Hi I'm searching for a top quality supplier or manufacturer of contemporary style galvanised steel containers. please get in touch. Nira

I'm a commercial photographer and I also lecture in photography. I was looking for design inspiration when I came across this site as I'm helping one of my brothers re model his girlfriends garden and build a large deck. Some of you may wonder how or why I'm building decking if I'm a photographer. I studied wood work at school and rebuilding your own homes gives you a lot of the skills needed for the job I think. Well that is my excuse! There is also the fact that I love working with wood and being in the garden and gardening can give you a deep sense so satisfaction, a good work out and a calmness found in nature. When I have some images of this project I will post them on the site. I may also be calling on some of you for advice. If you would like to look at my commercial work you can do so by logging on to robertocarronphotography.co.uk The site will be up and running soon I hope.

We have just had a commission for a resin bound aggregate driveway.  I had no idea there were so many different aggregates which could be employed.  We will be using Guyanan Bauxite in this one to complement the dark grey granite paving the customer likes.  The per m2 price is less than block paving would have cost and the finish will be stunning.   Plus resin bound aggregate meets the new SUDS regulations!! 

We are considering incorporating a second colour of aggregate into a "frame" shape to define the area.  Has anyone on here done something similar and have any photos we could look at?

Many thanks



Gavin

Help.. advice needed.. My contractor is currently building a rather nice country garden for me and we are experiencing major problems with rabbits. Any suggestions will be gratefully received as these are Olympic standard rabbits and are causing us sleepless nights. Our 'rabbbit proof' fence is 900 mm high, 150mm deep and turned back and the holes are the correct size. It was sold to us as rabbit proof fencing and should be 18 guage thick but the owners claim that the rabbits are burrowing underground and chewing through it! Has anyone experienced similar problems and how do we solve this? Please help..
Maria  

Hi all

Another question for the assembled masses of expertise out there!

I've designed a compact, minimal Japanese-influenced garden, and I'd love to include some rammed-earth walls in it. I've seen some information on how to construct and maintain them, but there doesn't seem to be a definitive method. I want to get some variation in colour within them, so will need a slight variation in the soil mix, and I suspect that I'll have to incorporate a small proportion of cement too - how does this affect the colour? Is normal concrete shuttering on a 10% batter sufficient? They will need capping with ridge tiles - how are these secured? Do you include reinforcing rods or not? What surface treatment is required, if any? I want them to last for a long time - and I know that there are some in Japanese temples which are hundreds of years old, so it must be possible, even in our climate.

As ever, thoughts and exeriences gratefully received!

 

Mark

A very busy day on the drawing board today inking up the Black Farm master plan. All has gone according to plan and I will be off to the print shop tomorrow or Tuesday to get the copies done so that I can then complete a coloured version for the clients in graphic marker work. Will also be able to photograph the coloured version and post it in a new album along with some existing site photographs I took yesterday - then it will all be up to the planners! Could be a wait of 6 - 8 weeks before we know whether we can proceed further with the detailed plans or whether we will have to accomodate their amendments?

A quick turn around on this project which has been completed to this stage in just eight days.

A very successful site visit this morning - the clients are delighted with the layout I had produced for the new gardens and I have got the go-ahead to produce the Master concept plan in colour to go off to the Planning Authority for approval in a couple of weeks time. Hopefully we will get the necessary approvals through in about 6 - 8 weeks time and then it will be all go on the drawing board again to scale everything up from the 1:250 concept plan to several 1:100 / 1:50 detailed plans of the layout, hard landscaping, the level changes etc. etc.

Watch out for a new album of photographs of the existing site in due course and the concept plan when I have finished it. 

I am looking for a solar pond pump to feed a small water feature OR nature pond with small fountain/waterfall; for a customer... garden to be in Sunny Brighton... which is a joke at the moment as all we have and going to get is RAIN!

Are there any decent products to use in this country or best to go for electrically powered?

Thanks.

Stuart

They say you shouldn't count your chickens before they are hatched - how right they are!

I emailed the clients regarding setting up a meeting to review the draft pencil plan before committing it to ink and wash and mentioned the re-positioned tennis court now protruding into the agricultural land curtilage. The client (he is a property developer in London - big office blocks etc. and knows his legalities backwards) decided not to go for this option and the hassle of gaining permission to turn agricultural land into garden, so suggested we move it by 4 metres into the pastureland slope behind and then by 4 metres towards the rest of the garden - sounds complicated doesn't it without the benefit of a plan to look at!

The upshot of all this movement would be, we take 72 square metres of agricultural land into the garden but also put a different 72 square metres of garden back into being agricultural land - so the whole process is just a swap of land.

The client thinks the planners will go for this more readily and I am inclined to agree - it just means that I will have to get back on the drawing board and re-draw the tennis court (quite a quick process) but will also have to redraw the whole of the walled potager garden four metres further west!! No quick task as the potager is quite a complex design of raised beds, ground level beds and borders, pathways, a pool, a summerhouse and a glasshouse with cold frames - thank goodness for tracing paper although if I had persevered in learning Vectoworks, it might only take a few minutes!.

That's clients for you - always changing their minds! Just as well it has just started raining heavily - I will leave my labours in my own garden and get back to labouring to solve the problems in someone else's garden.

Watch this space for more progress reports..................................

Hi. Does anyone know where l could get the plant Chamerion angustifolium 'Album' (Epilobium)  - cheers