Want to know how automatic gates work? In this article, we'll dig into the nuts and bolts of the humble electric gate and the different types of gates available.
Helen Dillon is a conjurer, mixing plants, colors and shapes in seemingly random combinations. NPR's Ketzel Levine recently visited Dillon's grand garden in Dublin and has a report for Morning Edition. See photos of the garden and read Dillon's insights.
HGTVRemodels' Landscaping Planning Guide offers tips for choosing the right materials for the pathways and outdoor spaces. Learn more on HGTV.com.
Want to know how automatic gates work? In this article, we'll dig into the nuts and bolts of the humble electric gate and the different types of gates available.
Mary has a trick for keeping the squirrels out of her bird feeders...which is great because the birds LOVE her beautiful garden!
8000 SF Single Family House in Brookville, NY.
uploaded scan from book so I can blog it (it's one of my top inspirations)
Mary has a trick for keeping the squirrels out of her bird feeders...which is great because the birds LOVE her beautiful garden!
HGTVRemodels' Landscaping Planning Guide offers tips for choosing the right materials for the pathways and outdoor spaces. Learn more on HGTV.com.
A drab garden space can be transformed into a personal retreat in just a few steps.
MAJOR PERSONAL CONFESSION: Well, it happened. I got caught up in the Royal Baby fever along with the rest of the world. I haven’t really been that into the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge – even their wedding didn’t engage me much... Some of my books on the Royal Family, heavy on Diana. Obsessed much? As you can see, for years I was obsessed – for lack of a better word – with Princess Diana and the Royal family. Obsessed. I read, and still own, quite a lot of books written about Diana. This mania started before her and Charles wedding and continued after her death. It was always such a fascinating question for me - was their marriage a partnership of love or of duty? I really wanted to know if they were truly in love or were they just faking it for the public? Once the truth finally came out and then poor Diana passed away, my interest in the Royal family slowly waned. Their wedding day. The final straw came with Prince Charles' marriage to Camilla - "the Rottweiler" (Diana's nickname for her competition) - I just didn't care for those two. It made me ill that another woman had taken Diana’s rightful place. Couple that with all the revelations of how a 19 year old girl had been used and abused by the Royals just so she might give them an heir, I literally closed the book on them. The Happy Mother So, when Prince William got married - I couldn't watch a lot of it, especially with Camilla playing the role of the happy mother. But then, for some reason, I started getting all excited about the baby. I started reading about the Royals again, which then got me started reading about Diana again. I reread Andrew Morton’s book – the newer edition with the actual transcripts of Diana’s taped recordings, and then I started watching old videos about her. This week, I made Elisabeth sit with me while we watched The Queen with Helen Mirren again. Such a great movie! And then, because I'm becoming all obsessed again, I started thinking about where the Royal Family lives- their castles and mansions, their country estates and the townhouses in the city. I’ve really had my head in the sand for a long while, so looking at images of Highgrove, Kensington Palace and Clarence House seemed fresh to me. I thought it might seem fresh to you as well! So – in honor of the new baby boy – (was I ever wrong about the sex!) – let’s take a few days and study some English Royal interior design! I have found some really beautiful photographs this past week to share. Enjoy!! HIGHGROVE One of the most interesting English gardens is at Highgrove – Prince Charles’ country house. While looking at estates to buy, one selling point for the Prince was that Highgrove was located a short 15 minute drive from Camilla Parker-Bowles’ own country house, which was perfect for carrying on their clandestine love affair. Another selling point was the trees, especially a 200 year old Cedar of Lebanon which shaded the back side of the house. He bought the 1794 estate right before he married in 1980 and he asked Diana, whom he was just dating at the time, to decorate it for him. He told her he liked her taste. She thought it was very strange that he would be asking her, so very young and barely a steady girlfriend, to spearhead the décor. Nevertheless, Diana hired Dudley Poplak, a designer from South Africa, whom had worked for her mother and sisters and a host of upper crust English families, to do the job. His aesthetic was the quintessential English Country Manor look. Besides Highgrove, Poplak also eventually designed their London home at Kensington Palace. After Charles and Diana’s divorce – Charles hired the designer Robert Kime to rid Highgrove of all of Poplak’s more feminine touches. In turn, Diana then rehired Poplak to come and refresh and redecorate Kensington Palace to erase her own memories of Charles. After Diana’s death, Kime was again hired by Charles