Some of the plants arriving are in 1500L pots and all have put in place by either crane or teliporter. Storage space at Chelsea is at a premium which means that when plants arrive they have to be shifted, moved, lifted, shunted, trollied, craned, pulled, dragged etc before they reach their final position. Its tough work but very rewarding at the same time. The comradery of our team is second to none with a mix of garden designers like myself, qualified carpenters,  fitters,  electricians, Scaffolders and volunteers.

They pryamid is really taking shape both outside and inside. Some pictures below of the pyramid from the outside and some progress from the  other garden designs.

Welcome to The Chelsea Flower Show

Diarmuid Gavin's Magical Pyramid

The Slide installed

The Slide installed

Joe Swifts Garden

Beautiful Garden Entrance

Contemporary Garden Design

Contemporary Garden Design

Some nice Garden Walling

Rockey Garden

Some more updates on the garden designs from Chelsea in a few days, when hopefully we will see alot of progress being made.

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Bamboo 

We are all familiar with bamboo as a garden plant. It is a perennial evergreen, one of the fastest growing plant and very useful to screen an area or as an ornamental feature in your gardens. However, bamboo shoots are edible and often used in Asian cuisine  (please avoid the shoots of the Giant Bamboo which contains cyanide). Bamboo is also used in Chinese Medicine to treat infections and healing. In Ayurveda the concretion found in the clums of bamboo stems are used as a tonic for respiratory disease and in construction, bamboo is used as scaffolding or building material in South-East Asia. Bamboo fibre has been used to make paper in China for centuries and as its fibre is so flexible,  it is turned into musical instruments, furniture or fishing rods.

Cotton 

Cotton is one of the world’s most important fibre plants, used tp make textiles for more than 2,500 years. There are four cotton species from which the modern crop is derived. The fibres used for textiles are long silky hair attached to the seeds which help to dispense the seeds by the wind.  One kilo of cotton contains about 200 million seeds hair but cotton seeds are also produce an edible oil used in the production of margarine.

Herbs & Spices

Fragrance and flavour can only be truly created by using the great variety of spices. Commonly used ones include garlic, onions, bay, carpers, fennel, coriander, mint, Juniper berries, rosemary, sage, mallow and rue. Many medical cure orignated in the Arabic world derived from a variety of plant spices.  The Bedouine have collected nearly 170 plant species to treat everything from colds and skin disorders to bytes and stings.

Aloe Vera

Aloe Vera originated in North Africa and has been used in herbal medicine since the beginning of the 1st century AD. Today extracts of the plant are used in the cosmetic and herbal industry, marketed as a rejuvenating, healing or soothing product. Aloe Vera gel is commonly used in gels, lotions, beverages although it has also toxic properties when taken too much.

Avocado

The Advocado is a large evergreen tree native to Central and South America.  The fruit is extremly nutritiousness, rich in protein, fat and oil.  The word ‘Advocado’ is Aztec and means the ‘fertile fruit’. Avocado leaves, bark skin or pit can be harmful to animals;. While not particularly popular, the avocado tree can be grown domestically and used as a house plant. The pit germinates in normal soil conditions or partially submerged in a container of water. In the latter method, the pit sprouts in four to six weeks, at which time it is planted in fertile soil such as potting soil. The plant generally grows large enough to be prunable; however, it does not bear fruit unless it has ample sunlight.

Coffee

Coffee plays a crucial part in many societies. Coffee berries which contain the coffee seeds (beans) are produced by several species of small evergreen bush. Once ripe, coffee berries are picked, processed, and dried. The seeds are then roasted to varying degrees, depending on the desired flavor. They are then ground and brewed to create coffee. Coffee can be prepared and presented in a variety of ways. 

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Some initial snaps below of day1 here at Chelsea. Lots of large specimen plants such as 9m tall bamboos, mature olive trees to name a few.

Natural Stone Walling

North & South Korea Garden (watchtower

9 meter bamboo

Mature Olive Trees

Beautiful Box Specimens

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Mowing

As the grass starts to grow you will need to start to mow your lawn. It is very important in early spring that you set the mowing height quite high taking no more that one third of the length of the plant off at a time, otherwise the lawn will become stressed. A little and often approach is better in spring. As the grass grows faster as we move further into spring increase the mowing frequency and gradually reduce the height of cut to give the desired finish.

