Landscape Tips

Why You Need Professional Landscaping Services for Your Home or Business Many home and business owners may believe that landscaping is purely for aesthetic appearances, but it goes far beyond looks. There are numerous benefits to landscaping, both residential and commercial. With professional landscaping services, home and business owners can achieve a great-looking, sustainable and functional landscape. Visual benefits The first details many onlookers notice about a professionally designed and maintained landscape are the lushness of the grass, the lines of the pathways, the well-trimmed hedges and trees, the colorful flowerbeds and the water features of decorative accessories. Landscapes full of flowerbeds can create wonderful smells as well as stunning colors but the benefits of landscaping go far beyond what human senses perceive. Environmental benefits There are numerous environmental benefits to professionally designed and maintained residential and commercial landsc...

Every home should be planned with a view to making it maintenance free as much as possible. Not many have time or interest in gardening but pleasant surroundings make any house into a comfortable home. Landscaping is, therefore, essential to get right but not necessarily to cost a fortune. Simple ideas and working with the shape of the land is the key. If one has an imaginative mind there are easy tips to follow. One of the first is what you want the garden to do for you. Are you interested in growing vegetables, fruit, berries, and so on, or do you simply want a large grassed area for games, if one has children? Where my house is located there is a beautiful park less than five minutes walk away. That took away the need for any grass areas so instead I covered the front with a four-inch layer of large pine park chips laid over several layers of newspapers. The paper breaks down in time and does not prevent moisture from getting through to the soil. Prior to moving into this h...

1. Practical Matters Some of the main reasons that stand out are as follows. Containers can be moved as most appropriate and needed; some are even on wheels, and they come in all sizes. Furthermore, they are increasingly made of sturdy lightweight modern materials. Best of all you can readily move them away from areas prone to deer and other hungry animals and place your plants in a protected spot, like a deck, patio, screened porch or even indoors. You can avoid the need for fencing in some cases. You can move the planters according to the amount of sunlight needed. You gain flexibility of all sorts, such as planting flowers in window boxes and on railings or walls. You can easily keep changing your décor. 2. Beautifying the Outdoors of Homes Choosing containers is a wonderful way to express your personal tastes. You can use contemporary, traditional, eclectic or contrasting styles to make a statement. This will be recognized by visitors the moment they step up to your home...

Colchicum “autumn crocus” is blooming under the trees in The Beth Chatto Gardens On a sunny October day, MA Garden Design students and third year degree students went to The Beth Chatto Gardens to see the autumn plants and learn about the garden philosophy. We started with an introduction about the history of the gardens, special planting techniques, as well as workshops and courses that are happening in the gardens now. I was very impressed with the planting techniques and beauty of the Gravel Garden which was a car park previously.   One of the expert gardeners is explaining students the planting techniques Dr Jill Raggett explained a variety of notable plants in autumn during our walk along the Water Garden and Woodland Garden. Colchicum which is an autumn crocus and Lunaria Biennis which has flat, round, silvery seed pods in autumn were two species that impressed me by their colour, texture and forms. The day was a success overall and the beauty of the garden inspire...

Folkstone Triennial in October Blue skies, seaside, and the coastal town of Folkestone was a recent destination for students to experience the landscape as a setting for public art.   A truly interdisciplinary domain and experience, the careful and thoughtful placement of sculptural works revealed a sensitivity and critique of space and place for students of both art, landscape architecture and garden design programmes at Writtle University College. Cast iron figure by Antony Gormley: Atmospheric art work embedded into the landscape Selected works this year are by Antony Gormley, Tracey Emin , Bob and Roberta Smith amongst others.   Show concludes 5 November, but it's still a great place to visit. See for further information: www.folkestonetriennial.org.uk/artists/2017/ Steve Terry, Senior Lecturer, Landscape Architecture&Garden Design at WUC

Our new open lecture series are hosting experts from landscape and garden design industry. The Landscape Architecture & Garden Design scheme have organised some inspirational speakers for their upcoming Landscape Talks, beginning with Dr. Phil Askew, Director of the Thamesmead Development Project, on 2nd October. The series of talks will take place every other Monday from 12-1pm in Design 1 and are open to all UG and PG students and staff. Full details of the first set of talks can be found on the attached poster, which will also be displayed on notice boards and on our social media channels. For further enquiries please contact Dr. Saruhan Mosler, Course Manager for the postgraduate Landscape Architecture & Garden Design scheme.

