Winter 2008

All Seasons Answer To The Recession

I find Autumn a season of nostalgia and it would be a stolid soul who can watch the swallows eagerly discussing their holiday plans without a wistful glance at the travel posters. Fortunately, nature has undertaken to divert us from the moment of weakness with one of its most generous displays.

Lustrous golden mists at morning and for a brief while, the mildest mannered garden throws decorum to the winds and puts on a performance more usually associated with the frost painted falls of New England. Foliage commands the scene, but it is not the only contributor of colour in our autumn gardens. We have the startling brightness of hips, haws and cotoneaster berries along with the warmth of chrysanthemums, pinks and mauves of asters and the overflowing flower boxes of cyclamens and skimmia.

All Seasons reaction to the “Recession”

What a dismal summer we have had, rain followed by more rain, then just as the sun comes out and many of us are looking forward to a beautiful Autumn, the rain starts falling on our financial world.

But when the going gets tough, Drusilla goes back to basics. After five years of focusing on the landscaping side of gardening, we have re-launched All Seasons Gardening (see below.) We have also introduced All Seasons Handyman.

Frequently our gardening clients have ask us to deal with other small jobs around the house, interior or exterior, while we are on site doing their gardens, and we are happy to oblige. This got me thinking about providing a service that provided help with all the little home maintenance jobs that build up and offered the same level of commitment, service and quality as All Seasons Design & Landscaping bring to gardens.

I mentioned the service to two existing clients who immediately took us up on it and rather quickly produced long lists of things they needed doing around the house including:

Fixing the bathroom door so that it closes
Mending the light cable for the bathroom
Attaching coat hooks under the stairs
Fixing the door bell
Installing the new dishwasher
Re-attaching the knocker on the front door
Fix the light switch in the hall at the top of the stairs
Attaching new bathroom taps
Painting the downstairs loo
Installing a dog flap
Cleaning and mending the guttering
Pressure washing the front steps
Assembling flat pack furnature

We know that a happy customer is a repeat customer so it is in everyone’s best interest to complete the job on time, at the price quoted and with the quality of service expected.

Why not find out for yourself? We’d be happy to help you with any maintenance issues that you many have or small decorating or building projects.

Re-launch of All Seasons Gardening

In my intent to re-launch All Seasons Gardening, over the past two months I have been sending all my lads to Merrist Wood Agricultural College for refresher courses in gardening, and we are now prepared for the Autumn.

It is time to be cutting back all herbaceous plants, planting the wide selection of spring flowering bulbs (Alliums, Tulips, Crocus’s and Daffodils,) tying in all the climbers pre Autumn winds, sweeping up the full flurry of autumn leaves and giving the lawn its last cut. If time and energy levels permit, there is still the jet washing of the paving and garden furniture.

To book a Tidy Day just call 020 8671 3290 or send me an e-mail and I will come over with one of my strapping chaps to sort out the garden for you. Our minimum fee is £240 for which we supply two of us for half a day, which is enough to get most gardens shipshape for winter.

Jobs To Do For The Autumn

Trees & Shrubs

Bare root rose shipping season

The traditional time to plant bare root roses is fast approaching. In November and December, rose suppliers will start to dispatch their bare root roses. It is a good idea to order promptly as stock of some varieties are limited. English Roses planted in the autumn/winter will flower in their first season, providing a succession of beautiful, fragrant blooms to enjoy all summer long.

We recommend David Austin for quality. They have two lovely English roses on offer this month: Grace and The Pilgrim. Both repeat flower which in small spaces is definitely a plus.
Grace is a lovely shrub rose, which produces loads of neat rosettes in shades of apricot. The Pilgrim is grown as a climber, ideal for a pergola, wall, arch, pillar or obelisk. It can also be trained to grow along a fence in any London garden.

www.davidaustinroses.com

Other Planting and Shrub Maintenance

Plant the last of your deciduous trees and shrubs, providing the soil isn’t waterlogged.
Carry out all necessary pruning – such as thinning summer flowering shrubs, cutting back invasive roots and overhanging branches and general shaping.
Cut back all your Herbaceous plants.
Plant out the spring flowering bulbs. Capital Gardens, East Sheen Garden Center, B&Q and Homebase all have lovely selections of spring flowering bulbs, so now is the time to be filling up the flower beds and pots for spring next year be they Tulips Daffodils, Lillies, or some small Crocuses for the lawn.

Lawns:

If you are thinking of re-laying your lawn, now is an excellent time to lay turf. You will not have to ban the children from walking on it, nor do you have to water it a great amount. It is laid, and then settles in over the winter, ready for the spring.

Keep all existing lawns free of fallen leaves and other debris, otherwise the grass will yellow.
Give the lawn one more cut before sending your lawnmower to have its annual service. In this way, you will not have the problem of a tatty lawn in the early spring when it is always too wet to mow
Do send your mower to be serviced. Blunt blades are one of the main reasons behind badly cut lawns. We use Bill Austin at 300 Garrett Lane, SW18. Don’t be put off by the shop front, the man is a genius. Tel: 020 8874 4206

General Maintenance

Keep lawns and flower beds free of fallen leaves.
Re-firm the soil around plants which may have loosened after periods of wind, rain or frost.
Dig any empty borders, removing weeds between established plants, and apply a light ground covering mulch (I am a big fan of old horse manure)

Maintaining and cleaning garden furniture

Garden furniture can be a costly investment, so it's worth protecting it from the worst of the winter weather.

