above the center of the bed; it will be used to hold the composting materials in the center of the garden. The basket holds kitchen waste and, when watered, will carry nutrients from the waste to the rest of the garden.  The original garden plan in Africa would be for the basket to use gray water from other household chores such as washing food cooking utensils.

In recent years this design has become popular throughout the world. It is attractive because it can be intensely planted to maximize the amount of vegetables in a small area. Mulching is used to conserve water, but this type of planting technique does not need added fertilizers and can be adapted to meet the needs of the gardener.

There are many websites devoted to African Kitchen or Keyhole garden design.  Send A Cow is a great resource because it shows a young girl building a Keyhole garden in Uganda.    Keep in mind these garden designs and principles would make a great addition to your garden right here in Michigan.

Search the web for other great design options to begin your very own Keyhole garden.

This article was published by Michigan State University Extension. For more information, visit http://www.msue.msu.edu. To contact an expert in your area, visit http://expert.msue.msu.edu, or call 888-MSUE4MI (888-678-3464).

If I could download any designer’s brain into mine, I would tap the head of award-winner Betty Lou Phillips. I would like to mainline her design sense, her eye, her sensibility, her shopping acumen, heck, I’d even like her wardrobe.

But you and I just got the next best thing.

Phillips, also the author of the most sumptuous design books you could ever lust over –just check out “French Impressions,” “Inspirations from France Italy” and “The French Connection” – has her approach in a how-she-does-it design guide: “Interiors by Design,” just out from Gibbs Smith Publishers.

Her 13th book is the first one in which the Dallas designer takes readers behind the soie curtains of her gorgeous spaces and explains how she pulls it off.

In the 114-page, binder-style book, Phillips channels hundreds of tips and design principles. She puts her finger on the elusive magic that great spaces have.

Tab dividers separate photo-filled sections that focus on design secrets of color, fabric, furniture, lighting, window treatments, rugs, art and more. The three-ring binder feature lets users add pages for their own project plans.

When Phillips sent me her book, she included a note explaining that she wrote it because of the changing industry. One in which, thanks to the Internet, far more “fledgling decorators” are creating “striking settings on their own.”

Although some “design aficionados will still leave the task to the professionals,” she wrote, “the Web has been a game changer.”

So she offers some rules of the road, so we fledglings have more to go on than unschooled intuition.

As I read through each section of “Interiors by Design,” I found good foundational pointers (don’t start unless you have a plan), along with many maxims that were complete news to me and some worthy of repeating. Here’s a sampling:

New (to me) notions

• Patterned sofas distract from the people sitting on them.

• Don’t push your chairs up to the table. Unless you want a furniture showroom look, pull chairs back about 12 inches. (When I read this, I immediately jumped up and pulled my dining-table chairs out. She was right, of course.)

• Skip the extra-long sofa. Seldom do more than two people sit on a sofa at once, so opt for one that is 84 inches, not 96.

• Curtains should brush the floor, or “break” with an inch and a half to spare. Puddles are passé. But curtains should never stop short of the floor.

Tips that bear repeating

Pick paint last: Because you have boundless paint colors to chose from, focus on the basics first: fabric, furniture, floor colorings. Then pick paint.

Fabrics should meld, not match: The same shade of blue applied everywhere is going to such extremes that the room will end up looking forced. “And a contrived look is taboo in design circles,” she says.

Seek harmony, not conformity: “Dismiss any thoughts of buying a bedroom ‘suite’ or a so-called dining room ‘set,’ ” she says. And rather than matching five-piece place settings, mix compatible patterns.

Don’t cheap out on case goods: Buy beds, dressers, sofas, tables and chairs to last. Save up and pay more for well-crafted pieces made of durable kiln-dried, hardwood frames (oak, elm, hickory, ash or maple) and eight-way, hand-tied construction on sofas and chairs. “Nowadays a throwaway mindset is passé,” Phillips writes, “though repurposing existing furniture is not.”

Make a space interesting and approachable: Passementerie – French for trim and tassels – rouses interest and can make a space more approachable by softening sharp edges. “Without looking as if it’s trying, fringe adds a custom flourish to drapery, and mitigates hard edges on throw pillows while camouflaging seams and zippers, which are hardly chic.”

