Landform Blog

Royal Parks Half Marathon

October 10, 2011   admin   No comments

On Sunday 9th October 2011, 12,500 runners came from across the UK and 30 countries around the world to race through the streets of London in the hugely popular Royal Parks Foundation Half Marathon.  And our courageous Landform Running Team took part:

Matt, Mike L,Ross, Steve, Mark G & Mark W

We are proud to say that the majority of our team’s results came in the top 25% – in the first 3000 runners. In first came Steve with a time of 1hr 41mins.  Next up was Matt with 1hr 48mins, followed by: Mike L with 1hr 50mins; closely followed by Mark G with 1hr 51mins; then Mark W with 1hr 53mins; and finally Ross, our first time long distance runner, with a very respectable 2 hrs 15mins.

Our Team have been supporting the Greenfingers Charity, which creates gardens for children’s hospices all over the country. Next up for our Running Team – London Marathon 2012?

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Landform Outdoor Pursuits!

September 14, 2011   admin   No comments

Following Mark and Matt’s successful London Marathon run earlier this year, we have put together a crack team of runners and entered the Royal Parks Half Marathon which is on Sunday 9th October.  We are raising money for the Greenfingers charity this time, which creates gardens for children’s hospices around the country.  The run starts and finishes in Hyde park, taking in Kensington Gardens, Green Park and St James’s park  along a 13.1 mile route. As well as Mark and Matt, the team includes: Mark the Postie, Steve R, Ross and Mike L.  More on this soon.

Mike L running in the Alps

Mike L running in the Alps

 

Mike L has been busy running this year! A fan of endurance marathons, at the end of August, Mike participated in the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc which involved a 107 mile run through France, Italy and Switzerland no less!  He says it’s the hardest race he’s ever done with over 9700m total ascent through the Alps.  He accomplished the race in 2 days and 2 nights, finishing with an amazing time of 43 hours.  Well done Mike!

Our Landform Lads don’t just run either! Mick recently got back from Florida where is was representing Great Britain in the 2011 World Dragon Boat Championships.

2011 World Dragon Boat Championships, Tampa Florida

He raced with the GB Senior B team, better known as the Grand Dragons.  The Grand Dragons went through the heats, the semis and got into the finals, covering 4 distances in over 5 days.  The team won Silver in the 2000 metres, Bronze in the 1000 metres and Bronze again in the 200 metres. Mick says that the team did amazingly well and that winning a medal at the “Worlds” is something you dream about.  Well done, Mick!

Mick sporting his Bronze medal

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World Vision Garden – Gold Medal

July 06, 2011   admin   No comments

The World Vision Garden has won a Gold medal at RHS Hampton Court Flower Show in the Conceptual Gardens category!

The finished garden looks spectacular and really gets the message across for the charity.  Go to the World Vision website for more information on their work and visit the RHS website for a 360 degree tour of the garden!

The Domes representing those that have and those that do not.

A glimpse of the Domes through the planting.

 

 

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Hampton Court – World Vision Garden 2011

June 28, 2011   admin   No comments

We’re at it again!  Building for Chelsea may seem like a distant memory – but now we’re building for Hampton Court Flower Show 2011!

The World Vision Garden is designed by Flemons Warland Design and sponsored by the charity World Vision. The garden focuses on a reflective pool, punctuated by grass domes, to reflect charity World Vision’s work in over 100 countries worldwide. The charity’s vision for every child is life in all its fullness. One dome represents the prosperous nations that have, whilst the other is indicative of the half of the world that has not.

Here are some pictures from the build so far:

The liner goes down

Starting to take shape...

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Landform Office Garden

June 10, 2011   admin   No comments

The planting fairies have been!

We’ve been busy planting the perennials for the new Landform Office Show Garden at HQ.  Mark & Catherine have designed a lovely scheme for staff and visitors to enjoy, which incorporates two stone water features and a timber Pavillion structure.


The planting involves multi-stem Amelanchiers trees and low blocks of Taxus.  The perennials & grasses include Woolly Thyme, Salvia caradonna (which the bees are loving!), Nepeta ‘Six Giant Hills’, Perovskia ‘Blue Spire’, Echinacea ‘Fatal Attraction’ and Panicum virgatum rehbraun, as well as Hakonacloa macra, Hellebores and ferns for the shady bits, among others.