to decorate Clarence House for himself and Camilla when they moved there following the passing of the Queen Mother, who had lived there for decades. There are so few pictures of the interiors of Highgrove. In fact I’ve only ever seen but a few. I wish they would open the house for a peek at Kime’s work. But in truth, it's not the interiors that make Highgrove important, rather it's the gardens that the Prince has created there. This is how Highgrove House looked when it was for sale by the son of a Prime Minister of England - Harold McMillan. The house was rather plain and it was totally exposed to the road. There was no privacy and that was a huge concern for the Prince, which he had to tackle first. As you can see, there were no gardens either. Here at the side of the house is the gorgeous 200 year old Cedar of Lebanon which was the main selling point of the house for the Prince (along with its proximity to Camilla Parker Bowles' country house.) Unfortunately, the majestic tree developed a fungus and was cut down a few years ago. During his stay at Highgrove, the Prince has planted over 10,000 trees. An early picture of the house shows the front wild flower meadow that had already been planted. The estate and the gardens are managed by the Prince to be sustainable and eco friendly. Everything is reused and organic - in the house and outside it. Pest control is natural - by predators. Rain water is collected for irrigation. Raw sewage from the estate is filtered through a series of plants and reeds and is then reused on the property. There is a walled kitchen garden where some nearly extinct fruit and vegetables varieties are grown. In this photograph, the facade of the house had not yet been changed. Over the years, the Prince added balustrades, shutters, a pediment and classical pilasters to the house to soften its exterior. A one story annex was also added for staff. Here you can see the difference in the facade with the pediment, the pilasters, the balustrade and shutters. Besides Highgrove House, the Prince's Duchy of Cornwall also owns a large nearby farm. . It's amazing how much prettier the exterior is now with addition of the classical elements. The house seems like it has always looked this way. The front gravel drives circles around. I love the front porch and portico. A view at sunset. The house is quite modest when compared to the Queen's country estate - Windsor. The big question is - when the Prince becomes King, will he turn over Highgrove to Prince William and move to Windsor? Or will he stay here instead? A watercolor that shows the layout of the garden and house. One of the first gardens planted was this one at the side of the house. The great gardener the Dowager Marchioness of Salisbury helped the Prince at first. She designed the hedges around the property to shield the house and created this rose garden with a sundial at its center. The garden later was changed into a black and white theme, and still even later, more colors were added by the new gardener Debbie Goodenough. One the most spectacular gardens installed by the Prince leads off the back side of the house. It's the Thyme Walk with the large golden yew bushes that are trained into strange shapes. Here is a very early photograph of the Thyme walk garden when the yew bushes were not shaped. The yews were one of the only garden elements that came with the house. The Prince was advised to cut them down, but he refused and ended up creating the most iconic garden at Highgrove based on these yews. And another early view when the yew bushes were first being clipped into their wonderfully odd shapes. Leading into Thyme Walk is the Terrace Garden that is off the Prince's office. Here French doors are held open to the Terrace by a pair of blue and white garden seats. This is one of the few interior pictures of the house published, though it's not even an interior! The prince explains that once he was settled into the house he realized how flat the land was - and thus, the gardens needed to have vistas, a place for the eye to travel along. Many of his gardens are built along sight lines, such as this one. A close up of the beautiful fountain at the Terrace Garden that leads to the Thyme Walk. Gorgeous. At the Terrace Garden, the great Cedar of Lebanon was cut down a few years ago after it developed a fungus. In its place the wooden pavilion was erected over the stump. The Wooden Pavilion from the other side of the garden. A close up the structure with the hole at the top that will allow plant growth to come through it. One branch remains from the cedar which is seen to the left of this structure. Winter view of the Terrace Garden and the Wooden Pavilion. In this beautifully atmospheric photograph, you can see the two matching garden summer houses that sit on each side of the Terrace Garden. The Cedar of Lebanon is still alive here. The Terrace Garden leads to the Thyme Walk, the most popular and well recognized garden at Highgrove. The hornbeams planted around the yews are still quite young in this photo. This is the view taken from the Prince's bedroom window. A rare photograph of the only landscape that came with the house - the pudding balls - or yellow yews. From this