Founded in 2008. The Landscape Juice Network (LJN) is the largest and fastest growing professional landscaping and horticultural association in the United Kingdom.
LJN's professional business forum is unrivalled and open to anyone within within the UK landscape industry
LJN's Business Objectives Group (BOG) is for any Pro serious about building their business.
For the researching visitor there's a wealth of landscaping ideas, garden design ideas, lawn advice tips and advice about garden maintenance.
Replies
An area I think you will see more and more development within the media is at a really local level, the majority of which will be online, but I do think many of the journalist who have been laid off will begin to cover very local events, people and news.
You can already get an idea of how these local news sites are beginning to take shape by browsing some of them as featured on the map here:
http://www.countervalue.com/
Whilst you won't be getting massive numbers of visitors, because they are working at the local level you will get a tightly focussed readership that is keen to stay up to date with what's happening on their doorstep.
I do agree with you totaly that we have become too fixated on quick fixes, often without thinking of the long term consequences. Hence a love by some for hard landscaping to avoid the chores of gardening.
The changes within schools seemed to have begun at the same time (okay I'm trying to avoid ranting against my most favourite to hate politician) But just as homes were suddenly being given away, so were our schools sport fields, kitchens, gardens etc. Lessons learned from 2 world wars and were principal in guiding the setting up of public schooling forgotten and thrown out inside a generation.
In London, I don't know if it is because my attitude has been changing or just that I have more time to notice but it seems more and more estates are fencing off their grassed areas to keep people off them, play areas for children being confined to 'concrete and metal' (I put that in quotes as most are not concrete any more).
Increasingly we are wrapping children up in cotton wool. In a recent discussion about seating in our developing community garden I lost patience with our monitoring officer when he objected to metal seating on grounds of 'safety' 'what happens if a child hits his head on the seat?' I'm sometimes amazed that swings are still a feature of playgrounds.
And this is part of the problem, I have seen parents become horrified seeing their kids play with a little earth, but in the recent snow were more than happy to see them rolling around in it, throwing it at each other, completely forgetting that under all this lovely white stuff is dog mess left behind by inconsiderate dog owners.
Personally I think there would be far more value bringing gardening and other such things out in the community rather than stuck in the classroom. It is relevant to all ages and groups, and could do a lot more for breaking down the barriers between sections of our communities than merely making it an abstract lesson in school.
As you rightly say too we wrap our children in cotton wool and with health and safety gone mad, we will soon not be able to go outside for fear of catching a deadly disease.
Everyday you open the paper and the very food you were told not to eat the day before is now good for you.But tomorrow, guess what-another study will find it's bad for you again!
Committees and I have never got on. I know in London there are many square garden commitees,full of 'do gooders' who love to put their two pennies in but won't lift a finger.Again, dealing with these sorts of problems is a nightmare for the contractor.
Let's hope for some better weather that will get people out and about appreciating what we have to offer in this beautiful country.
dgeorgea said:
As you rightly point out , RHS in a bit of a quandry. I have a love hate relationship with them having done 6 shows now. Wish I too had got my act together for Chelsea this year. They have turned into a money making machine. Hampton Court is like a giant car boot sale.The gardening element is almost second to the sales pitches of wellies and large spouting rhinos.
Garden centres have to diversify to keep their market but they have also been doing that for years but I think their biggest mistake is stocking terrible rubbish alongside the chairs and tables etc. They, being the large ones operated by groups buy vast quantities of the same thing and perhaps they need to change their buyers to appeal to a different audience. You can tell that the merchandise doesn't sell by the amount that is always on sale or discounted.
You also make a good point on the ethnic mix of cultures and what impact this has on gardening in this country. I am sorry I hadn't read your previous bit on TV Gardening.There isn't as you say much enthusiasm for the current presenter. Not quite going to get us all going I fear.In fact i don't even watch the programme now at all.
Have fun outside-wish the weather would get a bit warmer but then it's warm where I am , just feel lousy.
cite>Jonathan Wild said:
Now's the time for a new magazine definately and a site like this clearly helps to lead the way in a rennaissance.
Anyway,glad you are taking advantage of the good weather.
Yes the poppy picture aer same one-Patty's Plum.Goes yucky once flowered!x
Jonathan Wild said:
I think we are probably singing from the song book, with slightly different tunes.
As wonderful as the work being done in many schools today on a personal note I would doubt if they are the best place to start start teaching gardening. There is so much pressure for reaching targets that in general a culture has arisen whereby things move too quickly and they children are being pushed into the next thing without real understanding of what they have just learned.
I don't disagree that it starts with education, but I am also very keen for children and young people to see education as being a life long experience and not something restricted to the school. My own daughter last year took three days of school, with their permission, to attend an adult training session on effective funding applications. But more recently I spent the whole night talking to a 19 year old girl who has been seriously considering suicide. A good deal of the time was spent talking about education and the difference between adult education and what it was like for her at school. Even down to sorting out where she would like to be in 10 years time and helping her to sort out a part time course so she can start taking control of her life.
Research has also shown that taking 'education' out of school and into the community can make a huge difference to how well young people do in school. It was found that children from more wealthy families were involved in more activities out of school with wider peer and adult interaction than those from deprived communities. In itself not a surprise, but the findings were that the young people from wealthier families understood that the authority of adults come from their expertise in a particular subject, something which transferred to their attitude towards teachers. IE the teachers authority comes from their expertise in their chosen subject. With children from deprived/poorer families authority was seen in terms of the person's position, rather than expertise. A stumbling block when many such young people have issues with authoritive figures, especially when they do not understand where that authority comes from.
I'm not saying gardening shouldn't be introduced into schools, but I do think much more can be learned in a well organised program outside of school, and this in turn can also be more beneficial for children and young people.
As for committees, as Chair of one you would not get any disagreement from me, they can be the most frustrating beasts going. I am often left feeling like I want to bang my head on a table. I thought we had settled on a rock garden that looked as natural as possible in the wrong area. At the last meeting though one member suddenly objected and now it looks like we will end up with some monolith that will just look out of place. And while I like that some are noticing features they like I hate that all they want to do is recreate these on the estate, rather than identifying what it is they like and to work with the profesionals to see how we can translate this to something unique for us.