A lovely space to enjoy over the summer, autumn and winter.  We’ll post more pictures as the garden develops.

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RHS Chelsea 2011 Medals Day

May 24, 2011   admin   No comments

With over a year of preparation and only a few weeks to construct these temporary gardens, the gardens are completed.  The Queen has visited and the results are in!

Mark Gregory and Her Majesty The Queen with Nigel Dunnett at the New Wild Garden

GOLD for the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne – Australia Garden

SILVER GILT for the Royal Bank of Canada – New Wild Garden

We are really pleased with our results and hope that all the show visitors will continue to enjoy the gardens throughout the week.

Here’s a glimpse of some of the celebrities we spotted yesterday!  Hope to have some pictures of Mark Gregory meeting the Queen later on…

Mark cleaning the pools before the Queens visit!

Nigel Dunnet, Royal Bank of Canada sponsors and Matthew Wilson

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Australia Garden – Finishing Touches

May 24, 2011   admin   No comments

The final weekend before the judges come in!  It’s all hands on deck in the Australia Garden. Check out the final instalment of the Journey of Water video for more.

Jim is in his element here – tweaking and titivating!

Jim Fogarty doing some last minute tweaking with Catherine.

The RBG Melbourne Planting Team are completing the planting, trimming and laying the sand.

The Landform Team are making the final touches to all the detail and cleaning everything up just in time for the cameras to come in.

Andy Sturgeon was the first to film on the garden with the BBC and he said that we are making show history by using entirely native/indigenous plants.

Andy Sturgeon filming for the BBC

Joe Swift and Mark Gregory filming for the BBC

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New Wild Garden – Finishing Touches

May 24, 2011   admin   No comments

The final weekend before the judging is  when hopefully everything comes together!  Everyone works hard to clip, clean, tweak, trim and tidy!

Just in case you can’t remember how it all started – have a look at this time-lapse video made by Jane Sebire.

We’ve done all we can to make the garden the best it can be.  Just have to see what the judges say!

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New Wild Garden – 3 days until judging!

May 20, 2011   admin   No comments

The heat is on!  3 days to go until judging and things are starting to fall into place on the New Wild Garden.

Nigel Dunnett is on site planting and finalising the last few details.  Nigel is pleased with how the garden has progressed and says that it has exceeded his expectations.

Nigel Dunnett on site planting.

The Habitat Walls are completed and planted – so things are really starting to take shape.  Just got to fill the pools now…so more worry as we wait to complete the water features!

Peaceful in amongst the Silver Birch trees...

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Australia Garden – 3 days until judging!

May 20, 2011   admin   No comments

Only three days to go!

The full Australia Garden Team, including a familiar face who's joined for the planting - Andy Sturgeon!

Jim Fogarty and the Team will spend the next few days making the finishing touches to the construction and the planting to make the garden look at it’s best.  But the garden has come on leaps and bounds in the last few days.  Here’s a link to the latest RBG Melbourne You Tube video with updates from Jim and Mark B on site.

Completed Fireplace Seating area and planting going in.

Jim Fogarty and the RBG Melbourne Planting Team have started putting the plants into the garden, by the Pavilion and the Mountain Gorge Water Feature.

Jim Fogarty co-ordinating the RBG Melbourn Planting Team

Sand Dune & Waterhole

Over the last few days, the Landform Team have been building the Sand Dune, installing the Salt Sculptures and building the Waterhole.

The next major test is the Boomerang Water Feature:

The Journey of Water

The Australia Garden’s story is about water.  The garden starts with the desert and a desert Waterhole.  The Boomerang Water Feature symbolises a river and is the next part of the water’s journey through the garden.  Water comes up from an “artesian bore” below ground and bubbles up to the surface at the left hand side of the river.  The river then runs along the length of the water feature to the right hand side where it cascades at the overflow and goes back down into a ground aquifer and on to the Mountain Gorge…

The Boomerang is formed in concrete blockwork, which is rendered and fibre-glassed and finished off with a mild-steel surround which has been painted black.  The final stages will see a “Q-Quartz” trowel finish applied to the surface which gives an intense blue colour, and is then set when it is filled with water.  The Team will be pleased when this is finished – as water features are always a worry!

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