If you have a one-wheeled wheelbarrow then you will, on average, be supporting half the weight of the load in your own hands. But if you have a four-wheeled barrow, or cart, you will not need to support ANY of the weight of the load. All you will need to do is push and overcome the resistence between the wheels and the ground. So if you have decent paths then get a decent barrow. A one-wheeled barrow is only for narrow paths and irregular ground.
We do not recommend historic ’styles’ as a basis for garden design. This is because heritage gardens were made under different social, conceptual and technical conditions. But we are very much in favour of maintaining historic gardens ‘in the style to which they were accustomed’. You would not want to see MDF in a historic house and you would not, we hope, want to see modern hybrid plants in an important historic garden.
BUT if you do have a historic garden then it is very important to have as full a knowledge of possible of the historic style category to which it belongs. The above chart, from Tom Turner’s book on Garden History, represents the historic styles of western garden design in diagramatic form. There is also a detailed explanation of the styles, with a great deal of reference material, in the Garden History Reference Encyclopedia CD. Or there is an eBook on 24 Historic Styles of Garden Design.
Green-roofed garden shed
Garden sheds can be built with re-cycled timber. Since the vegetated green roof has only 100mm of soil it will dry out in most summers. But if the sward is of drought-resistent species, it will soon re-grow when the rains return.
Make good compost
(image courtesy Anne Norman )
Its true: you can buy cheap garden furniture from your local DIY or garden store. But you will get what you pay for. So if you pay more you will get more. These beautifully made curved benches fit the curves of one’s bottom and help with the definition of outdoor space – which is of course the main issue in garden design.
A circular bed can be the focus of a garden design
‘Beware of circles’ is the standard advice, from this website, to designers. But if you have a circular feature at the heart of a design then the other circles can become ripples and the idea can work. The garden furniture, both hard and soft, in this design is weather-proof. With a larger canopy the bed could serve as an occasional guest room for hardy visitors.
Water vapour mist can be the focus of a garden design
Water features do not have to be made with liquid water: they can also be formed with water vapour. It tends to settle on the surrounding plants and thus produces the damp humid conditions which some plant species most enjoy
Parterre de Broderie at Vaux le Vicomte
Modern parterres, of which there are many, are often made with approx 300-600 mm high box and planted with colourful bedding plants.
Traditional parterres were more often made with lower box hedging (eg 150mm) and decorated with different coloured gravels.
Geraniums with red painted steel
Planting design does not have to be ‘timid and tasteful’. There is, where appropriate, much to be said for being bold, brash and bright.
You can be sure the water is purer than pure, because the design is by Atelier Herbert Dreiseitl, for the Tanner Springs Park in Portland, Oregon. Dreiseitl is well known as the author of the best book on the design of sustainable and artistic water features. It is called Waterscapes.
(Photo courtesy Ken McCowan)
