Thoughtful Planting will Reduce Future Problems

I managed to do nearly a full weeks work since the snow began to melt on Monday. There were a couple of weather delays on Wednesday and Thursday but on the whole a, productive week. The job was to remove some trees and reduce the height of a few others, and has been planned since last summer. The trees in question were on the boundary of a neighbouring property and were reducing the light in the garden.The clients’ property has a garden of a few of acres and was planted about 20 years ago in a parkland style with large areas of lawn and large beds with shrubs and trees. We cut the hedges each year which take three men (or women to be politically correct) three days.In many places the trees are planted far too close to each other and on the boundary where I was working, Ash trees were planted right on the boundary – that is, right up against the fence. I have no idea what company planted the trees or if the garden was designed, but surely with a little bit of thought should have gone on about how the trees would affect the neighbouring properties. This in turn would reduce future maintenance time and keep all important harmony between neighbours.I must say there wasn’t a neighbouring feud in this case, everything was done with dignity, even though I refused the neighbours request to just take the chainsaw straight across the top of the trees!Anyway, the jobs finished and everyone is happy. I managed to secure some more work and planted a couple of seeds of thought in the clients head for future work.Jill returned from Lanzarote on Tuesday with an enviable hint of tan to her face. The combination of sun, gin and friends has worked well and she has come back with some great ideas for a garden she is planning for a client. I’m rather excited about it as if the client accepts the design, there will be some problem solving of how to construct certain aspects of the garden.Now there’s a discussion – should a garden designer take into consideration construction implications when producing plans or would that negate the artistic flow?Next week see’s the start of, and hopefully completion of, a small contemporary front garden in Cambridge. The long term weather forecast says it’s going to rain on Wednesday when I’m scheduled to start laying the stone but they might be wrong, it might be more snow.I’ve also got a funeral to go to on Thursday. Mrs Irene Cranwell, the villages’ oldest resident, died just a few weeks short of her 100th birthday. She is a legend in these parts. She talked on Radio Cambridgshire about village life in the ‘olden days’, when people had time for each other and life was a little bit slower. Apparently she was the oldest presenter in the country. She was fantastic lady who always used the person’s title when addressing them. It felt strange when she called me Mr Foxley even though I was 54 years her junior. I hope one day someone will write a book about her and her stories so they are not forgotten forever.On a brighter note, I have not played Free Cell for a week and a half now – I knew I wasn’t addicted; maybe I should have a quick game now!

As part of a larger landscaping company my team once set out to commence a huge planting project, (the design was beautiful). Turned up, stuck spade in the ground, 300mm below surface was tarmac over the whole site!!!. prior to our arrival the council planners, then large landscape architecture firm, then the quantity surveyors and managers of the landscaping company had all spent considerable time 'on site'. No one had bothered to either look into recent history or bothered to dig to determine soil conditions!!!. This is a surprisingly common problem and can be catastrophic in terms of the final visual effect let alone the costs. To carry on in this vein the Garden Design unit at a well known University in Cornwall declared that design had nothing to do with the plants and their requirements and subsequently this element disappeared from their syllabus - bizarre. It seems a even a simple bit of foresight will allow for a better basis for designers. Your business model of gardener / designer working together is enviable and surely allows for stronger confidence from clients. For larger companies in the industry the relationship between practitioner and designer / architect is weak at the most and I have seen so many schemes where had the designer brought in the practitioner from the outset, the resulting implementation of the scheme would have been amazing not the lacklustre 'commercial' scheme that usually results - usually with the supplementing of many plants for swaths of Cotoneaster horizontalis or similar due to the underlying soils.

I guess it is better to stick to the LJN, much more therapeutic than a nintendo I find.

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Comments

Pip Howard January 16, 2010 at 2:04pm

Now there’s a discussion – should a garden designer take into consideration construction implications when producing plans or would that negate the artistic flow?

Good point, as a practitioner not a designer, I have been involved in situations where a design needs to be altered by request from local authority to ensure that a new development complies with BS 5837 . Whilst BS 5837 is to do with existing and retaining trees, some fore sighted planners are using it as a guide for new developments and ensuring that the proposed planting will meet BS 5837 in maturity. Also guidelines adopted by way of compliance with ELC are also being adapted by the more progressive councils in order to use it as a stick to ensure that there is 'demonstrated thought' given to new tree planting, but again this is mainly towards new development. If a designer utilises measurements of BS 5837 to ensure certain buffers are drawn onto the plan prior to creative design, this will surely allow for the eventualities you raise.

On a lighter note, well done on the freecell, my six year old was given a nintendo ds with start wars game, he doesn't seem too bothered, I am well and truly hooked.
The Perfumed Garden January 16, 2010 at 3:21pm

Maybe fore sightedness is one of the differences is between good and bad designers.

Ah, the perils of computer games, I try and avoid them as I know what the result will be. I remember my step son getting a Nintendo Gameboy, my sleep pattern was dreadful.
Pip Howard January 16, 2010 at 4:41pm

As part of a larger landscaping company my team once set out to commence a huge planting project, (the design was beautiful). Turned up, stuck spade in the ground, 300mm below surface was tarmac over the whole site!!!. prior to our arrival the council planners, then large landscape architecture firm, then the quantity surveyors and managers of the landscaping company had all spent considerable time 'on site'. No one had bothered to either look into recent history or bothered to dig to determine soil conditions!!!. This is a surprisingly common problem and can be catastrophic in terms of the final visual effect let alone the costs. To carry on in this vein the Garden Design unit at a well known University in Cornwall declared that design had nothing to do with the plants and their requirements and subsequently this element disappeared from their syllabus - bizarre. It seems a even a simple bit of foresight will allow for a better basis for designers. Your business model of gardener / designer working together is enviable and surely allows for stronger confidence from clients. For larger companies in the industry the relationship between practitioner and designer / architect is weak at the most and I have seen so many schemes where had the designer brought in the practitioner from the outset, the resulting implementation of the scheme would have been amazing not the lacklustre 'commercial' scheme that usually results - usually with the supplementing of many plants for swaths of Cotoneaster horizontalis or similar due to the underlying soils.

I guess it is better to stick to the LJN, much more therapeutic than a nintendo I find.