boring design, he created a masterpiece with the Thyme Walk. This looks like a late fall view of Thyme Walk. Notice you can see the blue and white garden seats at the French door!! A more recent view of the Terrace Garden and the Thyme Walk in the back. Again, the two charming summer houses are seen here. The hornbeams have finally grown out and display a very rectangular shape when seen from above. Here in this Google Maps view, you can see the hornbeams - how rectangular they are in shape, along with centered square shapes. The yellow yew bushes are barely seen. The shapes are quite amazing. The gardeners were told to let their imaginations run wild when they were clipping the shapes. Something to try at your own house if you have a large yard? There are over 20 varieties of the scented thyme planted in the stone walkway. The yews are over six feet tall and this photograph gives you an idea of how tall they must look when actually walking down the path. This is the only photograph I could find of the small garden with a water fountain that sits at the end of the Thyme Walk. Past the small enclosed garden with the water fountain that lies at the end of the Thyme Walk is this statue, which opens onto the Meadow Garden. The Meadow Garden is another popular part of Highgrove. The meadow lies from the front of the house to the side. It blooms in spring and in summer is mowed down by hungry sheep. The meadow changes over time. Different combinations of seed have been developed over the years. A recent photograph of the Meadow Garden. Sheep are brought in to cut the meadow down during the summer. Leading up to the side Rose Garden, a pathway is mowed in the Meadow Garden. Love the wisteria growing on the house. The seeds from the various meadows are sold at the Highgrove shop and online. Over the years the meadow has changed and evolved. Order the mix here. A close look at the gates the lead to the Rose Garden with the Prince of Wales Feathers heraldic badge atop it. Notice how the hedges have half ovals cut into the tops of them. Throughout the gardens there are surprises everywhere, like this small gate. Past the Meadow Garden is the Walled Garden where vegetables and fruits are grown, organically, of course. Many of these apples are quite rare and some were near extinction. The brick wall warms in the sun and provides needed heat for the pears and apples that climb on it. The Italian Fountain in the Walled Garden. Seen from above the Walled Garden's beds were designed to look like the Union Jack flag. Close up of the moss covered fountain. Throughout the gardens are busts and statues. Many busts are of the Prince, given as gifts, and some are of people that he admires. Here is a statue of Prince Charles beloved dog Tigger. See, he does have a heart after all! Prince Charles hired the famous gardeners Julian and Isabel Bannerman to create the moody and dark Woodland Garden, along with the Victorian Stumpery. Here the team designed two temples out of green oak, made to look like stone. The Stumpery is filled with....stumps and hostas and ferns which grow from the stumps themselves. When Prince Philip first saw this garden he asked Charles "when are you going to set fire to this lot?" But, the recycling of tree stumps which create new life is at the heart of his gardening principles. The stumps come from felled trees and the rare hurricane. Flowers growing in the dark garden. In the background is a tribute to the Queen Mother. The swampy, boggy pond in the Woodland Garden with a stone fountain where gorgeous gunnera leaves grow out of the top. Another view of the boggy pond. The little princes William and Harry played in this treehouse which originally was the Prince's from Hollyroodhouse. Inside the treehouse is a tea set. A newer garden is the Carpet Garden, designed by the Prince whose inspiration came from Turkish carpets found inside Highgrove House. The garden was first exhibited in the prestigious 2001 Chelsea Flower show. It was then dismantled and permanently installed at Highgrove. Another early garden is the Cottage Garden which has evolved over the years. The catalpa tree found here was given to the Prince for the 50th birthday by Elton John. A new addition to the Cottage Garden is this summer house designed by the Prince and built at Highgrove using felled oak trees. To the east of the house is the Arboretum built in 1999 to mark England's Millennium. There stands a Cotswold stone tiled roof cottage where the Prince goes to water color and think. No one is allowed in this house except for him. It's the only place on earth where he has complete and utter privacy. Another view of the Arboretum Garden taken during fall. The Orchard House were events are held and guests are entertained. For many years, the house and gardens were a favorite family getaway from London. Eventually Prince Charles started spending most of his time here alone - away from Diana and close to Camilla, who acted as the hostess of Highgrove, years before the divorce. There was even a swimming pool for the boys - charmingly set behind a picket fence. There are very few published photos of the inside of Highgrove House- unfortunately! After the divorce, Prince Charles hired