Image via Wikipedia
Vertical gardening is not a new idea. Garden writers have for many years suggested that people with small courtyard gardens should make the most of the space by growing climbing plants up the walls and fences bounding their property. But new forms of vertical gardening are emerging. Some like the “green wall” covered with ferns are dramatic, but not really practical for the average home garden. Others can be both creative and highly practical serving both as a feature and useful to cover items that you wish to hide like unsightly sheds, air-conditioning units, utility poles, and fences. In her piece in the Philadephia Enquirer, Virginia A. Smith describes how “Vertical plants and props also earn their keep as architectural statements and problem-solvers. They offer what designers call “exclamation points” in otherwise flat landscapes”. Read more..
If you have suffered from the brown marmorated stink bug, help may be at hand. Research at at a laboratory in Newark is developing a possible biological control. A tiny parasitic wasp may be able to nip the stink bug explosion in the bud by preying on stink bug eggs. Read more..
I always enjoy reading about garden designers and I found these two articles about two very different characters. Lancelot Capability Brown the sixteenth century landscape designer revolutionised the landscapes of the great English estates. He removed flowerbeds surrounded by box hedging and what he considered fussy objects that restricted the view. He invented the ha-ha as a replacement for the wall so that you could have an uninterrupted view of the landscape. Read more..
Diarmuid Gavin, a 46 year old from Dublin hates neatly clipped lawns, clusters of pretty roses and a few bumpy rockeries thrown in for good measure. He has built a reputation on his experimental gardening style – and the forceful personality that’s seen him clash with colleagues in the gardening world. “To be honest, a lot of people in the business tend to get along better with their plants and flowers than they do with other people” he says. Read more..
And finally two giant veg stories. First 9-year-old Austin Davis from Charleston, W Virginia and his twenty-one pound cabbage and Panhandle man Sam Pittman with his 8-pound turnip. No picture for this one and it was too tough to eat!
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It’s much easier to understand when you put it that way!