A pet’s day in the office seemed like a good idea. It solved the problem of them being left unattended, boarding fees and I thought it would be nice to have the dog curled up under the drawing board and the cat on a chair, metaphorically speaking as of course I sold my drawing board last week.
It all seemed to be going as planned, the little critters dutifully snoozed and I was quickly lulled into a false sense of security. Needing milk and the shop only a street away, what harm could be done in a 6 min absence. Coming back around the corner I noticed a window where the wooden blind looked not unlike those you might see when a window has been blown out in an explosion, shredded, parts randomly dangling down, wooden splinters scattered over the window sill. It was my office window and the culprits were lounging lazily when I got in. There was wood everywhere. I had spent ages finding a blind to fit that window and in less the 6 mins it was chipped. I can only guess that a cat must have sat in front of the window and pulled tongues at them, given them the paw or whatever it is that small furry animals silently do to one another to initiate a flying rage. Pets and work….a goldfish is looking very attractive at present.

The end of an era

It was the end of an era. Last night I sold my drawing board. It has been with me for quite a while. When I started designing gardens and landscapes it was from home. I didn’t have a spare room so the loft was partially converted and the “studio” was up there. The access to the loft was too small for even a person to get into really let alone a drawing board, so I creatively removed a section of the ceiling over the stair well. This had the benefit of letting lots of extra light into the house and allowed us to haul the drawing board up (from the picture you’ll see that this was small effort!). The down side was that the floor of my “studio” now had a 3ftx12ft hole in it, that was two storeys deep. On either side of this inconvenience were narrow tables and files. Whatever I required always seemed to be on the other side and I would happily skip back and forth over the hole. It makes me nervous to even think that’s how I used to work. For the past few years it’s lived happily and securely in a ground floor studio. But the way I work has changed and the need for such a large piece of furniture has gradually diminished. I would say that for the last year it has only been nostalgia that has kept it in place, that and the fact that any visitors seem to think it’s a perfect place for keys, coats, bags and boxes. I find myself solving most of a scheme’s problems in a computer now. I always revert to hand drawings in the latter stages of a scheme, but by then I know my scales and geometry and I more frequently use a flat trestle table to work off rather than the drawing board. I want a new trestle, sandblasted glass with under lighting, a large light box if you will, and the sale of the board will fund its replacement, somewhat. But was sad to see it tentatively and not without a bit of cursing, manoeuvred out of the studio. Already the bags and coats are back, just that now they are on the boxes.

How I am trying to keep an olive tree going in freezing temperatures.

Common wisdom, as I have read it, indicates that an olive is ok down to -7deg C. I am sure that there are opinions either side of that figure, but in recent days when temperatures in our area of NE Lancs dropped to -18, I was worried for my tree.
We have an approx 80yr old olive tree, from Jaen in Spain. It has happily lived in a small corner of our courtyard for a few years and with virtually no care has got through recent winters. I have recently read Rosenbaum’s book on the Olive and the description of the decimation of trees due to severe cold was suddenly a looming concern. The garden was virtually built around the tree and replacing it would be a financial and emotional trauma.
I had put a set of LEDs in the canopy for Xmas..and decided to leave them in. They seem to generate virtually no heat.. but I thought that over a few hours they might just lift the temperature enough. Leaving the canopy open to the elements would allow any warmth to simply be blown away, and following what I have seen in urban gardens in Spain in winter, I wrapped the canopy in a fleece. I ran out of fleece, but a local Asda had an offer on pet bed fleeces (£1.99) and two were enough to double wrap the trunk (held on with cable ties). Next I mounded up bark chippings up the trunk as high as I could go and covered it in a “cone” of plastic sheeting. Mostly this was to keep the cat off who might dig it all off, but I figured it would also keep the snow off the bark and save any water getting into it and freezing. I tried this for a few days. The snow arrived and sat 6” deep on top of the fleece, I thought this might actually add insulation and with the lights turned on it made the tree look like some spectacular mushroom sculpture. But the temperatures promised to dip further, so an additional technique was employed; tea lights around the base. Vineyards use heaters to dispel frost , so could I. They seemed to last about 2 ½ hours, and I used three at a time. Which required a few late nights to ensure there was a fresh set burning around 1am, and that the accumulated heat was enough to get through to morning. The heat I had hoped was retained in the canopy, just enough to keep the worst of the cold off. O one occasion a candle slipped and started to burn the sheet over the bark, throwing snow at a flame seemed like a good idea at the time, but I will stand further back next time! If you look carefully at the picture, there is a tin can hanging off a branch. I added another tea-light here to give a boost.
Was a tree ever as cared for? Despite all this effort, and the fleeces are staying on until spring, I wont know until spring if the effort worked.