Details, details: “For some, beauty is rich colors, a savvy mix of fabrics and mellow old wood. … For others, it is the luxury of perceived comfort, interesting collections and easy elegance. But for those who find these are not quite enough, it is the subtle details. … To be sure, attention to minutiae has the potential of making the ordinary extraordinary.” And the same can be said for Phillips.

Jameson: marnijameson.com

If I could download any designer’s brain into mine, I would tap the head of award-winner Betty Lou Phillips. I would like to mainline her design sense, her eye, her sensibility, her shopping acumen, heck, I’d even like her wardrobe.

But you and I just got the next best thing.

Phillips, also the author of the most sumptuous design books you could ever lust over –just check out “French Impressions,” “Inspirations from France Italy” and “The French Connection” – has her approach in a how-she-does-it design guide: “Interiors by Design,” just out from Gibbs Smith Publishers.

Her 13th book is the first one in which the Dallas designer takes readers behind the soie curtains of her gorgeous spaces and explains how she pulls it off.

In the 114-page, binder-style book, Phillips channels hundreds of tips and design principles. She puts her finger on the elusive magic that great spaces have.

Tab dividers separate photo-filled sections that focus on design secrets of color, fabric, furniture, lighting, window treatments, rugs, art and more. The three-ring binder feature lets users add pages for their own project plans.

When Phillips sent me her book, she included a note explaining that she wrote it because of the changing industry. One in which, thanks to the Internet, far more “fledgling decorators” are creating “striking settings on their own.”

Although some “design aficionados will still leave the task to the professionals,” she wrote, “the Web has been a game changer.”

So she offers some rules of the road, so we fledglings have more to go on than unschooled intuition.

As I read through each section of “Interiors by Design,” I found good foundational pointers (don’t start unless you have a plan), along with many maxims that were complete news to me and some worthy of repeating. Here’s a sampling:

New (to me) notions

• Patterned sofas distract from the people sitting on them.

• Don’t push your chairs up to the table. Unless you want a furniture showroom look, pull chairs back about 12 inches. (When I read this, I immediately jumped up and pulled my dining-table chairs out. She was right, of course.)

• Skip the extra-long sofa. Seldom do more than two people sit on a sofa at once, so opt for one that is 84 inches, not 96.

• Curtains should brush the floor, or “break” with an inch and a half to spare. Puddles are passé. But curtains should never stop short of the floor.

Tips that bear repeating

Pick paint last: Because you have boundless paint colors to chose from, focus on the basics first: fabric, furniture, floor colorings. Then pick paint.

Fabrics should meld, not match: The same shade of blue applied everywhere is going to such extremes that the room will end up looking forced. “And a contrived look is taboo in design circles,” she says.

Seek harmony, not conformity: “Dismiss any thoughts of buying a bedroom ‘suite’ or a so-called dining room ‘set,’ ” she says. And rather than matching five-piece place settings, mix compatible patterns.

Don’t cheap out on case goods: Buy beds, dressers, sofas, tables and chairs to last. Save up and pay more for well-crafted pieces made of durable kiln-dried, hardwood frames (oak, elm, hickory, ash or maple) and eight-way, hand-tied construction on sofas and chairs. “Nowadays a throwaway mindset is passé,” Phillips writes, “though repurposing existing furniture is not.”

Make a space interesting and approachable: Passementerie – French for trim and tassels – rouses interest and can make a space more approachable by softening sharp edges. “Without looking as if it’s trying, fringe adds a custom flourish to drapery, and mitigates hard edges on throw pillows while camouflaging seams and zippers, which are hardly chic.”

Details, details: “For some, beauty is rich colors, a savvy mix of fabrics and mellow old wood. … For others, it is the luxury of perceived comfort, interesting collections and easy elegance. But for those who find these are not quite enough, it is the subtle details. … To be sure, attention to minutiae has the potential of making the ordinary extraordinary.” And the same can be said for Phillips.

Jameson: marnijameson.com

Three Floridians will bring their design sense to HGTV’s reality competition show, HGTV Star, when it returns for its eighth season at 8 p.m. Sunday. Striving for their own show on the network are Crisermy Mercado, 27, of Miami; Anne Rue, 41, of Lake Mary in Central Florida; and Tobin Green 36, of Tampa; along with seven other interior designers who hope to impress judges with their designs and performance in meeting unexpected challenges.

