Are you a designer searching for inspiration to show your clients ?

If you want a sample of different treatments that can be applied to gardens and landscapes check out houzz.com

As some of you may already know, Houzz was born in 2009 …………… it started as a small project, ……..connecting other homeowners from [the] kids’ school with local professionals in the San Francisco Bay Area. But our project quickly took on a life of its own, reaching professionals and homeowners across the country and around the world.

Too often garden design is left behind the other design professions (architecture and interior designers etc). Its not due to a lack of committed professionals its just that mainstream gardening tends to celebrate the colourful and quaint – gardens are not often seen as the place for cutting edge.

Thank goodness for Houzz. An opportunity to educate the garden design eye.

The website is American and contributors are worldwide.

Importantly it allows garden design the space to grow up.  Garden design sits amongst some rather god damn sexy architecture – and its all happening now. As designers design and the gardens get built the outcomes are documented for the world to consume.

Whilst the website is ecclectic in its fashion it appreciates cutting edge. houzz.com provides a contemporary design vocabularly for those in search of a garden design response that is more 2013 than 1903.

Hurruh

Importantly the website also offers strong design tools.

A place to collect all your ideas and then share with your client – fabulous.

Houzz also allows a designer to borrow and reference the ideas of other designers.

This is a true sharing website.

It documents design thinking in time and holds your design memory.

Garden Beet stumbled across houzz in 2009 – and yes it has grown!

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Image source: IKea JOESF Cabinet £40

 My Shed 2012-1954

Am looking for an off the shelf shed solution to store my increasing collection of garden accessories. Directly above is an image of my former ugly shed – it was in my rear yard since 1954 and was pulled down towards  the end of 2012 .

A part from its sheer uglyness it was poorly designed and took up way to much space.

The contents of my shed is now scattered around the garden and I need a new storage solution.

I am begining to realise that shed design has been given little consideration  – at least in Australia and the UK.

There are cedar alternatives but that look is rather last century.

English: Cedar Wood Storage Shed (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Source: spaceconcepts.com.au

Of course there is a plastic range but that is not my style at all. Yuk.

 Then there are a whole gamut of galvanised steel solutions as shown below. Without fail these products are designed and built for a male with no aesthetic appreciation. The detailing is hum drum and the colour palette too boring to list.

The shape however is correct.

Since my property boundaries require screening (to gain privacy from my immediate neighbours) I am keen to explore a storage solution that is linear. I need height to screen the neighbours and length to create impact.

Absco Spacesaver Garden Shed – 3m x 0.78m x 1.95m Colorbond

I need a bright orange, pink or white or even a teal powder coated steel shed. None of the big box hardware stores address this issue.

The first image shown at the begining of this article is the only colourful outdoor cupboard or shed that I can find. The product is made by Ikea (of course).

I always look to Houzz for contemporary design inspiration. All the designs referenced on this website are bespoke. Bespoke means cost and therefore are often inaccessible for the majority. Yet again another product design opportunity.

http://www.houzz.com/photos/modern/garage-and-shed-products

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Grand Designs in Melbourne Australia is featuring some pretty fabulous plant inspired products this year. Many of them related to the living wall trend.

The sculptural ‘Barrel of Monkey’ planters shown above is beautiful. The designer (Adam Cornish) has integrated the structure of the plant with the form of its container. Rather than trying to screen the container with foliage the planter is given full design consideration.

There is a clever wick feature that keeps the root ball hydrated – but once again this is a temporary home for a plant – many plants would soon outgrow the confined space.

The ‘Monkeys’ can hang in coloumns or as a single. Pricing is a bit expensive.

Garden Beet like this product a lot.

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Here are photos of rather fun planters in a shop window in the ever so groovy strip of High Street Shops in Northcote, Melbourne Australia.

Don’t know how long the dinosaur can remain a home for the plants but its certainly a novel idea.

The shop next door to the dinosaur display had an arrangement of knitted cactus.

Two doors down a series of air plants were growing in bottles.

Plants in obscure settings are certainly hip for those into the alternative merchandising scene.

Nice.

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Photo: inhabitat

The new living wall planter  from Woolly Pocket has been unveiled in the USA. I keep thinking ‘Do I really want an object in my living room  that screams ‘plastic container’ on my wall?’ I suppose minigarden is glaringly plastic  – and that is a favourite amongst Garden Beet customers – but it is a neater design.

Its great the new product by Woolly Pocket will allow a plant’s root system to breathe (allows a plant’s root system to remain healthy without become pot bound) but I would rather the soft Wally Pocket.

In fact I may forgo plant longevity for a beautiful ceramic wall planter – afterall the new wall planter  is just one single unit – not a large living wall – does it really matter that the plant may need repotting in 1-3 years time?