If you have space, store your furniture in your garage or shed after cleaning it. Brush loose dirt from wooden chairs and tables, and wipe down plastic and metal ones.
Where storage space is limited, tie on heavy-duty waterproof covers to keep the rain and dirt off. Most garden centers and DIY stores now stock covers for garden furniture of all shapes and sizes.
Wooden furniture that must be left outside should be raised off the ground and tipped forward slightly by positioning bricks under the feet. This stops the legs remaining damp for long periods and allows water to drain from the seat.
If you haven’t recently done so, wash down wooden furniture with a suitable cleaning product and treat with a preservative.
Metal garden furniture needs to be cleaned and checked for rust. This can appear in plastic-coated furniture if there are cracks in the plastic. Treat with rust preventing paint after removing loose material. Joints and fixings may need oiling to allow free movement.

Autumn Colour

Trees:

Parrotia Persica is one of the most majestic of al trees in autumn when its spreading branches are cloaked in deep red foliage. Spidery flowers appear in winter.

Shrubs:

Shrubs have a variety of roles to play in autumn. Ther are many that follower at this time of year, while others bear colourful fruit, but it is for their foliage colours that most autumn shrubs are prize.

The flaming foliage of Aronia arbutifolia brings the vibrant colours of the north American “fall” to British autumnal gardens. The fun of this plant is the combination of leaf and berry colour which can last till December.

Height 6-8ft, Spread 4-6ft

The berries of Berberis thumbergii ‘Atropurpurea’ contrast with the rich damson of the shrubs early autumn foliage colours.

Dense dark purple summer foliage turns flaming red in late autumn, highlighted by a host of luminous scarlet berries

Height 4-6ft, Spread 5ft.

Climbers:

Clematis tangutica.

Yellow flowers like hanging lanterns and leaves elegantly dissected into small leaflets make this clematis a welcome midsummer friend and the flowers fade in October they form globes of skiky, feathery tipped seed heads

Height 25ft – 30ft.

The huge rounded leaves, up to 1ft across, of this lusty vine, form old decorative patterns all though spring and summer. In Autumn the effect is enhanced by the blood red and burnished copper of the leaves.

Height 50ft or more

Plant Pin-up

Stylish Cimicifuga:

Cimicifuga is a slightly unusual herbaceous plant, with tall, elegant, upright spires, often over a meter in height, showing white flowers late in the season, long after the summer display is over.

There are between 12 and 18 types of flowering plants in the family and all are native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere.
The name Cimicifuga means “bedbug repeller” !

The plants revel in partial shade, where the flowers are sheltered from weather and so last longer than in exposed positions. If slightly supported by surrounding twiggy stems it will not need staking, and will grow into a more natural shape.

Many of the varieties have a stunning dark purple bronze foliage and all have long, white or off-white flowers.

All Seasons News

New website

As many of you will know, for I have been mooching around various gardens we have built over the past year, with a photographer called Joel.

This was in order to update our website. All involved are rather pleased with the result. Do please feel free to have a look

www.allseasonslandscaping.co.uk

Loyalty

For those of you who have had us build you a garden, if you are happy with the work that we have done, do please tell your friends. Should they then use us on their garden, we will give your garden a tidy up for no charge as a thank you.

New Gardens

For those of you who have just moved, don’t forget to let us know, for as previous clients, we will offer you a 10% discount on your next garden.

National Garden News

New legislation on planning permission to pave ones front gardens

I had a meeting earlier this month with head honcho at Wandsworth Planning to clarify the ambiguity of the new legislation that came into effect at the beginning of this month. For all my right wing scoffing at the powers that be, there are two genuine problems to be dealt with.

Drains in urban areas are old and not able to cope with our increased rainfall. More water is entering the drains from new developments and paving front gardens adds to the problem. Paving over one or two gardens wont make a difference, but the combined effect is increasing the risk of flooding.

But this isn’t the only problem. Surfaces such as paving, concrete and asphalt collect pollution (oil, petrol, brake dust etc) that are then washed off into the drains. Rainwater then carries these directly to streams or rivers where the pollution damages wildlife and the wider environment.

In older areas the rainwater may go into the foul water sewer which normally takes household waste from bathrooms and kitchens to the sewage treatment works. These overflow into streams and rivers in heavy rainfall. As more water runs into foul sewers from paved areas there are more frequent overflows, passing untreated sewage into watercourses. Eugh.

To clarify some points:

It only applies to front gardens, not to back terraces and patios.
You need to apply for planning permission to lay any new surface exceeding 5sq metres that prevents water passing through it into the soil beneath ie paving slabs laid on a cement base, and tarmac.
However, all surfaces that are laid with permeable (or porous) material which allows water to drain through, such as gravel, block paving or porous asphalt, is permitted without planning permission.
There is one condition that we are working with. You need not apply for planning IF you control the water run off, ie if the rainwater is directed onto a lawn or flower bed. It is only when rain water is allowed to run off onto the pavement and street that they are concerned.