Robert Kime to come and redecorate everything that Diana's designer Dudley Poplak had installed. Gone were all the pastels and instead the more masculine vibe from Kime took over. In this small picture from a video, you can see Prince Charles study. The French doors open to the Terrace Garden which leads to the Thyme Walk. This is where the doors are held open by the blue and white garden seats. I'm sure that the curtains are a Kime fabric, but I can't get a close enough view to see it in order to name it. In this awful photograph - you can see the sofa, typically Kime, with an ethnic array of fabrics installed on it. Beautiful oil above the sofa. From this video, it looks like the decor is typical English Country Manor. Lots of blue and white porcelains with ethnic fabric and linen prints. There are oil paintings on the yellow walls and Oriental carpets on the floors. On his messy desk, he uses baskets to hold his papers. This terrible photograph from another video was taken in aaa ground floor room. This room is pretty awful looking. Not sure what that wall hanging is???? But the bones of the room are lovely with the paned window door, stone fireplace, and wood floors. But in this closeup of the curtains - so exciting! Robert Kime's Tree of Life fabric hangs in the window. I love this fabric - here shown in small, medium and large detail. And it is online, if you wish to have your designer order it for you HERE. This linen fabric is based on an original 17th century Edwardian specimen. You know the old adage - if you have to ask how much Kime's fabrics are, you can't afford them. Yikes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They are expensive!!!!! Still, it gives me a tiny thrill to know that Prince Charles and I like the same fabric. Unless Camilla picked it out and then - well, forget it! I hate it!!! I had originally planned to show more royal residences in this story, but it just got too big. So...bear with me. I'm going to spend a little time and break the stories up a bit. I hope you enjoyed this first installment on Highgrove House. As for the new baby! How many guessed the sex right? I was totally wrong, though I did say Kate looked like she was carrying a boy. Now just waiting to see how wrong I was on the name! To me, the baby looks exactly like Queen Elizabeth. I got the giggles looking at the new baby - he really looks like his great-grandmother! Don't believe me? Look here: I mean - dead ringer. The Windsors must have some strong genes - which obviously they do! The Queen looks exactly like another great grandchild - her son Prince Edward's daughter Lady Louise. Lady Louise on the left and her great grandmother Queen Elizabeth at the same age on the right. Dopplegangers! All I can say is I'm glad I don't look like my great grandmother!!
uploaded scan from book so I can blog it (it's one of my top inspirations)
I am having a moment here with Shirley Alexandra Watts. I am completely fascinated and intrigued by her work. She specializes in “cutting edge designs, combining plantsmanship, innovative materials and foraged urban archeology. She believes gardens can reuse, reinvent and reflect contemporary culture.” Here is a very nice before and after…and also a couple of […]
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HGTVRemodels' Landscaping Planning Guide offers tips for choosing the right materials for the pathways and outdoor spaces. Learn more on HGTV.com.
The ultimate Nashville city guide when you are only looking for the best. Find the best restaurants, boutiques, services and shopping in Music City!
Lines are all around us in photography. Conscious use of line can add depth or dynamism to your composition. Let me show you what I mean. Take a look at the following image: It’s an okay landscape. l like it, but it’s nothing special. Maybe what it lacks is a sense of depth. Now compare […]
Jo and I try out the exercise machines on Bratislava's new Danube river promade - a real boost for the way you can enjoy the city and the river. The perennial revolution marches on! The Czechs and Slovaks are now doing research into public use of perennials, very much inspired by the German randomised mixing technique. Extremely interesting afternoon at the Landscape Dept. of the Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra. Jo worked at Bratislava Comenius Univ. from 1993-5, so we now all about alcoholic Stalinist heads of department, reinforced concrete buildings , dead hand of Marxism-Leninism exams etc, etc. So delighted to find lovely new building, ditto perennial border, ditto prof, and young staff well clued up on all the German research, on Oudolf, and ‘the Sheffield school’. On the subject of profs. a sure sign of age is when the professors start to be younger than you are. Reading Prof. Hallova’s research I realise that she’d brought up an issue none of the rest of us have ever considered – that plants engage in chemical warfare through ‘allelopathy’ amongst themselves and that this impacts on planting combinations, so for eg. nepeta and euphorbia suppress the growth of asters and geraniums. I immediately think of all the Euphorbia cyparissias I let rampage in my borders. Fascinating! I think I should