Landscaping Solutions LTD

14/09/2024

A couple more weeks and we'll be finished with this project in East Molesey. It's been eighteen months in the making and we're looking forward to sharing its myriad delights with you in due course. In the meantime, here's a quick clip of progress to date and some of the 'new residents'...

26/01/2024

Are you a skilled and experienced horticulturalist looking for part time work in the following postcodes; KT8, KT10, KT12, TW1, SW14 and SW19? We are looking for a reliable and courteous member of staff to join our team working on private gardens around 10 days per month. All work wear, tools and a vehicle are included and your working schedule is flexible to suit your needs. For more information and to register your interest email: [email protected]

03/09/2023

Here's another lepidoptera capable of decimating a gardener's crop. In this case the Large White Butterfly (Pieris brassicae) photographed in all stages of its development from recently emerged imago (final stage) in the first image to egg in the final shot. The larvae of Large White butterflies are laid on the foliage of members of the cruciferous family of plants. In my garden this usually means Sea Kale and Nasturtiums. These photos were taken as the first generation females laid their eggs on the underside of Nasturtiums in the early Summer. The third photo shows an early instar caterpillar sizing up a Nasturtium leaf, with a flower in the background, prior to pupating. The pupa, in the second image, was found well away from the foodplant and was held in place by a strong thread of silk for a couple of weeks until emerging as an adult butterfly.

02/09/2023

These little blighters have made a proper mess of my Fig tree this year. It's the caterpillar of the Fig-leaf skeletoniser moth (Choreutis nemorana) which, having been first discovered in Southern Britain in 2014, is now fast spreading North. They feed on the foliage of Figs including the 'Brown Turkey' Fig in my garden. Fortunately their activities don't affect the fruits which have been profuse this year. I had a glut ripening last week so had a think about what to do and decided to make a Fig jam. I steeped the fruits overnight in lemon juice and sugar and cooked it all up the next morning. I can highly recommend this recipe as the jam is delicious. I also set some aside for a 'figgy liqueur' involving ripe figs, vodka and sugar and will report back in due course.....

19/06/2023

Landscaping Solutions finally made it to Hilldrop, the highly individual home and garden of reluctant genius John Little of the Grass Roof Company courtesy of an inspired British Association of Landscape Industries South Thames branch event.

After a delicious lunch, John and his highly knowledgeable sidekick Benny Hawksbee walked and talked us through the overwhelmingly biodiverse and exquisitely attractive fruits of their labours.

John's rusted up Citroen sits stranded as rivers of Ox-eye daisy rush-by studded through with echium, erigeron, knautia, knapweed, linaria, loosestrife, meadow-grass, meadowsweet weld and woad. A highlight for us were the Pyramidal Orchids finding life favourable down by the pond.

This floral magnificence along with the provision of standing deadwood, water bodies, brash piles, rock-filled gabions, sandy scrapes, drilled timber and a host of other features supports myriad insect life. In one of the bespoke bike shelters we caught a parasitic wasp in the dastardly act of impregnating a solitary bee host with its egg.

John's work is finally receiving the recognition it deserves. Long may it continue and far and wide may the ripples spread. Thank you John, Fiona and Benny for the inspiration and to BALI for arranging the visit.

24/05/2023

18 months ago we dug a and sowed a meadow for a client in . The benefits have been huge for both the client and the local wildlife and their relationship with the garden and its wild inhabitants has been transformative. Thanks Heather and Steve, for your openness to a new way of looking at your garden and understanding its importance in the landscape. Long may it continue to generate intrigue and delight.

15/03/2023

13/03/2023

We're proud supporters of the campaign launched by the Society of Garden Designers to raise awareness of the extreme environmental damage caused by these products. Image credit: Alister Thorpe.

10/03/2023

We are delighted to announce the news we're now a Society of Garden Designers Affiliated Business Partner.

We've been impressed with the Society of Garden Designers Manifesto for sustainable landscapes and gardens and wanted to align ourselves with those directives, particularly the biodiversity restoration declaration, which we regard as the most critical of all the environmental challenges on the agenda.

We hope our affiliation will enable us to forge stronger alliances with designers who are equally committed to enhancing gardens and landscapes for wildlife and help promote these types of schemes to a wider audience.

25/01/2023

We finished this front garden before Christmas for a client down the road. Looking forward to seeing what insects and interested neighbours it attracts this year. Imagine a street full of perennials, fruit trees, native hedging and ....

16/01/2023

01/01/2023

🎉 Happy New Year from all the team at 🎉