Feeding

It is essential that you feed your lawn during spring. This gives the lawn the essential nutrients it needs over the spring period. The grass plants are growing rapidly at this time, and like any living thing, need the correct nutrients in the correct quantities in order to grow strong and healthy. Healthy plants mean a thicker, denser and greener sward.

Weeding

Controlling weeds in a new or existing lawn is vital to the health and overall appearance of the lawn. A beautiful smooth lawn gets most of its good looks from the fact that it is smooth and level with no weeds sticking up above the turf. You have probably mowed your lawn before only to have dandelions popping up above the grass a day later making it look like you need to mow already. A weed free lawn holds its good looks for several days if the grass is a monoculture with uniform growing heights.

Treatment of weed grasses

Undesirable weed grasses can appear in a lawn. They will be obvious as they will appear to be different to the rest of the grass sward. Grasses such as Annual Meadow Grass (Poa Annua) are endemic in the northern hemisphere; if you notice seed heads forming from pale ‘stalky’ plants then these are likely to be Annual Meadow Grass. If required these can be removed by cutting the plant out and removing the roots.  Annual Meadow Grass is very common inIrelandand the seeds will invade any bare ground.

The key to preventing weed grasses is a good maintenance regime. A vigorous, dense and healthy growing lawn will out compete many of the weed grasses. This can be achieved with regular feeding with a quality lawn food, regular mowing with a sharp mower and overseeding any thinner patches if necessary. During spring if Annual Meadow Grass seed heads are forming it can also help to use a mower which collects the clippings and therefore removes some of the seed heads.

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Green/Copper Beech was introduced to Ireland in the 18th century and has superb folage. As a hedge it is semi-decidous and its medium green leaves turn copper in autumn and then stay on throughout the winter. Shade tolerant, it is a low maintenance plant and ideal for a hedge which attracts wildlife.  Plants for heding are often selected for their ornamental qualities but there are also other aspects to consider. When planting, consider boundary hedges which can provide visual privacy or screen unsighly buildings. They can also be bushy or thorny to keep out intruders. In exposed areas, tree hedges can grow to a required height and then act as windbreaks.

‘Fagus Sylvatica‘ the common beech has oval  wavy-edged, when it comes to maintenance the best time to trim it, is in July or August, later in the year and you could easily damage it by frost. It is an outstanding garden hedge there is: equally outstanding in a fromal setting or as a stockproof country hedging. It is a beautiful plant and not appreciated enough! 

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Back Garden Before:

Back Garden After:
The garden design introduced some nice flowing curves into the garden. A granite cobble edge was used to create a border around the lawn and new sandstone patio area and also a new gravel path with sandstone stepping stones. We incorporated some trellis along the walls on both sides and planted some nice Honeysuckle and Clematis climbers which will eventually cling to the trellis and give some nice colour and screening to the walls. The old garden shed was dumped and we repositioned the new shed at the end of the winding gravel pathway.

Our clients budget for planting was low, however we incorporated some nice specimens, mixed shrubs with some herbaceous and grasses to give all year round colour. This has transformed an ugly garden into a great low maintenance garden space for the family to enjoy.

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With the increase of apartment living, balconies offer the only bit of personal space. While many developments provide green areas for people to sit out, few have proper gardens where residents can relax and get their hands dirty. Gardening in a small space is of course totally different but can be equally as fun. Here are few tips when designing your own apartment garden:

1. plant a mixture of flowers, vegetables and herbs of different heights which creates a creative disorder.

2. use trellises for privacy and protection from the wind. Many balconies are heigh up with a strong breeze going around. You could use a panel of fencing as well but a trellis allows you to plant a creeper as well.

3.  Welcome insects such as butterflies to your balcony by planting mallow and buddlejas.

4. create a herb garden in pots have your own thyme, basil, oregano and chives for your next dinner party. Tomatoes are also very impressive to your guests!

5. design a space where you can relax and enjoy the sun or read a book. A small chair or cushions on a bench are enough to invite for a cup of tea.

6. collect accessories and put your own personal stamp on it, antic terracotta pots, lanterns, baskets, etc.

7. to enjoy a variety of blooming flowers have busy lizzy, phlox, granny bonnets.

8. if you have an old shelf, you can create more space by going up.

9.. to give height and depth, use plants with different heights or bigger volume.

10. have fruits such has strawberries or raspberries on your balcony. They can be so expensive in the supermarket and much nicer when home-grown.

11. have small glass propagators, they can be very pretty.

And now enjoy your balcony garden!

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