The original painting of this Asparagus Connovers Colossus is available to purchase from Gardening Products. A limited edition giclee print is also available on a range of acid free art quality substrates.
Forming part of the work by Leeds resident artist Andrew Breslin he has supplied artwork to the Royal Horticultural Society including magazine rights to this particular work.
Trees are a great places to locate art in your garden. RHS Hyde Hall has a series of these woodland nymphs in various strategic locations around the garden.
An explanation of each wood nymph is provided alongside the sculpture. Both enhance the experience of walking through the woodland glade and do not detract from the natural beauty of the trees.
Our sister site Gardeners Tips was contacted by Iron Stop the American makers of artistic garden spinners. I was interested enough to show case a couple of products on these pages. This is just a sample of the range of long lasting metal, powdered coated garden ornaments.
‘Iron Stop creates custom metal art and other ornamental features for the home and garden.’ Contact them through their web site Iron Stop .
Do you ever think you have ‘dropped a brick’ when you can’t remember the name of one of your plants?
Do you yearn for something other than a small plastic tag with a pencil markings you need to be a contortionist to read?
Perhaps you reuse the colourful nursery plant labels that are bleached by the sun in one season?
Well pictured here are 3 home made methods of visually recording your prized plants.
This bed is edged with old slates and other slates for name tags are painted white. The size was 2.5″ by 6″ and the short edge was capable of being wedged into the soil. I would need to practice my script writing to get the feel of this old style naming but the effect was in-keeping with this bed of plants.
Do not be fooled by the shape of these labels. As they say ‘a good big one beats a good small one any-day’. And these name tags were big as the Jardiniere was over 2′ tall so the name sticks were 3 feet plus. Not so obtrusive when well sunk into the garden but still visible without a microscope.
My favourite was the white brick (with the flat side). Other alternatives include engraved stones as labels, wooden tags and labels or aluminium diy labels from suppliers like Alitags.
The RHS has a web page of children’s projects to make fun labels, you just need a plant called ‘Blue Peter’
Some parts of the gardeners equipment need to be sterile to avoid passing on fungus and bacteria.
Thanks to the European community not mall disinfectants are approved for garden purposes but this is how I continue to work in the garden.
Disinfecting and Cleaning
Liberon Garden Furniture Cleaner is ideal for cleaning old, tired and dirty wooden garden furniture and natural decking.
Honey fungus can not be treated with disinfectant and needs to be dug out and burned.
Path Cleaning and Cleaners
Garden Disinfectants
Best Weed Killers
Wood Care
Fence Care
‘What are the little blue things in the compost of my bought houseplants?’ I have been asked. Well it is most likely that they are slow release fertilizer.
Uses of Slow Release Granules
Fertilizer Brands
Getting birds to visit and return to your garden can give you great pleasure. Food, safety and shelter are key features that will encourage wild life and birds in particular. A bird bath can be a useful and decorative feature.
Bird Food can be grown in the garden in the form of berries and seeds or supplemented by bird feeders, peanuts, fat balls and even bits of fruit.
Safety can be designed into the garden with hedgerows and cover plants.
Nesting Boxes for Birds
See also Gardening for Birds or read about trees and shrubs for birds on Gardeners tips
Instant Ponds can be created in your garden by purchasing a preformed molded pond like a big babies bath. They will have shelves at various heights on which to stand your water lilies or other aquatic plants. All you need to do is dig a suitable hole and drop in the empty pre-shaped pond.
Pond liners made from rubberised Butyl can be bought to create a pond of your own shape and design. Tips are available here.
Water Lilies
Flower Towers are something relatively new in the display of trailing plants.
Thompson Morgan supplied this photograph and have an advisory service for those interested in the ‘Maxi Tower’ large structure.
Classical Urns are still the best way of displaying clipped shrubs and topiary.
Hanging Baskets and window boxes have not changed greatly in design for many seasons. They now have better watering systems to keep the plants looking at their best.
Alpine troughs are a traditional method of displaying small plants that repay close examination. Troughs can be raised to eye level or used in parts of the garden where there is no suitable soil. Old sinks are also used for this form of display so look out in reclamation yards. See an old strawberry planter in use on Alpine containers.
For practical containers read Functional Containers
Leylandi Cypress can grow 4ft a year. That may not sound too much, but, once it gets going it can suddenly overwhelm a garden growing to a height of upto 80 feet.
This provides a long shadow over neighbouring gardens, restricting the plants that they can grow.
The Leylandi can also dry up neighbouring gardens. Firstly the tree takes up water, however, it also provides a large rain shadow depriving the soil of water. This can make it difficult to to grow anything in dry shade.
It is not particularly attractive. The Leylandi could be described as a useful utility plant. Good for screening the garden but hardly much to look at. When it is towering 50 feet over your garden covering it in a dense shade, it is hard to see any redeeming features in the plant.
If regularly pruned to a reasonable height (e.g. 2m – the height of a tall man), the Leylandi can do its job without annoying its neighbours.
If you are a keen gardeners and have a garden overshadowed by Leylandi that has been allowed to grow unchecked, you are probably quite disappointed that your gardening has this rather unwelcome problem.
The first port of call is to speak politely to your neighbours asking if you can agree to limits its height. It can be difficult to approach people, you don’t want to fall out with your neighbours, and we instinctively don’t like interfering in their property. However, remember that you do have a right to raise the issue because it is affecting your garden and property. To get the best response from your neighbour try doing the following.
Avoid a confrontational attitude. Don’t blunder round and start shouting that your garden is dying because of their trees. This is not a good idea. Try to find something else to speak to your neighbours, try and find a common cause over something, this makes them feel they are not just neighbours but friends. Here they are more likely to try and do you a favour.
In most cases, people may not prune the conifer simply because they don’t have time or don’t think about it. One option to leave open is to offer cutting it yourself or at least sharing in the costs of cutting it down. If this is a big hedge, it may be a bit much. But, it might be worth it, if you really want to cut it down. If you meet the neighbour half way it is much harder for them to refuse.
Legal Approach.
In 90% of cases a friendly approach should help to improve the situation. But, unfortunately, there may be cases where that isn’t sufficient and a neighbour refuses. In this case, it may be necessary to refer the situation to the council. You will need to provide evidence you have tried dealing with the issue privately. f the council deems the hedge excessive, they can ( under the anti-social behavior act 2003 ) order it to be reduced in height to two metres. Failure to comply with this order could mean a fine of £1,000.
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