Selected from a nationwide casting call, this was the first time Mercado and Green tried out. Rue tried out last season but wasn’t chosen.

A panel of HGTV personalities will decide each week who will move to the next round of the seven-episode series and who will be eliminated.

Miami’s David Bromstad, who will serve as host and mentor to the designers, was the winner in the show’s debut season, when it was called HGTV Design Star.

Rue, owner of an interior design business for 12 years and an avid watcher of the show, said at first it did not occur to her that she could have a chance at being a contestant on the show. Then, after auditioning unsuccessfully last season, the mother of three decided to try again, certain that she could not only get on this show, but that she could possibly win.

“I can tell you that it was mentally, physically and emotionally exhausting. However, I had the time of my life,” said Rue. “It’s nothing like a real design project at home that takes six months to a year to make happen. We’re doing things in two to three days. It’s an unbelievable experience.”

Mercado, who was born in New York and raised in the Dominican Republic, has had a love for designing since she was a child.

“I did not know I was falling in love,” Mercado said. “I thought I had this talent and I should develop it and here I am, competing amongst the best in the country.”

She also has a love of acting. Mercado started working on TV when she was 8 years old, singing and dancing in shows in the Dominican Republic. But she got her degree in architecture, and it was not until she went to her country’s first film festival that she decided to pursue acting seriously. She won a scholarship to studying acting in New York and landed roles on TV, including Una Maid en Manhattan on Telemundo.

“I haven’t moved from acting to design. I do both. My first love was always art and that was the reason I studied architecture,” Mercado said.

After moving to Miami with her husband, Mercado got a job as a showroom assistant. Now she hopes that being a contestant on HGTV Star will showcase her design style on a grander scale.

The Miami Herald caught up with Mercado between design projects to chat about her experience on HGTV Star:

Q. How did you get your start as an interior designer?

I’ve been an interior designer for about three years. I started out with architecture back home in the Dominican Republic. Then I got a scholarship from the president of my country to studying acting in New York. My husband and I decided to move to Miami, where I started working as a showroom assistant. I went from a design consultant to a showroom manager in that time.

Q. How was the HGTV Star audition?

My husband found it online, and he was like, “you have to go.” I’ve always been involved in TV in the Dominican Republic and he was like, “This is perfect.” I went ahead and auditioned and I think because of my background and because I am so young and fresh and different is why they chose me to be a contestant on HGTV Star.

Q. How do you define your style?

I’m a very fresh and bold girl and that’s basically how I define my style. I have Caribbean fusion in my work.

Q. How was the experience on the show?

You know how you sit down at home and you’re watching reality competitions and you just criticize people like “Oh my God, why would you do that?” or “You are stupid”? Well now I have a completely new respect for everyone that has been in a reality show because it is a lot harder than what it looks like when you are sitting on your sofa. But it was worth going through this whole experience and if I had the opportunity to do it again I would.

Q. You mentioned that you consider yourself a rookie. What do you mean by that?

It’s not by experience that I consider myself a rookie; I just know that there is still a lot I have to learn. So I just felt really young in the competition just because of time, not because of experience. I realized I wanted to do this since I was 9, so I feel like I am blooming.

Q. Anything you can tell us about what to expect?

You gotta watch it. … All I can say it was a great cast. If you go look at a picture of us you will see a very diverse cast and I think that’s something that HGTV wanted to accomplish.

What good are interior designers? That’s a good question.

The first thing that comes to mind is that he or she will make your home harmonious, aesthetically pleasing, with just the right color combinations, the right window treatments and all the cosmetic go-withs that are part of designing the interior of a home.

All that is true, but good designers go way beyond that. Most states have a certification process to help ensure that designers are trained, well-versed and continually learning the latest and the best there is to offer for your home, since maintaining a design license requires continuing-education hours.

So let’s see what exactly a designer does. He envisions plans and dresses spaces in ways that make them attractive and functional. A client’s lifestyle is incorporated into the home with items that complement the architecture. If the designer is brought into the project early enough, she can ensure that the details, like electrical outlets, doorway widths and heights and even air vents, fit into the scheme and design requested by the client.

