Thursday 30 August 2012
Garden Plans for Fall Planting - GardensUK
via bhg.comIn this section of garden design Crouch End, we found some very good illustrations that you can use for planning your Autumn, or Fall (in the US) garden.
These are from the Better Homes and Gardens site:
http://www.bhg.com/gardening/plans/seasonal/garden-plans-for-fall-planting/
We especially like this drawing of Autumn planting plans. Not only does it give you a very good concept of how a section of your garden will look when planted, but we rather think that the picture stands in it's own right.
Sunday 19 August 2012
A message from the 1970s on state spending - Telegraph
“I tell you, in all candour,” he went on, “that that option no longer exists. And in so far as it ever did exist, it only worked on each occasion… by injecting a bigger dose of inflation into the economy, followed by a higher level of unemployment as the next step…”
The above words are among the most important uttered in the history of modern British politics. For a left-wing prime minister to have admitted that too much state spending is dangerous, while being barracked by a rabble of bearded Trotskyists from among his own party ranks, marked a turning-point in Western economic policymaking.
For it was in 1976 that the UK government had been rescued by the International Monetary Fund. After years of industrial subsidies, soft-budget constraints and Keynesian hubris, Britain was insolvent – unable to service its debts. After months of denial, the markets forced Callaghan’s government, “cap in hand”, to seek an IMF bail-out.
On that day, all notions that the UK remained a world-class economy, an industrial powerhouse, were exposed as nonsense. It was this country’s “economic Suez”.
What brought Britain to that disgraceful nadir was a lot of self-serving ideas about the wisdom of near-limitless government largesse. The “Keynesian consensus” had been that the state could borrow and spend practically ad infinitum, that “pump-priming” the economy was “the right thing to do”.
via telegraph.co.uk
Well, quite ballsy to have made this statement, especially during the seventies.
But accurate too, high taxes, high unemployment, represent more of a holding back of financial energies, than supportive of growth. The situation will figure itself out, but the problem is that the spending levels for welfare, need to be supported, the tax is too high, start loosening the grip. Free up more money for spending, create an emphasis on giving excellent customer service, support the farmers, small business, make housing affordable and more of it.
Clean the streets, and work for the future.
Curiosity sends stunning pictures from Mars - Times LIVE
The landing of the $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory and nuclear-powered robot Curiosity late Sunday opened a new chapter in the history of interplanetary exploration by touching down on the Red Planet.
The one-ton mobile lab is the largest rover ever sent to Mars, and its high-speed landing was the most daring to date, using a rocket-powered sky crane to lower the six-wheeled vehicle gently to the Martian surface.
Numerous images of the car-sized rover and its alien surroundings have come back to Nasa since the landing occurred at 10:32 pm Sunday on the US West Coast (0532 GMT Monday).
New images of the rover's descent, taken from the vehicle itself, were shown on Nasa television, strung together in a video that depicted the spacecraft's heat shield deploying and dust kicked up before the rover landed wheels down.
Other black and white images show the rover's shadow and Mount Sharp in the distance, a mountain it aims to conquer as part of its two-year mission to explore Mars and analyze sediment layers that are up to a billion years old.
The images so far tend to be small, but high-resolution images are expected in the next couple of weeks.
"The spacecraft is oriented northwest-southeast, pointing forward toward Mount Sharp," said project scientist John Grotzinger. "This couldn't have been a better position to land in." However, Grotzinger said it may be a year before the rover arrives at the mountain in the centre of the planet's Gale Crater, as scientists first take a close look at soil and rock samples inside the crater.
"We would never want to just drive across the dunes as the shortest way to go there," he said.
According to Nasa chief engineer Miguel San Martin, the rover touched down inside the planned landing ellipse that spanned 12 by four miles (20 by six kilometers) at the foot of the mountain.
Further data in the coming days will give scientists a better idea of exactly where the rover landed.
Initial checks on the instruments on board have also come back positive, Nasa said.
