Planting for sandy soil

Anyone who possesses heavy sticky clay soil will always pine for a light, sandy soil, yet this is not the best soil. Although much easier to cultivate, the main problems with a light sandy soil is compaction and the inability to retain water and nutrients.
As the sand particles are small, rain will wash through these particles and cause them to ‘pan’ or form a hard surface crust, making it difficult for young plants to establish. This type of soil is free draining, so although it can be easier to dig in autumn or spring, saving your back, it will dry out quickly in summer so plants need to withstand periods of drought. It is this rapid loss of water that leaches out nutrients also, so to sum up, plants will be hungry, thirsty and slow to establish!

The key step to improving sandy soil is the addition of organic matter in large quantities, year after year. Manure, compost, green waste, leaf mould, or mushroom compost – all contain something called humus – a black fibrous material formed from organic matter of decomposed plant or animal residues. This will coat individual soil particles, helping retain water, nutrients and give structure to the soil.

Some planting ideas to get you started are...

Grasses
Helictotrichon sempervirens

Trees
Amelanchier lamarkii
Cercis siliquastrum
Robinia pseudoacacia ‘Frisia’

Climbers
Jasminium officinale

Perennials
Agapanthus ‘Bressingham White’
Echinops ritro ‘Veitch’s Blue’
Kniphofia ‘Little Maid’

Shrubs
Artemisia ‘Powys castle’
Caryopteris x clandonensis ‘Heavenly Blue’
Philadelphus coronarius

A Touch of Frost

Just as we prepare for winter, changing our habits and clothing, plants are quietly going through changes too. The most striking of these is leaves turning to lovely autumnal colours. This occurs as the chlorophyll degrades in the leaf, so we can see the other pigments that are there all year too, but masked by the green chlorophyll. These include orange carotenoids, purple-red anthocyanin, and yellow xanthophylls. Hormones then cause the leaves then abcise, (from the Latin ‘to cut off’), thereby protecting them from winter frost damage.

Evergreen plants protect their leaves from freezing by using their own ‘antifreeze’. This is just a high percentage of dissolved sugar and amino acids in the cells, which lowers the freezing point of water.
This is the reason why late spring frosts can be so devastating to fresh blossom and new leaves, as these changes have not occurred. Once the fluid contained within the cell has frozen, it expands and breaks the cell wall beyond repair.

The shortening days also induces dormancy in many plants, an example being the transformation of buds to withstand the cold days ahead with thick protective scales (as can clearly be seen on Horse Chestnuts).

Plant of the Month – EUONOMUS alatus

Pronounced ewe-on-i-mus ah-lah-tus, the Winged Spindle bush, which is the common name, can be relied upon to provide rich, striking autumn colour year after year.

During October and November, its small deciduous leaves change from dark green, first to rosy pink, then to a more vibrant crimson, clinging to the branches for ages.
It is a bushy dense shrub, relatively slow-growing, but when mature reaching 8 feet (2.5m) high and wide. Adapting to most conditions providing there is reasonable drainage, and will tolerate either sun or shade.

The inconspicuous greenish flowers in summer are followed by purple and red fruits with scarlet seeds, but one word of caution though, all parts of this plant are toxic.
Once the leaves have fallen, it has a winter skeleton of branches with conspicuous flattened ‘wings’ suggesting its common name.

Extension of 15% software discount offer!

Our 15% discount offer for membership of our Garden Design Software package has proved really popular throughout the month of June - so we have decided to extend it...

***JUNE SPECIAL OFFER - 15% DISCOUNT OFF MEMBERSHIP!!!***

Summer holidays are on the way, so now is the perfect time to get planning with Garden Design Pro. Use the code gdpro15 in the checkout for 15% off membership, Click Here to take a look...

A simple solution to suit all skill levels and budgets, giving you the tools to create garden designs in 3D - based around Google's SketchUp software. It's easy to learn, quick to use and low cost - starting at just £16.15+VAT with our 15% discount offer!

• Solution based on the Google SketchUp (as used by designers and landscapers worldwide)
• 360+ (and growing) components and plants to 'Drag-and-Drop' and create designs in minutes, not hours!
• 36 'Ready-made' borders to suit your style and conditions - buy plants online for home delivery
• Perfect for beginners, homeowners, students, garden designers and landscapers - try out our FREE sample package to see how powerful it is!
• A 25-page 'e-book' covering the major aspects of creating a design to download FREE - Click Here to take a look...
• All plants in software (including 36 'Ready-made' borders) available to buy online for home delivery! All 'ready-made' garden borders have a 2D PDF planting plan and planting list, which links to the Crocus online nursery - Click Here to take a look...

15% off Garden Design Software in June!

JUST OVER 3 MONTHS SINCE LAUNCH!

At just over 3 months old, our Garden Design Software package now has over 250 clients and is growing fast. Development continues with more patio components, block pavers, terracotta tiles, granite setts, walling and more added - and our 'Design Your Own Garden' guide has proved popular, alongside the ability to order your plants online, for home delivery.

