Emeralds and the gathering

Gardening trends Gardening, like other design-related professions has its trends.  Sometimes these are created by the horticultural industry itself through clever marketing campaigns.  At other times these fashions reflect wider shifts in the way society is thinking, an example being the recent move towards gardens with a grow-it-yourself element, something of which I am very supportive of as you are well aware. Have  we missed an opportunity with Ireland's "The Gathering" to celebrate our greeness? One thing I am surprised about is that the Irish gardening profession, as a whole, has not capitalised...

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Coppicing trees in the garden and coppice woodlands

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="615"] Mature coppice in Herefordshire[/caption] Whilst I was working with the BTCV (British Trust for Conservation Volunteers) a number of years ago (quite a number actually!), I completed a super training course in woodland crafts at the Greenwood Trust in Ironbridge, Shropshire.  Since then, I am in the habit of advocating coppicing not only as a useful and productive way of managing woodlands (of all sizes) but also as a method for controlling the size of trees  in small gardens, especially where space is at a premium but the...

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Big Pigging! or how to get maximum benefit from your kitchen waste

I have been composting with my "pig" for a number of years now and whilst it is somewhat more expensive, at initial outlay, than other traditional composters, I do find it is far more effective. Thus your initial investment is recouped over the medium to long term. My pig is a sealed unit, which means that literally all your kitchen waste including raw meat can be added to it without encouraging vermin, so, you save on waste charges and it produces large volumes of compost rapidly (I find in an average...

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Parched March

If someone had told me that I was going to be out with my watering can before the end of March this time last year, I would have told them to go indoors and take a strong dose of a reality pill, extra strength brand for crazy gardening folk!  But what a contrast between this year and last! The Irish spring heat wave has continued and yes, last night, I was out-watering both newly divided perennials recently planted and plants in containers that were starting to wilt in the heat due...

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