Weeding the Web

CD difference?

One of the most popular sections on this site is Recycled Items for the Garden, so I just thought I'd mention that one of my favourite ideas from Hampton Court Flower Show this year was these garden ornaments. 

Perhaps it's through the "benefit" of myopia that I was fooled by the materials, but only after ten unsuspecting minutes talking to Alex Bell, who designed The Deptford Project: An Urban Harvest, did I realise (OK, he had to tell me) that they're created from empty CD cases.

Painted on the inside in graduated shades of colour, they're surprisingly effective. Of course, these towers are inspired by towers of glass of the sort that I've blogged about before, and (feel free to disagree) I think this is one the most successful ways I've seen to recycle plastic in the garden.

Dabbling in the Garden with Ruskin

Here's a bit of fun for a Friday afternoon. The Dabbler is an addictive blog with the extra allure of purporting to be for "Connoisseurs of Everything". And, of course, if you're reading Weeding the Web, then you are most definitely a connoisseur, aren't you?

Now that gardening is such a worthy pastime, it's always in need of humour, and Frank Key, who writes the equally addictive Hooting Yard, contributes (do click through to it on the following link) with his take on the young Ruskin, who as I'm sure you know, once wrote:

“I was extremely fond of digging holes, but that form of gardening was not allowed.” Praeterita, Volume I, Ruskin's memoirs of his early life.

Putting the Concept on Show

When is a conceptual garden not a conceptual garden?

When it’s a show garden, silly.

Visitors to Hampton Court this year surely found themselves questioning the difference as the conceptual and show gardens squared up to each other across the Garden Walk. And the contrast (actually, that should be comparison) was brought into stronger relief when I spoke to Judy Cornford who designed The Eye of the Internet Maze. “I entered it as a conceptual garden,” she said, “but they asked me to be a show garden.”

For me, The Eye of the Internet Maze was a quiet star. Its strong sculptural quality, with clean lines and contrasting textures, made it no surprise to find that Judy trained as a sculptor. She is also shameless in her use of puns.