Lots of inspiring garden projects

April 11, 2016

Today I've something a little different for you as I've joined with some other bloggers to share lots of inspiring garden projects. I'm sharing three of my what I think are inspiring posts. There's painting, sewing, some pottering and some scrubbing - so quite a mix and I hope you find something that appeals to you from my mosts and from the other blogger's posts which you'll find below the photos.

1. Revamping some chairs from eBay

I bought the chairs on eBay with grand intentions, but then left them in the garden for quite a while before attacking them with some fantastic yellow paint. With them painted I then decided to make some cushions for them, without a pattern and without too much sewing experience and with piping. Well, let's just say there's nothing like learning on the job and if I can do this, so can you.

Read more about how I made some dull white garden chairs into these jazzy yellow ones here.

2. Potting on houseplants

This is a much more recent post but hopefully no less inspiring. Here I've taken my scraggy aloe veras and re-potted them into new compost and giving each of the babies their own pot. The result is I have a lot of pots of aloe veras now as my plant really does seem quite promiscuous.

And the best bit, the pottering in the greenhouse - it's the perfect way to escape and have some time to yourself.

3. Some elbow grease for wooden garden furniture

This post just goes to show how productive an afternoon with a scrubbing brush and a bottle of kitchen spray can be. Ideally it's best done in the sun and after an afternoon scrubbing dirt and grime, not only are the results amazing but you've really deserved a G&T.

You can see in more detail just how I achieved these results here.

But that's not all, here's some more inspiring posts for you:

Catherine from Growing Family has three great family gardening projects, she has been sowing a mini wildflower meadow, growing vegetables in containers and making new plants for free.

Becky has 3 lovely garden projects to share, a secret garden, making a herb planter and flower pressing.

Over at Fresh Design Blog, Rachel has ideas for making your garden bird-friendly, planting sunflower seeds and essential spring weeding and pruning jobs to do now.

Penny has three easy but great fun projects children will enjoy helping with, she has been making miniature gardens, creating a scarecrow and planting wild flowers.

Cathy from Wishful Wonderings has been looking for inspiration and creating a herb box for her small garden.

Three of the six show gardens at the Ideal Home Show

April 7, 2016

On Saturday we headed into town and over to Olympia for a last minute visit to the Ideal Home Show on its last weekend. It was the first time I've visited the show at the weekend and it was just as busy as we expected, but still enjoyable - thanks to British Gas for the tickets.

Last year I was surprised to see the show gardens, but this year they were one of the first things on my list to see. And I wasn't disappointed. Today I'm sharing three of the six gardens we saw.

Once again the show gardens were created for the Ideal Young Gardeners of the Year competition in association with The Prince's Foundation for Building Community. A competition organised by TV Gardener David Domoney.

This year, as well as demonstrating what can be achieved in a small space the students were also challenged to incorporate elements of an educational garden into their designs and aim to inspire young people to reconnect with nature. Not much then!

So onto the gardens.

1. Basement Garden, Writtle College

This first garden is a small urban basement garden hidden in the middle of the city providing an urban retreat. The roof is covered with meadow grass and magnolias, although we didn't see these from ground (or basement) level.

There was a green wall which represents a new investigation into producing electricity from plants which is an interesting idea, which could one day provide electricity for LED lights or charging points - now that would be clever.

There's sedum matting used as a lawn which would soak up rainwater but also tolerate drier conditions, and as well as the tree log lights there was a rhododendron to provide colour.

I liked this garden and using sedums instead of grass was appealing, but while there was little I would replicate in my own garden I would quite happily own a garden that looked like this.

2. Path to Discovery, Pershore College

This garden was inspired by geometry found in plants, particularly "the curve of life" and mathematical patterns. Many of the plants used were selected to help demonstrate the intricacies of plant structures, varying with leaf arrangements, patterns and textured foliage.

The rusty steel planters were a winner for me and it was useful to speak to one of the students who told me they'd made all the elements of their garden, which was quite a bit of work. The most interesting thing I learnt was that they'd used vinegar to age and rust the steel, and an idea was beginning to form.

I thought that the steel would be easier to bend and mould into a curved shape and would be easier to create than a brick wall. MOH was less convinced but my enthusiasm persuaded him and when we were home later he was the one looking at steel prices and seeing if it was viable. It's still a possibility but on reflection I think sleepers are still my first choice, although I do have to work out where I can add a rusty steel homemade creation. Watch this space.

I liked these steps too with their mini sempervivums in the crevices.

The pergola too was impressive with its fern-like design.

And wouldn't it be great to sit in an area like this. And that circular sempervivum installation on the back wall, I want one of those too. That's a mathematical depiction of the "curve of life."

I would have been quite happy to let myself into this garden, plonked myself down and spent a good couple of hours here - and that's nothing to do with the bottle of cider on the table, well maybe not.

The green-ness and freshness of this garden appealed to me - maybe because the planting is most like my garden at home - and the greens just popped against the rusty steel walls.

I loved this garden and it was the garden I voted for, so I hope it did well - I've yet to look!

3. New London, Askham Bryan College

This garden definitely had potential and had been awarded the Young Gardener's of the Year award but for me the planting was looking more tired than my favourite garden above. As I said at the top of this post, it was the last few days of the show so I'm prepared to admit we might not have seen this garden at its best.

There were elements I did like though - who can fail to like the Yorkshire dry stone wall and using tree trunks as the fencing was inspired. The timber had the names of the tree species carved into it, which brings the educational element to life.

Alongside the large Tibetan cherry trees the planting was mostly hellebores. I love hellebores but these were looking a bit tired, as I would be after a few weeks indoors and under stark lighting.

Again we spoke to one of the students who was involved in creating this garden, and her dad who was rightly very proud. I think it makes all the difference when the students are there to speak to.

So there you have three of the six gardens we saw, I'll share photos from the other gardens shortly, but I'm interested to know which of these appeals to you most, and if there's anything you've seen here that you'd incorporate into your garden at home - let me know in the comments below.

Love This #66: Original BTC British Lighting Manufacturers

April 6, 2016

When I was at the London Design Centre recently there was one shop that I was always going to visit, and that was Original BTC. I have some of their Beadlight wall lights in the Conservatory - and while they're not cheap - they are, I think a timeless classic. And I love this photo I captured of the range in the showroom.

But let's see more of their lights, because there's plenty more to see. These grouped pendants looked great. I like that their light is directed down but have yet to find where I could put them in our house.

These wall lights were slightly more unusual as they were displayed in what you could only call uplights, they are in fact portable lights.

The Chester spotlights reminded me of spotlights from my youth so I think it's fair to say they have a retro feel. The copper trend is still big in home furnishings - it was evident too at the Ideal Home Show, which I went along to at the weekend - but I'm still not sure. The Walter table lamp was close to convincing me though, with its smoky glass.

I spent a while in the bulkhead section because we're tempted to change our dining room light, and if we do something like this is high on our list. The problem is we still like the light we have above our table, it still works perfectly well and even though it's not as modern as these with its brushed chrome finish it's not old-fashioned either. The other concern we have is the amount of light we'd get out of one of these kinds of light, I think when we get closer to a decision we'd need to do some research and take advice on this.

But in the meantime I can still admire them!

The other lights that caught my eye were these pastel green table lamps. I'm not usually one for pastel colours but I could quite happily find a home for these - well, if we weren't already maxxed out on table lamps, that is!

They matched perfectly the display of Branksome China, another UK manufacturer based in Stoke-on-Trent. They're not a brand I've seen before but they're one I'll be looking at again I'm sure.

Gorgeous aren't they?