There are two ways to go about hiring a designer. One is to pay an hourly fee, which ranges from about $100 to $500. If just help in arranging a room or selecting colors is what you are looking for, an hourly fee is the way to go.

Another choice, particularly if you are hiring the designer to help you from beginning to end, is to purchase the furnishings through him. The fee is included in the price of the furniture. If you were purchasing the items yourself, you wouldn’t pay any less. Now, at least, you have the benefit of a designer without extra cost.

There are several ways to find your perfect designer. You can browse through design magazines and find pictures of rooms that attract you, then search for the designer’s names in the credits. Hiring that designer works well if he is in your city but could get expensive if he’s from out of town, because you would also be responsible for travel and lodging expenses.

Another way is to interview designers in your area. After a bit of conversation and discussion about your needs and what the designer’s thoughts are, you and the designer will know if the fit is good – or not.

A third way is to call your local chapter of the American Society of Interior Designers for suggestions.

Friedmann: DesignQuest@aol.com

San Francisco, CA, June 05, 2013 –(PR.com)– Japanese garden designer Keizo Hayano and San Francisco-based garden designer Jenny Feuerpeil write short picture e-books about Japanese garden culture. Part 2 of their new series about signature plants of the Japanese garden (Japanese bamboo gardens, Japanese moss gardens, Japanese maples) has been released on May 31st 2013.

The e-book titled “Moss in the Japanese Garden” has 11 pages and 45 quality pictures of famous moss gardens. It introduces 15 different moss varieties with close-up photographs for easy identification and gives advice on how to grow a moss garden.

German Garden Designer Jenny Feuerpeil says: “Coming from Europe, I know many gardeners around the globe envy Japan’s warm and humid climate that provides the perfect conditions for establishing moss in a garden. In this e-book we give instructions on how to create a beautiful moss garden in climate zones different from Japan. There are also a lot of helpful tips on moss garden maintenance.”

This time the design duo received support from the gardener and plant lover Anika Riedl, who currently works in a Japanese garden company near Tokyo. She researched the most popular moss varieties in Japanese gardens, wrote the instructions for establishing moss in a Japanese garden corner and identified the moss in the pictures.

Chief Advisor of Real Japanese Gardens Keizo Hayano adds: “My recommendation for moss fans and Kyoto visitors is to visit Saiho-ji aka Koke-dera, the moss temple in Arashiyama and Ginkaku-ji, the Silver Pavilion in Higashiyama. Jenny (Feuerpeil) took the most amazing pictures of Japanese moss in these gardens. We had a hard time to select the best pictures for this e-book.”

Currently the website www.japanesegardens.jp features basic information, pictures and directions to around 90 gardens in Japan. To date, 12 eBooks about famous, secret and private Japanese gardens have been published. Another 3 eBooks have been released about typical elements of a Japanese garden – traditional fences and gravel patterns. The first e-book in the plant category is an introduction to Japanese bamboo.

Note to editors:
Providing reliable information to our readers is Real Japanese Gardens’ highest priority. Before writing an e-book, the team visits the garden and takes photos of the garden and its features. Up to 80% of the research is done using Japanese resources (books, journals and interviews) to stay as close to the Japanese garden tradition as possible.

Keizo Hayano is the owner and head designer of the Japan garden design studio Niwashyu in Shibuya, Tokyo (www.niwashyu.jp). He studied the fine arts at the Kyoto City College of Arts and loves small intimate gardens that soothe the soul. Member of the Japanese Association of Garden Designers.

Jenny is a German garden designer who came to Japan after leaving her job at a global IT company. She studied garden design in Chelsea, London and founded the garden design label Dendron Exterior Design (www.dendronexteriordesign.com).

In 2010, she decided to go to Japan to learn the Japanese garden tradition first hand as an apprentice in a garden maintenance company near Tokyo. She loves the rough texture of natural materials, the boldness of stone arrangements and dry landscape gardens.

Contact Information:
Real Japanese Gardens
Jenny Feuerpeil
+1-415-513-6106
Contact via Email
www.japanesegardens.jp

http://www.pechakucha.org/presentations/real-japanese-gardens

Read the full story here: http://www.pr.com/press-release/495345

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