It has been a few weeks since I wrote. Whilst I always associate the winter months with slowing down, reflection and idle dark nights at home, I am always taken by surprise at how busy life suddenly gets.
December is when Christmas dominates, it always creeps up on me. I forget that nurseries close the week before and invariabley don’t open until new year. That contractors pretty much do the same as the nurseries. So two weeks of the month is spent idle, or at least I wish it was. I over compensate and strat trying to organise deliveries and plant lists for the new year. The last thing on peoples minds are plants. When they do arrive they are no more than a twig in dirt, little to get excited about. Telling people that they have invested several thousand pounds in the “potential” of two tones of soil, with a lot of free black pots is not really a motivating experience. December gets hijacked. I lost all free will and time in late September I think, time just gets booked up. Friends, meals, drinks, visits, family. I keep a paper diary, the Redstone press ones, if you are interested. Spiral bound and one week a page. I have a short row of years past on the shelf over my desk, probably ten or eleven years worth. The joy of these is being able to open them and review your lifes appointments, crossings out, stuck in theatre or cinema tickets. And reviewing past Decembers… little has changed, perhaps only my memory. I want to spend the time reading up on books I have bought during the year, photographing frost scenes or playing with some new software. I have had the intention of tagging all of my photos for years.. but I produce them faster than I can label them.. so finding useful plant associations, examples of the pergola I have proposed is getting harder. Speaking of which I became aware that Leica have released their new M9 camera. I tried to see one this weekend but all were sold out. I have a manual M6 (film) which I consider one of the best pieces of design ever created, and now there is a true digital version. Its so far beyond my budget as to forever remain a dream.. but I like the notion of it always being an ambition to own one.. and I would gladly not change my phone/ car/ pc for several years if that was the way to save.

It seems that our Chelsea garden for 2010 will now be postponed. Despite securing ¾ of the sponsorship needed the remainder just proved to elusive. A miracle may still happen, but I am resigned to not having a garden built in 2010. We had put in over 250hrs and whilst this is a lot of effort for no practical output, the design work is not wasted. I hope that it will be accepted, even if a little modified for 2011. Now I have started to think what I will do with May. I have not had a spring that was not devoted to getting a show garden ready for a few years. Perhaps it is a good time to start thinking of tagging those photographs.

Our Chelsea garden still being bumped around. It all started so well but whilst I have tried to keep some momentum to the project, not having the needed funding is paralising. We are nearly there as well which doesn’t seem to help!. Not having any funding would at least make me resign to the fact that the garden would not happen, but being over 2/3’s of the way there means that I am still working towards the show. When should I stop? The deadline for sponsorship is approaching and if we are still short by early December then it will be shelved. It is quite hard to let something that is quite personal go. However I would hope to revive it in some form and perhaps a year off Chelsea wouldn’t be a bad thing.
Books I’m reading: olives: superb pity it was 10yr old edition. I always wanted to know about these amazing trees..and this book has just about answered all of my questions and whetted my appetite to try and find oil from different sources. We stopped buying olive oil from supermarkets last year, instead we prefer to buy in a 5L can from Trujillo (one of my favourite places in Spain) .
I am also still working my way through the sketchup tutorials. I thought I knew how to model but this book has taught me loads of new techniques. Search Daniel Tal in the Google Warehouse to see some of the tutorial models.

