Christmas is Coming!

With the high street enticing us with exciting Christmas ideas as early as September, it pays to plan ahead for the annual frenzy of festive activity. For a unique and lasting gift that will provide year round pleasure, a garden design represents a refreshingly original and perfectly personal present solution.  

From September 2009, Lime Orchard will be offering a brand new gift voucher service which can be used to buy a number of garden design related gifts for your nearest and dearest.  For example:

£150 would entitle the recipient to a 1-2 hour consultation with a garden designer in the comfort of their own home. This session will unveil a fantastic range of creative ideas and inspiration on how they to make the most of the outdoor room.

A gift of £300 would include both the 1-2 hour home consultation, in addition to a detailed planting plan with positions and species (suitable for most gardens up to 200 sqr mtrs total area) – making this a truly sensational gift for the person  who is looking to inject the all important horticultural WOW factor into their outside living space (limited offer, valid on vouchers purchased before 1 November 2009)

 A gift of £545 would include both the home consultation plus a full garden design . Following the consultation visit, the designer will produce a   hand-finished, coloured master plan, suitable for a garden up to 200 sqr mts.

For more details on the Lime Orchard gift voucher service visit our web site http://www.limeorchard.co.uk/gift_vouchers.htm or email us at gifts@limeorchard.co.uk

A Whole New Genre of Garden Therapy!

Researchers have long applauded the important role gardens can play in terms of providing a haven away from the hurly burly of life where it is possible to unwind and de-stress. The therapeutic benefits of horticulture were even debated in a research report from Virginia Tech University which claimed that a view of trees could reduce the recovery time in the hospital after surgery by almost a full day!  

But now there’s a whole new type of therapy on offer in the garden – pathways that provide on the spot pampering!  A luxury-flooring brand has developed a foot-massaging pathway!  The pathway surface encourages the homeowner to kick off their shoes and walk barefoot along the pebbles, which apparently ‘helps to increase the circulation and stimulate the body and mind”.  The pathway was a major inspiration for the ‘Lose The Shoes’ show garden at the RHS Flower Show at Tatton Park, which won an RHS Silver medal.

WIN A GARDEN DESIGN - WORTH £1000

FROM THE AWARD WINNING LIME ORCHARD GARDEN DESIGN TEAM

Is your outside space in need of a professional make-over?

 

Does your exterior living area fail to live up to the high standards of your home’s interior ?

 

Now is the ideal time to start planning how to achieve your ultimate outdoor room – and here’s a chance to win a professional garden design from the team behind world class show gardens at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

 

Lime Orchard specialises in providing a complete garden transformation service – from award winning design to high quality build.

 

All you need to do to enter the prize draw is to sign up to Garden Living, the FREE Lime Orchard newsletter, which will deliver regular tips on how to add designer zing to your outside living zone! 

Click here to enter! 

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Holidaying at Home Turns Gardens into Pleasure Parks

A leading garden centre spent time with a group of 6-7 year olds over the summer, to canvas their views on what constitutes the ‘perfect garden’. The children were all asked to design their very own ‘great garden’ and three features clearly topped the poll as essentials required to create the ideal children’s outdoor room.

1. Wet Wet Wet – whether it’s a small but perfectly formed paddling pool, or a super sophisticated real swimming pool, kids just want to wallow in the water

2. Outdoor play room – according to kids, all great gardens need a dedicated play space and tree houses or a sports area for football / tennis

3. Grow your own – the children felt that a garden simply wasn’t a garden without a generous display of flowers, fruit and vegetables - but the good news was that the group of budding gardening enthusiasts also said they’d be happy to help look after them! And with weeding ranking as the most favourite gardening activity (above planting and watering) the junior work force is unlikely to lose interest as soon as a few weeds take hold!

The research also revealed that most children want a little bit of garden to call their own, with as many as 90% of the kids claiming they wanted even the smallest area earmarked for their own personal gardening project.

Learning Alfresco

If you’re a parent, chances are you are being bombarded with complaints about the return to school following the long summer break.  Teachers need to work hard to inject some variety into the learning routine to help keep pupils motivated throughout the school day.  A simple solution to breaking the daily grind is to literally take learning outside!  Research shows that, more and more schools are recognizing the benefits of an outdoor classroom. Learning through Landscapes (the national school grounds charity) undertook a survey in 2003 which proved that schools which have invested in and improved their outdoor facilities for pupils, experience significant tangible benefits such as

-    enhanced pupil behaviour (73% of respondents)
-    a reduction in bullying (64% of respondents)
-    improved attitudes towards learning (65% of respondents)
-    better social interaction (84% of respondents)
-    increased community / parental involvement (66% of respondents)

The government’s growing support of the outdoor classroom is evidenced by The Growing Schools initiative which was set up in 2001. In 2006 the Learning Outside the Classroom Manifesto was launched and since then more than 1698 organisations and individuals have signed up.

If your child’s school does not currently boast an outdoor learning area why not put the idea to your PTA or School Governor representative?  At Lime Orchard, we have a great deal of experince in building inspirational outdoor learning spaces, so for more information on school gardens, visit http://www.limeorchard.co.uk/OutdoorClassrooms-GardensforSchools.htm or speak to a member of the Lime Orchard team on 0845 539 1467 .