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Greetings!
Tim Durrant - Wanaka
People often ask me at if things get a bit slower over the winter months, and I reply with my usual response "the pace of landscaping never slows, we are busy". People are getting stuck into creating & improving their own slice of paradise whatever their means. For example we can see what is typed into the directory search panel. Most would assume that visitors would be searching for products and services relevant to the season in response to their immediate needs; shade products in summer for example. But the truth is in the pudding; in the past month visitors are researching swimming pools, awnings, glass walls, umbrellas, big palms, wooden gates, brush fences, fish, irrigation, paving, sculpture, letterboxes and the list goes on.
What does this tell me?
This tells me there are a whole lot of wise folk out there planning to put their feet up, job done and get down to good stuff in summer. When I was designing there was always a rush before Christmas, a crazy season to get everything ready for clients to entertain family and friends over the summer break. For those of you who saw me project manage our Ellerslie garden last year on Close up, while simultaneously managing this business over the phone, the whole project went right down to the wire; like a mini build up to Christmas. Hold on a minute, isn't this supposed to be pleasurable?

We all live and learn and while Ellerslie is a special case it still taught me once again that good things take time and planning, and what's that got to do with the price of milk you might ask?
 
"The best time to plant a tree was 30 years ago and the next best time is right now!"
 
So if you are considering some changes or new spaces for your landscape garden whats the next step?
 
The first step to planning is design and brainstorming and as an aside that's the reason I called this site landscape design, because everything should begin with good design. An example of this is Wally's article about The Doctrine of Signatures. Whoever designed the walnut may have had a hand in the designing brains.

walnut

I won't get into the other parts of the anatomy as I will leave that to Wally's article and the birds and the bees. But one thing we can take from this is that there was a plan.  Careful planning and allowing time to do the groundwork such as removing all weeds and preparing the soil with compost is kind of like stripping a house before painting.  
 
So the go is get into it and plan - consider your time as 1/3 planning 1/3 creating 1/3 maintaining as a rule of thumb.
 
So I have touched on religion, the occult, the birds and the bees now a wee spot of local politics.
 
There's a bit of a stoush on about one of New Zealand's treasured landscapes, Ocean Beach on the east coast of Hawke's Bay is subject to controversial development.
 

This is Ocean Beach.
Ocean Beach Hawkes Bay

This is a Billboard.
Tui Oceasn Beach Billboard

 
In recent weeks, Hill Country has conducted extensive road-building at Ocean Beach, on the land Andy Lowe would like to develop - - -or was it preserve?!  You can view recent developments in this slide show.
 
So in the words of Denis Denitto "in summing up it's Marbo, its the law, it just the vibe of the thing" and yes the pace of landscaping can be fast; but for those of us who appreciate beautiful landscapes and the centuries it has taken them to evolve, we might want the planing process to be transparent for this New Zealand treasure.

Have your say >>
Make a comment at the bottom of this article on the landsacpedesign.co.nz Advice and Inspiration Pages - you night even like to reserve a section?
LIGHT YOUR WINTER GARDEN - Tim Durrant

It's this time of year that garden lighting can make a sparse winter garden come to life.

Well designed landscape lighting highlights sculptural plants, silhouettes sculptural forms and lights dark pathways. Not only does garden lighting work in a practical sense for safety and security but can unfold the natural beauty of your winter garden.

Light your winter Garden Light your Winter Garden

Timers, solar panels and low voltage LED lighting mean your power bill does not have to keep you awake at night.
Here are a few of my quick tips for lighting your landscape:
Read More >>

Wally Richards

Recently a reader sent me an email that linked to a web site which was about the Doctrine of Signatures.

Herbalists in days gone by found that certain whole foods or herbs had a signature which indicated to the wise, what part of the human body that particular food was good for either in healing or to fortify.

Toatoe

The web site gave a range of whole foods and explained what part of the body the food looked similar too and now with modern science we can determine the truth of these ancient beliefs.
Here are some examples:

When you slice a Carrot through the section looks like the human eye. The pupil, iris and radiating lines look just like the human eye. Science now shows that carrots greatly enhance blood flow to and function of the eyes.

A Tomato has four chambers and is red. The heart is red and has four Chambers. All of the research shows tomatoes are indeed pure heart and blood food.

Read More >>

 
 
Thank you all for your support and feedback -
If you are interested in how we can help your business please call us on 0800547 865 or email info@landscapedesign.co.nz
Kind Regards,
 

Tim Durrant and the Landscapedesign.co.nz Team

In This Issue
What does this tell me?
Nuts for Brains
Politics
Light your winter garden
The Doctrine of Signatures
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