Good reads:

This week I've been enjoying this book:
My Green City



 A great roundup of urban interventions and projects with a horticultural theme, several of which I've already featured on this blog.

I've also tracked down this interesting magazine;

 

It's currently on issue 7, which features the asparagus fern, eco-houseboats in Amsterdam, the Shunkaen bonsai museum, samphire, Las Pozas garden in the Mexican jungle, and a look at the symbolism of greenery in the Antonioni film 'Blow-up', amongst other things. 





Pop-Up Parklets

A kind of urban intervention, 'parklets' have been popping up in cities around the world, including Sao Paulo, Vancouver, Copenhagen, San Francisco and Dublin. Taking over parking spaces normally reserved for cars, these temporary, pedestrian friendly little patches of garden make a point about the amount of green space disappearing under tarmac.

Psychedelic Vegetables

Some psychedelic vegetables to perk up a drab autumn day:
romanesco cauliflower
chioggia beetroot,
red cabbage,
borlotti beans,
rainbow chard,
and of course, 'purple haze' carrots.

You can grow all of these veggies right here in the UK

wild formal rockery (if that makes any sense)

some nice contrasts between natural and formal in this space:

Like their take on the rockery, and beehives too.
by Polyform architects.
reblogged from Serafin Outsights

Upcoming gardening events at Hauser and Wirth Somerset

The Hauser & Wirth gallery in Somerset has a rather fine new Piet Oudolf designed garden, and a series of interesting looking garden themed events coming up:
http://www.hauserwirthsomerset.com/events

Bruce Munroe

 Dan Pearson: design for London bridge garden

Karen Guthrie

8th Feb: ART OF THE GARDEN: BRUCE MUNRO, LIGHT AND LANDSCAPE

"Bruce Munro is noted for his immersive site-specific installations that employ light to 
evoke emotional response, often in an outdoor context and on a monumental scale."

19th Feb: ART OF THE GARDEN: TOM STUART-SMITH ON GARDENS AND THE IMAGINATION

"Whether it is a musical motif, molecular cell structure or perhaps a painting that has inspired him, Tom Stuart-Smith – winner of eight gold medals and three times Best in Show at the Chelsea Flower Show – explores the many influences that go into the creation of his gardens"

25th Oct: KAREN GUTHRIE: SOIL CULTURE RESIDENCY TALK

"The aim of Soil Culture is to use the arts to inspire a deeper public understanding of the importance of soil"

22nd Jan: ART OF THE GARDEN: DAN PEARSON, THE GARDEN AS VISION

"Art of the Garden is a celebratory programme that will explore the relationship between gardening, art and the landscape."

More gardens on wheels...

This time by Danish design group SLA:

Love the surprising contrast of the wild looking chunks of landscape in the industrial trailers.

Tyre garden by Jerónimo Hagerman

Recycled tyres containing ponds and lawns and trees. An installation by Jerónimo Hagerman in Mexico City.

http://www.lugarcero.com/index.php/archives/1319

Yesterday in the garden

Top to bottom:

Iceland poppy (Papaver Nudicale)

Cyclamen seedlings

Regal Pelargonium 'Lord Bute'

Iris Ensata

Boy & pumpkin

Carex 'frosted curls'

Pilotus & watering can.

The view from the back door: Choisya, Cotoneaster, summer flowering Jasmine, yellow roses, Iris Ensata, Sedums, Cyclamen, alpine Viola, Succulents and Iceland Poppies in pots.

Behind the Choisya: Flowering Rush, ferns, Weigela, Primula Denticulata (drumstick primulas), Black Zantedeschia & Corsican Mint. Salvaged chunky terracotta quarry tiles are in the foreground, a contorted hazel that has just been planted should grow across to break up that big expanse of bricks in the next few years.

A visit to my M&D's garden

and a new instagram account: search for you_dig_gardens

Top to bottom:

Plume poppies

Contorted Hazel

Japanese Horsetail & Hydrangea 'Blue Wave'

Echinacea 'White Swan' & ophiopogon

Colchicum a.k.a. naked ladies.

All photos taken be me in Lincolnshire on Tuesday.

Tres Birds

An 'outdoor office' installation by Tres Birds

Wayward Plants

Wayward Plants create exciting horticultural projects such as this 'pop-up' community garden, with an emphasis on recycling and community inclusion. Inspiring stuff.

They also created this riverside recycled temporary allotments:

Shaping plants.

Growing up in Lincolnshire, one of my favourite places near my parents house was Yew Tree Drive. An avenue of huge old yews clipped into shapes like a set of giant chess pieces along what must have once been the drive to a stately home, but now surrounded by woodland.

Topiary can be used to create magical spaces:

Marqueyssac, France

Other ways of training trees include cloud pruning or Niwaki:

Top to bottom: 

Japanese cloud pruned pine tree 

Niwaki in Parc Floral de la Source, Orleans, France

Unknown

Plants can be grafted and trained into weird and wonderful shapes, shown here in the tree sculpting methods pioneered in the '40s by Axel Erlandson at his 'Tree Circus' roadside attraction in California:

Similar techniques have been used here to sculpt a living chair:

www.pooktre.com