Garden Living Direct BlogGarden living news in the UK

Any talented amateur gardeners out there who fancy taking their skills to the next level may wish to know that from this September London’s famous Kew Gardens will be the venue for teaching a new diploma from the London College of Garden Design (LCGD).

The diploma in garden design involves a year-long course and teaching will be centred at the Royal Botanic Gardens’ Orangery conference centre.

Speaking to Horticulture Week magazine, LCGD director of garden design studies Andrew Wilson explained that the college wished to combine the “inspiring” surroundings to be found at Kew Gardens with the centre’s excellent teaching facilities.

“We are very excited to be able to deliver our flagship diploma from Kew Gardens, one of the world’s leading botanical gardens as well as a haven for study,” he said.

“The course is attracting earlier enrolments this year and I am sure that our new location at Kew Gardens will add to the excitement for those starting a career in garden design.”

Horticultural students at Pershore College near Evesham revealed ambitious plans this week for an astrology-themed garden at the Spring Garden Show in May.

The garden aims to use garden furniture, landscaping and sculpture to mingle modern and rustic themes and create “a garden of elegant curves,” according to the Evesham Journal.

The garden will be 12m square and will feature seating and a central circular area surrounded by metal strips planted in the ground to represent the sun and its rays, as well as appropriate plants, plus a pool and sculpture – representing day and night. The HND students who are set to realise Jake Paloni’s garden design are excited by the opportunity to show off their skills.

They have split into three gardener groups – one to undertake the hard landscaping, one for the soft landscaping and a third for publicity and to drum up sponsorship.

The Spring Garden Show takes place on 12-15 May at the Three Counties Showground in Evesham.

Spring is definitely in the air at the moment, and a perfect time for even the most fair-weather gardener to get out there and take advantage of the lengthening days and warmer weather.

Early flowering perennial plants such as honeysuckle and primrose are beginning to show their true colours, while the snowdrops and crocuses are already flowering and the bulbs of many other plants are starting to show their faces in flowerbeds, pots and garden planters across the UK. Planters and window boxes are a particularly useful option for would-be gardeners without the space or time for a fully-fledged garden, helping to add colour and a touch of natural beauty to their home.

When using garden planters, a good tactic is to create a base of small evergreen plants before finding hardy perennials and other plants in your favourite colours, before choosing others to complement those colours. There is plenty of advice to be found in caring for your new plants, and it really is more simple than it may appear at first glance. Both the BBC and the Royal Horticultural Society provide a wealth of information online.

A top garden designer has urged gardeners to seize the initiative this summer and revamp their outdoor space.

Inchbald School of Garden Design visiting lecturer Michelle Wake said that many gardens were out of date and in bad need of bringing into the 21^st century.

This chimes in with a recent study by Ronseal, which found that 10 per cent of UK gardens still had Seventies features such as crazy paving, and another 10 per cent were living in the Nineties, with ostentatious water features and faux-antique sculptures.

Some 42 per cent of garden owners spent less than £100 each year on it, and updated it only every five years.

The first step in a redesign should be taking a long hard look at the garden and chucking out old-fashioned or kitschy pots and ornaments. Permanent features such as decking, gazebos or garden furniture should be cleaned and treated so that they look “as good as new,” Ms Wake said.

Storage is always an issue, and she said that a revamp was a great time to decide how to store garden tools, lawnmowers and other bulky items.

“People should think about putting in a quite substantial shed-come-garden room, or a pavilion, so you can have the storage space but use the space for something else as well,” she said.

Ms Wake also suggested that gardeners could pick up tips for garden furniture by looking at their local municipal park or public garden, and seeing how its gardeners used the space and included such features as benches, picnic tables and play areas.

A Chinese gardener has taken to extreme measures to prevent thieves from stealing his treasured flowers – resorting to the Dark Arts themselves.

Cheng Li, a keen amateur gardener who lives in the northern Chinese city of Urumchi, was enraged by the theft of his prized pomegranate flowers, and did not trust the authorities to apprehend the horticultural miscreants, so he hit upon a novel method of revenge.

The 53-year-old Cheng has placed a sign outside his apartment placing a curse upon the thieves, warning that somebody close to them will die every time that the pomegranate flowers burst into bloom.

“Whoever takes away my flowers is damned to witness a death in their family every time the flowers’ blossom,” warns the sign.

Cheng went even further when questioned by the local newspaper, adding: “Police will never catch them so my only hope is that the fates will punish them some day – with the help of my curse.”

However, the gardener’s neighbours are not pleased with the tactic, warning that Cheng is meddling with forces he does not understand.

“He may be upset but it is distressing us to have such a curse in front of our homes. He has gone too far,” one of them told the paper.

A recent poll by insurer NFU Mutual found that a third of gardeners in the UK have suffered some form of garden theft – usually of valuable gardening equipment or statues, garden furniture and barbecues.

NFU Mutual spokesperson Laura Wood said that the gardens are an increasing temptation to thieves due to the greater value of their contents. However, she recommends security measures such as stout shed locks and lights, rather than curses.

The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) published new research this week that shows what an “enormous impact” gardening has on the “wellbeing, learning and development” of children.

The RHS revealed that studies carried out as part of its Gardening in Schools – A vital tool for children’s learning programme had shown for the first time that participation in Gardening can improve a child’s happiness levels and boost their development. Preliminary results showed that children in schools that had some form of gardening as an activity were more “more resilient, confident and lived healthier lives.”

RHS director of science and learning Dr Simon Thornton Wood commented: “As the new coalition government considers a new approach to the primary curriculum, we hope they acknowledge the striking conclusions of our research and that gardens enable a creative, flexible approach to teaching that has significant benefits.”

“Schools which integrate gardens into the curriculum are developing children who are much more responsive to the challenges of adult life.”

The new report was commissioned by the RHS and carried out by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), which surveyed 1,300 teachers and visited 10 different schools from the heart of London to a Yorkshire village.

NFER highlighted the new “3 Rs” that gardening in schools helped to develop – “resilient,” “ready to learn” and “responsible” children. It said that these 3 Rs were most readily learnt when gardening was used as a teaching tool rather than just as an extra-curricular activity.

National Children’s Bureau chairwoman Gillian Pugh commented: “Not only does gardening provide opportunities for increasing scientific knowledge and understanding, and improving literacy, numeracy and oracy, but this report shows that it also improves pupils’ confidence, resilience and self-esteem.”