I have been thinking about a new PC…mine (a HP Pavillion) is 4 yrs old and is creaking. Slow, noisey and sometimes frustrating I cleaned it out and archived everything 6mnths ago but it is still not behaving. I work on dual screens (I like space to wander around in and am rarely satisfied with only one programme open at once) and use several types of CAD (Computer Aided Design) packages. Initial research seems to tell me that upgrading is not going to achieve everything I want. New graphics card, memory and screens would probably cost half the price of a new “kit”, but I suspect that I need more processing power..which would mean a new motherboard….this is as much jargon to me as it is to you.. I can drive but don’t really know or care what’s under the bonnet..type. So it seems reasonable to invest in something new.. I have looked at new Pc’s , custom made, Dell and HP all seem suitable and easily reach £1000. I am not a laptop type of person, there is something to petite and fragile about them..and I prefer to leave the work on my desk rather than even have the possibility of it being able to follow me. I saw the new Imac last week. I didn’t even consider it a contender.. to pricey, wont run my current programmes, not an equivalent spec. Wrong. I am sure I am wading into the Mac vs Pc battle, the eternal struggle of good vs evil, but I was impressed. It does what I want. I can have my software reissued as Mac licenses, I can run windows programmes and it is not that much more expensive. It is also a beautiful machine and the number of cables is at least halved as everything is in the “monitor”. But perhaps the most attractive bit.. is the actual screen. It is virtually 3D in its definition it is stunning and vivid and everything I want a screen to be.. did I mention it is also big..29”. All of this is by way of an introduction to the saga that will slowly play out as I balance what is most suitable for me. I’ll keep you updated.

Life as a garden designer can be lonely. Working in a larger/ shared office or business unit can help but its not a luxury that many can extend to and I certainly cant. So a converted room it is and despite the hundreds of friendly, unsolicited calls I get everyday it is still essentially a job that involves a silent conversation between my head and a piece of paper, whether on the drawing board or in the PC. Getting out to the local Society of Garden Designers group meeting used to be a way to share at least some experiences. I am not a big fan of week day meetings for such things, as they invariably distract from my work and always seem to coincide with some work that can’t be delayed and whilst professional development is important, time out, unpaid, is a luxury. I prefer occasional weekend workshops and I have seen several on the Society of Garden Designers schedule. I was at one this Saturday. The first for a while and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The chance to meet other designers is always a pleasure. A friend from a different profession once told me that he measures the success of a profession by how much individuals are willing to share with each other. I agree with him. It is pointless holding onto knowledge and very satisfying when burdened with a problem to have lots of support and suggestions. Robin Templar Williams was a motivating speaker. He frequently was distracted away from his subject (impossible sloping sites) by questions on other aspects of his projects or attitudes to design. All of which demonstrated the depth of his knowledge and made for a very rich day’s discussion.
Once you have attained membership of the Society of Garden Designers, you are there for life, if you behave of course. Whilst being a member is something that I am proud of and forever grateful to have achieved, I find that I want more knowledge and to improve myself and how I work. Time, money and distance prevent me and I should guess, many others from becoming a workshop-oholic. I do regret not being able to do more. Looking at other professions, I wonder if there is not something we, as garden and landscape designers cannot learn or adopt. Without dwelling on the details nor without trying to consider all circumstances, I would like to see a requirement for CPD (continuous professional development), based possibly on attending workshops..5 workshops over a 2 year period for instance; or reassessment every few years
It would be an incentive and perhaps make us learn, when, speaking for myself I know I can be a bit lazy and find excuses not to do things.

The Chelsea Show GArden from earlier this year is featured again in this month's Garden Deisgn Journal. Its not a large article and whilst it claimed to "get under the skin of Chelsea designers" it really failed to deliver. So if you were looking for some insight as to how the concrete features and design eveolved, then you wont find it here. Shame really as if the author had given me a call I would have been more than happy to supply information. However it has given me the motivation to write on technical matters and I am pleased to say that my first articles will be for the Garden Design Journal. They wont be published until spring next year and of corse rely on me actually writing them; but I am commited.

Something else that was new this last week was that I took up my role on the Society of Garden Designers Adjudication Committee. I recall the effort and heartache of preparing for my own membership and then day of the adjudication in front of a panel of three was awful. I sympathised with those we saw. It was fascinating to see other people's progress and approach and whilst I joined the panel to try to bring some presence for membership in the Society back to the North West Region of the UK, I realise that I will learn a lot and it can only make my own work better.