What I took away from FutureScape.....

I’m not talking about the sample piece of artificial turf courtesy of namgrass, which my ten year old creatively utilised in his Lego ‘Hagrid’s Hut’ installation, nor the Toro light pen, which is annihilating our house in its laser gun guise assumed by my youngest, but as a industry novice and inspiring garden designer I wanted to share a relatively serious comment on this event and its relevancy to my new career path.

FutureScape is in its infancy, the second annual single day event occurred on Nov 19^th 2013 at Kempton Park Racecourse, and given the exponential growth of visitors from its inauguration last year, it is sure to need re-housing in the near future. It is aimed at both designers and landscapers, delivering product stands, seminars and expert Q&A sessions across a variety of related subjects.

Community spirit still alive and well

Responding to a call for help from a designer I greatly admire, I dashed up the A1(M) to Peterborough last week. Chris Beardshaw had been invited by the DIY SOS Big Build Team ‘Children in Need Special’, to design a landscaped garden and playground surrounding a newly built community center that will primarily house the Little Miracles Charity, a parent led support group for families with children that have additional needs, disabilities and life limiting conditions.

The project commenced on Tue 17th Sept 2013 and by the time I arrived a week later the entire main building had been completed externally and the landscaping was in full swing although with completion due in three days, there was a significant amount of work still to do. So all checked in and hard hat adorned, I entered the site to get stuck in.

Main building and surround

Un Jardin Magnifique

It’s been a long break since my last post, I've been enjoying an actual summer with sun this year and given that our choice of family holiday was decidedly risky weather-wise, we were extremely lucky!

Our destination was a small chambre d’hôte in Saint Denis sur Sarthon, Normandy. What do you mean you've not heard of it? To be honest I’m glad, I think it’s generally and somewhat inappropriately only used as a stopover for those heading further south or a quick weekend break for Parisians, but as our fellow short staying guests frequently exclaimed as we told them we were staying for 10 days ‘I wish we’d booked our stay here longer,’ this house and location definitely deserve more time.

There’s no such thing as a small garden project!

I have a little lawn to the north facing front of my house. Over time I've added some box hedging to line the front path, some birch trees, that I intend to keep small with regular pruning, a few pale narcissus that pop up briefly in the spring and a Rosa banksiae 'Lutea' rambling rose which I'm currently training along the wall and adjacent fence.

Unfortunately the lawn is a bit of eyesore, with neglect leaving it overrun with moss and a brown colour suggesting a small infestation of Chafer grubs, and whilst I do like a bit of the old green blades, I’m still finding the area fairly featureless and so decided to attempt a little bit of simple landscaping to create a new central bed.