When the landing was announced after a tense, seven-minute entry, descent and landing, Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory filled with jubilation as the mission team cheered and exchanged Mars chocolate bars.
President Barack Obama described the landing as "an unprecedented feat of technology that will stand as a point of national pride far into the future." Success had been anything but certain. Nasa's more recent rover drop-offs involved smaller craft that were cushioned with the help of airbags.
In the final moments, the MSL craft accelerated with the pull of gravity as it neared Mars's atmosphere, made a fiery entry at 13,200 miles per hour and then slowed with the help of a supersonic parachute.
An elaborate sky crane powered by rocket blasters then kicked in, and the rover was lowered down by nylon tethers, landing upright on all six wheels.
Engineer Adam Steltzner, leader of the entry, descent and landing team, who had previously admitted the landing bid appeared "crazy," said that in the end, it "looked extremely clean." Scientists do not expect Curiosity to find aliens or living creatures but they hope to use it to analyze soil and rocks for signs the building blocks of life are present and may have supported life in the past.
The project also aims to study the Martian environment to prepare for a possible human mission there in the coming years.
Obama has vowed to send humans to the planet by 2030.
The spacecraft has already collected data on radiation during its eight-and-a-half-month journey following launch in November 2011 from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Previous attempts by space agencies since 1960 have seen a near 40% success rate in sending landers, orbiters or other spacecraft to Mars.
via timeslive.co.za
We think it would be great to have more information on the actual technological achievement this landing represents. To change the approach from the bouncing cushion type landings to landing suspended beneath another part of the machine and lowered onto the surface of mars is a pretty stunning risk, and it worked! But to pursue this, really practical? For example, we have been to the moon in 1969, we are not able to change the atmosphere, there is no space station on the moon, nothing growing that we have left there, 1/6 the gravity of earth, so tough to survive long term without damage to the astronauts. There have been shows on the tv that have demonstrated that there are great mineral deposits that would be extremely valuable on earth, even justifying the cost of transportation. But wherey are there not a dozen Nasa type organizations trying to achieve this? Nine months to get to Mars, we believe, and therefore, nine months on the return journey. It is basically a geographic exploration. The scale of what they are trying to accomplish is very large, and needs much more energy put into the project to produce something tangible. 2030 + we are hearing to put someone up there. It is quite a while away.
Saturday 18 August 2012
Garden design ideas for summer | Garden designs - housetohome.co.uk
Transform your space with these simple ideas and style tricks.
Garden furniture sets - our pick of the best
Make the most of the warm weather and create an alfresco dining area that will be the envy of your neighbours.
Whether you have a tiny lawn or a narrow strip of gravel, our photo gallery is packed full of ideas to make it seem bigger.
Urban garden ideas - 10 design tricks
From modern seating areas to outdoor showers, give your garden a contemporary update.
Create a relaxing garden room in 9 easy steps.
Planning to redesign your outdoor space? Check out our favourite garden patios for summer 2010.
Garden decking - the latest looks
Not only is decking easy to maintain, it looks great, too. See which schemes made it into our photo gallery.
Garden design ideas - best of 2010
Check out our favourite outdoor living spaces.
Cheap flooring ideas for your outdoor space, from garden decking to artificial lawns.
Gravel gardens - 3 summer designs
Whether you want a low-maintenance garden, or a beautiful alternative to grass, gravel is a great way to transform your outdoor space.
NEXT: Quick-fix updates for your garden>>
Chosen by House to home
Some great summer garden ideas for you.
Saturday 11 August 2012
My garden on TV? Never again, Alan Titchmarsh - Telegraph
Somehow, it was decided that our distinctive and inescapable curving hedges would form the first inspiration. Do the owners of the other, yet-to-be-made-over garden, fancy that? This is where a little gentle manipulation came in. You like flowing, eh? You shall have, er, curves. A box ticked, for now.