Recycled plastic innovations have a habit of looking clumpy. This item is not a favourite – but Garden Beet’s taste aint everyone’s cup of tea.

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Well done  Thomas Heatherwick (designer of the Olympic flame turn cauldron). Spectacular!!

Garden Beet has already had requests for a fire-pits-cum-culdron for british private garden ceremonies.

Garden Beet does not stock fire pits – plenty of others do -  but if you want a tiny flame we recommend our Pebblecube Tea LIght Holders

We are thinking our metal flowers may be a bit of an Olympic hit as well? Remember the flower torches?

The metal will reflect the light of a small or large flame nicely. Please take a look at our Copper poppies and metal arums – both metal flowers are designed by UK artists – all made by hand. Now that can only be good!

Support British designers during the Olympics!

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This weekend Garden Beet weeded its grantic sand, prunned its banksia hedge and then went inside with some garden centre finds.

Garden Centres can be viewed as a haberdashery store. Stop and look around – they can be a fabulous resource.

Taking items designed for the outdoors and bringing them inside can create some interesting moments – and of course visa versa.

I grabbed some very cheap luminous green netting designed to protect fruit from feeding birds.

I have circled the plastic netting around an old light wire frame (Ikea Australia) and combined it with some sheer fabric that I grabbed at a Habitat Closing Down Sale (in the UK).

Am still experimenting with my new take on a chandelier. I was inspired by the guys at Magpie in South Africa – those guys create fabulous lights from waste plastic – their lights can be seen at Anthropoligie in London and of course in South Africa. Check out this post for some inspiration

Magpie Lights

Now just need to get these lights suitable for outdoor living and we have a new product ready for Garden Beet.com

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Muehlenbeckia complexa creatures 101129-0655 (Photo credit: Tony Rodd)

Bejesus – ABC Garden Show just announced hedging and topiary is back.

Burgon and Ball in the UK announced it 2 months ago.

I thought it may have been happening when I saw these creatures in Melbourne’s Botanical Gardens a good 12 months ago.

So yep its happening.

Gardening is a very ‘in the moment pass time’ . Shape making with the green stuff even more so.  Maybe there is a need for some wacky hedging classes for stressed out office workers?

ooohh I have a feeling the buxus is about to look totally kooky.

Anyone ready to start giving Topiary Classes with a meditative edge -  Topirate NOW

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The Only Way Is Up!

Visitors to this year’s BBC Gardeners World at the NEC cannot fail to be impressed by the wall of wonder that is on display outside the floral marquee. By using Woolly Pockets, supplied by Garden Beet, the Gardeners World Living Wall demonstrates just how fun and versatile vertical gardening can be.

Bugs, Sun, Shade and Visitor Participation!

New to the show this year, this amazing interactive feature, showcases three vertical gardening ideas, for different plant types;

Shade loving plants, including hostas, ferns and fuchsias adorn one side, whilst sun lovers like trailing geranium and nasturtium display their beauty on the other. The third living wall highlights bee, bug and butterfly friendly plants that attract pollinators to the garden.

Interactive Fun For Good Causes

Half of each wall has been left available for visitors to bring along their own plants and help plant it up, so they can experience for themselves just how easy and fun it is to create a living wall. After the show the Woolly Pockets and the plants will be donated to three local schools;-

St Thomas More Catholic Primary School; Fox Hollies School; and Performing Arts College and President Kennedy School.

Presenters get the public to “Grow up!”

BBC Gardeners World presenters, Joe Swift, Rachel de Thame, Carol Klein and Monty Don will be on hand by the living wall this weekend to offer advice and get the public learning all about “growing up!” There is a special feature on vertical gardening that will be show on BBC Gardeners World on Friday 15^th June.

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 Photo: John Connel

This is the neatest installation of Woolly Pockets I have seen. Built for the Oceans Stand at this years Chelsea Flower Show (2012).

The wall recess is going to allow the plants to be flush with surrounding surfaces. Perfect.

Occasionally I hear Woolly Pockets getting a bad wrap (not from people who have used the product – its usually people who have never gardened with a Woolly Pocket and are involved in green wall construction). The argument is usually centred around the pockets not being a product suitable for commercial purposes. There is a perception that fabric is not an enduring green wall product. This is not true. Plants thrive in the fabric because the root system breathes.

The other complaint I hear about Woolly Pockets is its tendency to have a slight bulge. It can lack the sleek flat architectural finish created by other green wall products such as Easiwall .

Well finally I have an image of a constructed wall that shows how to create sleek architectural design with Woolly Pockets.

Recess the pockets.

The image above and below illustrate that Woolly Pockets can be taken a step further. The pockets can create a sharp appearance to any outdoor space providing the Woolly Pockets are allowed to inform the design of the built form.

As an aside I would be interested to know if they put an incline on the base ledge for drainage ?

And how are the designers running the irrigation to the wall?

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