Stunningly Beautiful Building

I spent an inspiring evening last week at the Archetects' Journal's Small Projects Awards Ceremony with my nephew Bryn Hallett.

He has just completed his Part 2 Diploma at CAT and along with 2 colleagues, Catherine Watton and Tom Barnes had been short-listed for their beautiful timber bird hide.

Built on site over 5 days.

  

  The bird hide with its large overhangs interacts with the light during the day, sunlight filtering through in shards creating a pleasant dappled light within. Bryn told me ' The skin is the structure and the structure is the skin, the walls, roof and seating are integrated into one structure '.        

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What a wonderful place to spend an evening

For the project, the bird hide was built using local organically grown untreated timber which was cut in a local saw mill. It has been designed to achieve minimal waste by using the offcuts to form spacers between the timber.
 They are now planning to use this template to create unusual, sculptural garden rooms or play houses in a variety of woods. Contact Bryn at brynhallett@gmail.com for more info.

An inspiring structure for education purposes.  

Posted by Anne

Winter Interest at Dartington Hall

During the half term break I made a sneaky visit home to Devon for some much needed fresh air and countryside. I always love visiting the gardens at Dartington Hall for their understated style and elegance. The planting is at its best, for me, during the freshness of spring when swathes of bulbs are combined with magnificent magnolias, camellias and cherry blossom. There is always something beautiful to admire here however and February is no exception.

Fresh white and green, Snowdrops cover the grassy banks

Snowdrops are always a welcome sight and look great amongst these Epimeduim leaves.

In a quiet corner a mass planting of Hamamelis sp. overwhelms you with its citrus scent. Later as the new leaves of the witch hazel begin to open this area is carpeted with a mass of Anemone blanda and other spring bulbs.

For real impact at a particular time of year mass together a single species of plant.

The formal yew hedge acts as a foil to the yellow spidery flowers.

I couldn't resist adding this friendly fellow.

Another plant which appears here en masse at this time of year is the Helleborus x hybridus. Don't forget to trim off last year's leaves to view the flowers at their best.

The pink shade of this one went rather nicely with the fresh green of the leaves

 Since my last visit this beautiful decked viewing platform / walkway has been built. The craftsmanship is superb as with everything here. I love the chunky granite supports echoed by the granite setts which line the inner edge of the deck.

I love a garden where craftmanship is appreciated and supported 

Posted by Jo

Garden Lighting

This week I had the pleasure of attending a garden lighting master class at John Cullen Lighting run by the eminently knowledgeable Sally. What stood out most for me is the huge progress made in the development of low energy LED's. It is now possible to light your garden using the same amount of energy as a single table lamp inside the house. Two fittings stood out, the Kew spiked spotlight and the Lucca recessed wall or uplight. Both these lamps are just one watt and give a lovely warm light similar to tungsten. The strength of the beam is impressive for the wattage and you could easily and effectively light an urban garden with just these two fittings.

While we are talking lighting, for a real extravaganza of a show I recommend  the Enchanted Woodland Xmas Walk held each year at Sion House in Kew. This outing has become a family tradition for us although it always takes us by surprise how early in December it closes so don't be caught out by that as we were last year.

Competing with the moon.

The walk meanders around a large lake giving plenty of beautiful reflections although you really need a tripod to make the most of those shots.

Unsuitable for trees, the one watt lights I mentioned above could easily create effects like this by spotlighting individual plants.

Well that's just showing off.

Colourful effects have been created here for this large scale event. For the private garden I would always recommend using white light unless you want to create a party atmosphere.

Architectural plants make great subjects

The laser show brings the walk to a real climax.

The walk culminates in a stroll through the amazing Great Conservatory which is said to have inspired Joseph Paxton in his designs for the Crystal Palace. Things have been shaken up a little since then, I wonder what he would have made of the laser show set to music.