Sensory was the next thing that the makeover garden owner wanted – how were we going to inspire that? Since it was early spring, we went out and examined our unsensual, wet garden. It was neither the season nor the weather for scent, so the other sensual activity which was suggested was stroking. Stroking at Veddw is liable to lead to the discovery of a concealed nettle.
I confessed that perhaps we weren’t really the inspirational garden they had been hoping for – although my suggestion of cacti as sensory plants was cruel, I admit. Our resourceful and valiant (if a little desperate by now) producer emailed me frantically, in thinking-aloud mode: “OK, let’s be objective here. If somebody in the know came to your garden, would they say there were sensory elements in it?”
Answer: Full of sensual curves which create a light and dark sensory experience. As for sound, well, there are the water features, and the rustling beech leaves (although there won’t be any, at this time of year).
“Anything else? Colour??” came the plaintive reply, along with further questions:
“Leaf texture – when you say the hostas will be half-out, could a camera make it look as if there are a lot out in a small section?
“Scent – are your nectaroscordum scented? If so, are they en masse?
“Touch – moss stones? What about the grasses? Where are they in the garden?
“Can we have a quick chat? Yours in hope…
“PS Do you have curved paths, as I don’t remember seeing them?”
The wonderful deep moss, which smothers our stone walls and random rocks, nurtured by the incessant rain, passed muster as sufficiently sensuous. These duly were ticked off and subsequently drooled over on the programme. But our two acres of intensively planted garden was not coming up trumps.
“Do we have any lavender?” we were asked. No, we’ve banished it, as it looks odd with our lush planting on the Welsh border. One more sensory plant? Anything scented and in flower? The producer tried hard. We tried hard – what about thyme, in place of lavender? A bit on the small side, came the slightly sniffy response. Lilac is scented and in flower – they end up a bit big, though, for a small town garden. The nectaroscordum smell very powerful – a sort of onion/garlic mix. Not quite what I would describe as sensuous. Oh, and our curves are definitely vertical and are formed by a hedge, not curved paths.
To compensate for our inadequacies, a generous van-load of herbs and grasses suddenly arrived for incorporation into our garden, in order to offer the required scent and stroke. I decorated the terrace with herbs and grasses, with some satisfaction at this unexpected bonus.
When, later, Alan Titchmarsh picked up a pot of rosemary from where I had placed it and plonked it unbecomingly in a chimney pot, I sighed and reassured myself that no one would notice, or think I could possibly have been responsible. The generous line of Stipa pennata looked superb, though — everyone would credit me with that wonderful touch, wouldn’t they? And, it has to be said, people love stroking them. Things were looking up.
The next – and, fortunately, the final – aspect we were to inspire was “outdoor eating”. Did we have a barbecue? Or were we… ahem… planning to get one, perhaps, soon, like, um, now? Well, it not being exactly a barbecue summer, no, not really, we replied. We do have a fire pit – will that do? It seemed not.
At this point, we suddenly started hearing less about the vital three inspirational elements. Fudging it became the order of the day. Curvy hedges were still in, and so had to be created overnight at the makeover garden. A challenge too far for anyone, even Alan, bearing in mind that five minutes before, the hedge had been a van-load of box plants in pots. The result was chunky rather than sharp.
Two months later, we were invited to see the results, and we can’t complain about the free publicity. Veddw popped up for quite a few minutes in an hour-long programme, however irrelevant it appeared to be, and our very odd name mentioned a generous number of times. Plus, I had my picture taken with Alan. What more could any girl ask?
Anne Wareham’s garden featured in episode two of Love Your Garden, available on ITV Player
Veddw House Garden, Devauden, Monmouthshire, is open Sundays and Bank Holidays from 2pm-5pm until August 27. Adults £6.50, under 14’s £1.50. Group visits by appointment
(01291 650 836; veddw.com)
via telegraph.co.uk
In this section of garden design Crouch End, we have found an interesting article that gives some insights about what goes in to making a television gardening show. It is not always the polished edits that make up the final product we see on our television screens!
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