set up some trials back home this winter and really see if it is an impact we should really worry about in a practical sense. Perennial beds in every town I drove through! Plus trusty Renault Kangoo Given that it's a long time since I’ve driven round Austrian roundabouts it is just amazing to see how much perennials (in the 40-60cms height range) are used in traffic islands and roadside environments. Really just about every place I have driven through in Oberösterreich seems to. Wunderbar! A misty, soggy, chilly stomp around some dry meadow habitat near Mikulov in Czechia, Scabiosa ochroleuca and Aster linosyris flowering away in profusion. Sabine Plenk (a colleague from Vienna’s BOKU) and I agreed it was a ‘second spring’ effect as autumn rains re-moisten very thin stony soils. Nice to see the local flora (Pannonian-Pontic) used in the grounds of the castle in town in an ornamental way. Not so sure about the monstrous Christmas tree in the town square and all the artificial snow – but it turned out to be a film set. Made me freeze just looking at it. Dialectic of locally native dry meadow plants with box parteer at Mikulov Castle, CZ. More soggy foggy in Austria, can’t see the mountains! Furchtbar! Schade! However thinking long-tmer garden visiting in Austria is looking up. There is a new guidebook, published by Callwey Verlag and based on the very thorough Gärten Reiseführer for Germany. Lots of really rather nice sounding Privatgarten open too – how soon can I get back to check them all out? Only managed Linz Bot. Gdn. (good, some nice mature rarely-seen shrubs) and Christian Kreß’s nursery – Sarastro – at Ort-in-Innkreis. FAB, FAB, FAB. If this nursery were outside Guildford, you’d be blown away by it. Its not just plants, its really funky architectural salvage, kinky walls, alpines grown in all sorts of weird rubble. Its Berlin grunge meets Alpine Garden Society. Its cool. Ain’t nothing like it back home. Forget the Sleazyjet flight to ‘Vienna’ (in reality Bratislava). Get the car out – the GB sticker, the green card, the ferry/chunnel ticket, the headlight deflectors, and thrash down the autobahns (yes, you really can drive as fast as you like) and load the car up with plants. There’ll be loads here you’ve never seen before. And while you about it you can load up with Austrian wine, all of it totally gluggable and varieties like Grüner Veltliner you never find amongst the Chard and SauviBlank in Sainsbury’s, and the time spent on the autobahn will feel like its worth it. I did one better, stocked up with Slovak wine at the Nitra Tesco – just as good and miles cheaper. Stuff the Dordogne, up the Danube!
Beautifully structured with swirls and curves, this enchanting outdoor bench offers gorgeous style with durable construction. The cast-iron frame offers long-lasting use while the curves and lines dance gracefully for a timeless appearance.
SCIENTIFIC NAME: Dahlia variabil LIGHT PREFERENCE: Sun. PLANT HEIGHT: 40-60". PLANT SPACING: 9-12". HARDINESS ZONES: Annual. Dahlias may be perennials, tender perennials or annuals, depending on the climate zone you live in. In colder climates, a bit of extra care allows you to grow dahlias in the garden year after year. 1. Method 1 Start by taking two wet paper towels and placing the dahlia seeds flat on one. Cover the dahlia seeds with the other paper towel. Place the paper towels and seeds inside a zip lock bag. Lay the zip lock bag flat on the top of your refrigerator. Leave the seeds for 3-5 days. After that time, start checking the bag daily for signs of germination. Once the seeds have germinated, carefully plant the seedlings in a seed tray. Place the tray of seedlings under grow lights. I check the seeds starting at day 3 and plant the ones that have germinated. I then continue to check daily for about 2 weeks for germination. After that point, I toss the ones that have not germinated 2. Method 2 Start by spreading potting soil mix in a low, flat tray. Potting soil can be purchased at any garden center, please purchase the plain, cheap potting soil without the added fertilizers. Stay away from any pre-fertilized potting soils such as the Miracle-Gro type brands. Sprinkle your dahlia seed over the top of the soil. Then lightly cover with potting soil. Lightly water so that soil is damp and continue to water lightly keeping the soil damp during sprouting. Sprouting should occur within a 7 to 10 day period. DO NOT OVER WATER, OR KEEP SOIL SOAKING WET. Start them in 70+ degree temperatures and a brightly lit area. They should be kept in these conditions throughout germination, they do not need any additional light, other than what Mother Nature gives us during the daylight hours. Keep in mind that unlike vegetable seed, dahlia seed will not all sprout the same day; germination will occur over several days. The usual success rate in dahlia seeds is about 75% success.
Bottom heat is used to propagate plant cuttings to keep the top of the cutting dormant and...
Misunderstood, and much maligned, Japanese maples for southeastern gardens prove themselves hardier in the southern Atlantic states than you may suspect.
Macro shoot at the Hunter Region Botanic Gardens, Heatherbrae NSW Using manual extension tubes