Our design students are busy identifying the plants And it continues on the studio floor... In a fresh and exciting start to the new module 'Selecting Plants for Designed Landscapes', Jill Raggett gets MA students busy thinking about the life cycles of a range of collected plant specimens. Once the specimens on our tables have been arranged from the longest living perennials, like the veteran English Oak, Quercus robur , to the short lived but tenacious Annual Meadow Grass, Poa annua , Jill shows us how the variable structures and forms of plants give away their evolutionary strategies, how the climate and planting conditions can affect the longevity of species, such as the tender Banana, and how this dynamic coming and going can be choreographed into a fabulous design dance. Afterwards, it's onto the revision sheets for next week's plant knowledge test. Kelly Law WUC MA Landscape Architecture student

 MA Conversion Landscape Architecture&Garden Design and 1st year degree students are ready to dig in! In our brand new module "Ecological Principles and Planting Theory" MA conversion and 1st year students will work on their own plots  as part of a community garden project to experience soil, ecology, design and plants with Dr Jill Raggett and Charlotte Power. In the photograph students are  assessing potential sites for their Outdoor Studio spaces – there were at least 4 potential sites but eventually we settled on this one – so site analysis skills and community engagement all stared today – next week we dig!   Dr Jill Raggett Emeritus Reader in Gardens and Designed Landscapes WUC

YEAR OUT OR PERMANENT POSITION Rare opportunity to join landscape practice on the beautiful South Devon Coast We are a growing, passionate studio looking for a talented landscape graduate to join us in Torbay. Our work includes parks and play spaces, leisure, commercial and residential, all with a strong bio-diversity content.  Our work is mainly for the private sector throughout the UK and it ranges from site analysis, landscape appraisal and impact assessment through master-planning to detail design. We work closely with developers, architects and ecologists.   The Role We are looking for either an undergraduate or postgraduate Landscape Architect. The position involves supporting colleagues on a number of projects preparing hard and soft works packages as well as GIS information for Landscape and Visual Impact Assessments. Applicants should demonstrate proficiency in using MS Office, AutoCAD, Sketch-up and Adobe Creative Suite. You will have good verbal and written ...

    Churchman Landscape Architects is a progressive, award winning Landscape Design practice operating from London and Bristol. Current projects involve the £15M Green Heart project for the University of Birmingham, an historic landscape at Nottingham Castle and a new university campus in Jordan. With 20 employees, we are now one of the UKs larger Landscape Architectural practices. We have a well-established programme of employing newly qualified staff to join our team, either as graduates or year outs, with this year being no exception. We offer exposure to a wide range of project types, while design remains our focus we do also provide opportunities to work on schemes that have an emphasis on planning and environmental assessment. We offer varied training including hands on involvement with BIM and a mentoring programme for those looking to move on to the Pathway to Chartership. We continue to enjoy sustainable growth from a diverse client base which provides our graduates...

Landscape Year Out Student Wanted We are P-IE (Planit Intelligent Environments), a design practice with a passion for outside spaces and the role they play as building blocks for our communities. We are looking for a resourceful and driven Year Out Landscape Architect in our Manchester studio to support of our experienced team’s work on some of the industry’s most exciting national and international projects. Willing to pitch in at all stages of our projects, you must have excellent graphic skills and be used to working under pressure to challenging deadlines. In return you will gain professional experience on a wide range of projects, at a variety of scales, at all stages of the design process. Take a look at the news on our website or @PlanitIE twitter feed to see the type of projects you could be working on. Posts by previous year-out students can be read at: Year Out Reflections  and  Looking Back at a Year O...

 MA Landscape Architecture and Garden Design students make a video in the Advanced Design Studio. These videos are used as a representation technique to support the design process and help students to express their concept and improve thinking process. Sensory masterplan by Ilbin Yoon The video A Different ‘World of Perception’ is made by Ilbin Yoon, MA Landscape Architecture student. You can watch the film through this link:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXkOoMNgu6Q    A Different ‘World of Perception’     There is a boy who loves his garden.   The boy loses his sight, and then he suffers from depression.   But, through therapeutic power of nature of his garden, he realises he is not in a pitch-black world   but a different ‘World of Perception’.

Writtle University College alumnus Ian Price has won a Gold Medal at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2017 for his garden about mental ill health. The 39-year-old used the prestigious show as a platform to draw attention to an issue that will affect 1 in 4 of us at some point in our lives. The garden gives visitors a taste of life debilitated by depression in a deeply personal creative project - and it attracted the interest of HRH The Duchess of Cambridge who visited the Mind Trap garden and spoke to Ian about its creation and his experiences. Ian, who graduated from Writtle in 1998, said: “I am totally overwhelmed by the response of the judges and visitors to Mind Trap. When I first set out to create this garden, I wanted to turn my experience of battling depression into something positive. As the idea progressed and I received so much positive feedback about my mission, I realised just how important it could be to so many others too. “To have now achieved the recognition of the RHS w...

Due to an increasing work load Exterior Architecture (ExA) is looking to recruit talented and ambitious Graduate Landscape Architects to join their busy London and Manchester Studios. Candidates should hold a post graduate qualification in Landscape Architecture and be eligible to work in the UK.   Applicants must be creative and able to work successfully within multi-disciplinary design teams. They should be motivated, well organised and have excellent design and communication skills.   Successful candidates will become part of a busy and forward thinking practice working on high profile and exciting projects, in both the UK and Internationally, from concept through to detailed design and contract implementation.   Candidates will need to be proficient in the basic industry software such as AutoCAD and Adobe Creative Suite.   An understanding of Sketch-up with a willingness to develop skills in Revit is desirable.   ExA is dedicated to furthering the caree...

