Blogspot - Interia Dezain

When back in the UK I always enjoy visiting the excellent gardens in and around London. One of my favorites is Wisley. Tucked away in the far North of Wisley Gardens is a ground-breaking research project called "Plants for Bugs". Here a research team  have set out to investigate whether the origin of the plants grown in gardens - be it British natives or introduced exotics - affects the sorts of insects that are attracted to a garden.   Map of Wisley Gardens This four year experiment will examine the value of native and non-native plant assemblages for biodiversity leading to evidence-based advice for the ecological gardener. The Context of the Experiment It is generally accepted that some plants are better at supporting wildlife than others. However, wildlife planting guidance for gardeners is largely based on anecdotal evidence or, worse still, assumptions that have been shown to be untrue, for example that nettles in gardens will attract butterflies (Gaston et al. ...

When faced with the prospect of developing a new site, a blank canvas so to speak, there is nothing quite like establishing the edges of your beds and borders to bring the project to life. Edging defines the area for cultivation and marks the point beyond where no Homo sapiens foot shall tread! If designed well, edging  can serve as a beneficial asset to the general garden ecology whilst creating unity in the overall design, providing an aesthetically pleasing environment. During this post we will look at what makes good edging, go through a selection of options and look at how to implement these and discover some beneficial interactions you can expect to observe.   What makes good edging ? Good edging should clearly define the area for plants from the path. It should be both sturdy and high  enough to retain the soil and mulch, and take the rising levels of soil that will inevitably establish in the ecological garden over the years. If your bed is bordering an area co...

It's always a great idea to observe a site in all seasons and weather conditions, and if you enjoy losing the ability to feel your fingers and toes it's a great idea to survey a site on a mid-winters day in Northern Bulgaria with 30cm of  snow cover on the ground :) Georgi Pavlov from Huma Design The aforementioned site is a project I am working on - the brief being to design an agroeco landscape to supply produce for CSA as well as a number of restaurants and hotels. I'm very pleased to be working on this project, bringing ecological design to food production. Georgi Pavlov from Huma was working with me on this fine winter's day, to establish the contour lines of this 5 hectare site. Georgi will also be producing the professional renderings of the final design once completed.  Observing a site with snow cover can provide some useful information. For example, animal tracks are very easy to identify in the snow, brown hare and rabbit tracks were clearly evident across ...