We have lots more garden and plant components under construction now, as we continue to build on the existing 360+ components...

WHAT IS 'GARDEN DESIGN PRO'?

A simple solution to suit all skill levels and budgets, giving you the tools to create garden designs in 3D - based around Google's SketchUp software. It's easy to learn, quick to use and low cost - starting at just £16.15+VAT in June!

• Solution based on the Google SketchUp (as used by designers and landscapers worldwide)
• 360+ (and growing) components and plants to 'Drag-and-Drop' and create designs in minutes, not hours!
• 36 'Ready-made' borders to suit your style and conditions - buy plants online for home delivery
• Perfect for beginners, homeowners, students, garden designers and landscapers - try out our FREE sample package to see how powerful it is!

***JUNE SPECIAL OFFER - 15% DISCOUNT OFF MEMBERSHIP***

Summer holidays are on the way, so June is the perfect time to get planning with Garden Design Pro. Use the code gdpro15 in the checkout for 15% off membership, if you join before the end of June. Click Here to take a look...

CAN YOU DESIGN YOUR OWN GARDEN?

Many homeowners want to produce a design for themselves, so to help we've released an exclusive guide to designing your own garden, written by leading designer, author and TV presenter David Stevens.

A 25-page 'e-book' covering the major aspects of creating a design. All 'Garden Design Pro' software members can download it FREE. Click Here to take a look...

ORDER YOUR PLANTS ONLINE, FOR HOME DELIVERY!

All plants in our software (including the 36 'Ready-made' borders) are available to buy online for home delivery, making it easy to create professionally designed borders.

Each plant in our component catalogue has a link through to the Crocus website where you can buy online. All 'ready-made' garden borders have a 2D PDF planting plan and planting list, which also links through to Crocus. Click Here to take a look...

Garden Design Pro software updated with new Walling components for Google's SketchUp!

We've just updated our Garden Design Pro software again, this time adding the first of a whole new range of Walling components for use with Google's SketchUp program.

The first additions (located within the 'GE Edging' category) include a rustic slate style, old fashioned brick walling, traditional stone and a contemporary granite effect wall. Our software members can download them now HERE (you need to be logged-in to access the Zip file downloads).

We have plenty more ready for release soon, before we begin work on more planting components...

If you want to know more about our unique, lo-cost and professional quality software to design your own garden - CLICK HERE for more...

New SketchUp walling components in development

We are currently working on a range of new SketchUp walling components for our Garden Design Pro software, which should be ready for members to download in the next week or so, including dry-stone wall effects, modern contemporary walls, natural pitched stone walling and traditional brick.

For more details on what's already available to download to create your own 3D garden design - CLICK HERE...

The Garden Network gets a new owner

After just over a year, it's time to hand The Garden Network to someone new, as I'm expecting another child, so will soon be looking after '2 under 20 months' very soon! So with my hands full running Toddington Manor's gardens, our courses and tours, plus Applegate Gardens and Garden Design Pro - something has to give! As of the 27th of March, Tim Matcham of Tim Matcham Garden Design, Wiltshire will be running the TGN website.

TGN has been great fun to get off the ground, the first and easily largest of its kind - unique in the professional way its members have participated and contributed, including the established trade associations. I was happy to hand the site over to Tim, because he intends to continue in its original guise of a FREE website, helping small businesses and homeowners to meet, network and improve gardens.

TGN has grown very quickly in the last 12 months with a peak of over 100 new members signing up in just one day from approx 1,000 unique visitors, and nearly 8,000 members in total. It really shows whats possible by organic growth on the internet, without advertising, any PR, 'dirty-tricks' campaigns or traditional press coverage - just an original concept, professionally managed and exposed to a large online audience. Long may it continue!

I've met some interesting members in the last year, doing some great work - which has been very enjoyable, we are lucky to have some great people in this industry. There are however, still some quite outdated opinions around and we did get some hostility from some of the associations initially (understandably I guess), but once the site proved itself to be professional, it was good to see evryone participate. We have certainly influenced the future shape of this industry online, which is set to change dramatically over the coming 12 months...

Good luck to Tim and all the best with TGN, hopefully everyone will make you feel welcome!

Free e-book for software members

All our Garden Design Pro software members can now download the FREE e-book by leading garden designer, author and TV presenter David Stevens.

This 25-page 'e-book' is packed full of real-world advice on creating a wonderful new outdoor room for yourself. This detailed tutorial covers use of space, dealing with plot shapes, planting design, construction techniques, materials and more - to take a look CLICK HERE...

Garden Design Pro's 100th client!

8 weeks has flown by since launching Garden Design Pro and we have just welcomed our 100th client! We are continuing with development of the software, and have more SketchUp components due for release next week.

We are also in the process of migrating our 'Latest News' area's to one central, easily managed Blog - so you can keep up to date with all our news and developments with the software, ready-made garden designs, border planting plans, free downloads and more.