The Landscape Partnership is an established practice of Landscape Architects, Urban Designers, Ecologists, Environmental Planners, Arboriculturists and Graphic Designers. We have a team of 40 people working from our four UK locations and currently have a vacancy in Bedford. The Bedford office has a varied portfolio of landscape planning and landscape design projects, including green infrastructure strategies, Environmental Impact Assessment’s, landscape character assessments, landscape capacity studies, renewable energy, education, recreation, commercial, residential, and major infrastructure schemes. Projects are undertaken from feasibility to implementation; many require representation at public inquiry. The office is close to the town centre and the Victorian gardens along the embankment of the River Great Ouse, and is a short walk from the Midland Mainline railway station (London 40 mins). We offer the opportunity to be involved in a wide range of project types and to develop a...

Graduate Landscape Architect Allen Pyke wish to recruit an enthusiastic and motivated graduate landscape architect to our team in Kingston-upon-Thames, southwest London. The full time position will be an exciting opportunity to progress your career in a well-established and friendly landscape practice working with a supportive team of landscape architects.  The practice has a diverse portfolio of residential, commercial and public realm projects for private and public sector clients. We work on all stages of the design process from concept design, through planning, to construction.   You will gain experience in working with high profile, multi-disciplinary design teams taking projects through the planning process to detailed design and contract implementation. At Allen Pyke, you will get to see your designs being built! Applicants will need to demonstrate a range of design and graphics skills that include the use of Autocad, Adobe software and hand graphics. Good written and...

The British Council is seeking applications from architects and designers who have an interest in exploring the work of Rogelio Salmona and other architects and designers in Colombia for the Rogelio Salmona Fellowship.   Applications from practitioners in fields other than architecture and design are also welcome to apply (e.g. art; curatorial studies; history; social sciences or philosophy as well as architectural conservation and restoration; urban planning, architecture or design history or criticism). Applicants must be able to travel to Colombia for a period of 5-6 weeks between 15 July and 15 September 2017 (arriving in Bogotá before 15 August 2017).  The Residency While in Colombia, the designer in residence will be offered accommodation and access to a network of key contacts. They will be encouraged to visit all of Salmona’s built projects, to study the archive of his work, and to speak with people who have studied his life. A study of the work of other archi...

Neo Bankside, Gillespies Chartered Senior (CMLI) and Graduate Landscape Architect(s) Gillespies is an award winning multi-disciplinary design practice, embracing masterplanning, urban design, landscape design and landscape planning. We have offices throughout the UK, and an exciting national and international portfolio of projects. The role(s): We are currently looking for Senior and Graduate Landscape Architects with a track record of exceptional design and project management ability to join our growing team in our London office. If you enjoy project management, creating captivating and inspiring designs, and developing strong client relationships; we would like you to join our creative and talented team! Applicants will be CMLI (Chartered Member of the Landscape Institute) and must demonstrate a passion for Landscape Architecture, creative design flair and have a proven ability in the management and delivery of large-scale, complex landscape projects in the UK and/or interna...

Power induced interactions in place (Dawn Parke, 2015)     MA Landscape Architecture alumni Dawn Parke, Republic of Ireland won the best MA research dissertation award of the Landscape Research Group and received £350 prize for her work. Each year, LRG awards nine student prizes to undergraduate and postgraduate students for outstanding dissertations or theses written in English, with three awards available for each level of study (undergraduate, Masters and Doctoral dissertations). Dawn is the only student who won a prize for the MA dissertation category this year.   Dawn’s MA dissertation ‘The physical life of place’ explored the concept of “Place attachment” in landscape architecture design process and proposed a new model that is based on the biophysical processes, psychological processes and socio-cultural processes. The model emphasises interactive processes and presents ‘fractal schemas’ as processes emerging from the interaction of biophysical and psychological p...

We are currently recruiting for the following roles. However if you don’t see what you’re looking for below then please feel free to apply speculatively to  info@one-associates.co.uk LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS – Studio North We are expanding our studio and looking for creative graduate and qualified designers with complementary skills across a range of project scales, clients and sectors. We are looking for two landscape architects one at GRADUATE level with 1/2 years experience in a professional environment and also a PROJECT DESIGNER  or  SENIOR LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT.  One Associates have been established for five years and as a practice we invest a high level of quality, experience and enthusiasm for design to create distinctive, modern landscapes, working closely with all disciplines to deliver inventive and pragmatic, beautiful and functional spaces. Clients value our ability to forge good relationships and establish a shared landscape led vision everyone can buy into....