Join the Revolution!

And we are not talking the Grow Your Own revolution this time! According to Smarta – ‘the ultimate advice and networking resource for anyone starting and running a small business’ – ‘the chicest, most bang-on trend for office space this season is …the humble garden shed”.

Shedworking is fast becoming a national phenomenon with many home workers choosing to locate their business premises in the garden. So if one of your new year resolutions is to start your own business, or even to try and maintain your current role but working from home, consider the following benefits of a garden office:

• free from the disruption and distraction of the traditional office, working from a dedicated garden office you are likely to be more productive and focussed
• cutting out the daily commute means that you get to spend more time actually working and less time wasting precious hours sitting in traffic or on a crowded train
• no more costly train fares or petrol expenses – AND a reduced food bill as eating from home is far cheaper than buying lunch from your local sandwich bar
• opportunity for parents to embrace flexible working patterns – the time you save on travelling to and from work can be put to better use doing the school run / attending children’s school events
• psychologically you are likely to perform better without the stress associated with travelling to and from work, and the natural garden landscape provides a comforting environment and an enhanced sense of work / life balance
• a good garden studio can add up to 5% to the value of your property, and works well as a selling point in competitive markets

Why not contact Lime Orchard to discuss how a home office can be blended into our garden landscape? .

Style Counsel for the Garden

Having your own personal wardrobe or colour consultant - – even your own personal interiors consultant have all become part and parcel of day to day living for our generation.  Less familiar perhaps is the realisation that now you can apply that all important ‘professional styling expertise’ to your home’s exterior living space – the garden!

Speaking to a ‘garden stylist’ or garden designer will not only help to deliver the outdoor room of your dreams, it can also represent excellent value for money.  For most people, the definition of a garden designer is someone who creates a detailed plan complete with planting recommendations, which will result in a total garden make-over.  But whilst this is clearly a worthwhile investment, to many it is simply not an option, for a variety of reasons ranging from the overall cost of such a project, the imminent likelihood of a move or a feeling that you are merely improving a rented property for the landlord’s benefit. That said, the desire to spend time in a sleek and immaculately styled outdoor room dictates that even if you are not in the market for  a complete re-design of the garden, you may still a need access to some immediate measures which can enhance your enjoyment of  the unrivalled advantages of garden living.

A professional garden stylist can offer a fresh new perspective on your outdoor living zone, bringing a host of inspirational styling ideas all designed to offer designer kudos and most important of all - instant gratification! Delivering a splash of bold colour to a wall, adding a selection of super chic garden accessories, updating  your garden furniture, creating a strong focal point with a smart water feature – these are just some of the suggestions that can transform a dull outside space into an inviting outdoor haven!

For more details of Lime Orchard’s Garden Stylist services:

Call us on 0845 5391467 or visit www.limeorchard.co.uk

Star Sign Style...

Expert astrologer Russell Grant has used his unique powers to reveal what your garden says about you. The famous TV horoscoper has given his insight into what garden style is best suited to your individual star sign.

So for a full low down on the most harmonious choice of outdoor space according to your birth date read on …

Aries – You might put a lot of thought into the creation of your garden but you won’t want to feel committed to having to put constant and regular effort into looking after it

Taurus – You love nature and your garden is likely to be a wildlife haven, designed especially to attract a range of wildlife visitors

Gemini – Young at heart, the Gemini will have gnomes and leprechauns hiding behind bushes and animal statues in the most unexpected places

Cancer – There’s something homely and ancient about the Cancerian’s garden. It will feel as if it has been established for years, even if it was designed fairly recently

Leo – The Leo’s garden is likely to be full of colour and creativity. In the Spring, they will introduce new plants, enjoying the anticipation of what they might sprout into

Virgo – This is one of the earth signs and these people love nature but there is also a perfectionist side to their nature that suggests they prefer to see things tidy and in control

Libra – Libra loves beauty in all forms and there will be nothing ugly or overgrown here but there will be features that will provide year-round interest

Scorpio – The Scorpio loves perfection and that’s why there’s always something tidy and picture-perfect about their garden

Sagittarius – Just as the Sagittarian hates to be tamed or subdued, their gardens will be spacious and informal

Capricorn – There is likely to be a strong sense of traditional landscaping in the Capricorn’s garden

Aquarius – Rather than going for anything traditionalist or formal, Aquarius will delight in deconstructing old garden designs and ideas to experiment with new ones

Pisces – The Pisces garden will reflect their love of peace and tranquility. It will be a serene place where people will feel comfortable and at ease

Personally, we think you might be better off talking to the garden professionals to find out what type of garden is best suited to you and your family!

Holiday Friendly Gardens?

As the peak holidaying season approaches those with high maintenance gardens will be tearing their hair out trying to come up with (cost friendly) solutions that ensure their garden’s holiday care plans don’t rival the cost of a further couple of days spent in paradise!  Perhaps now is the time to consider putting in place a few low maintenance features which will alleviate some of the stress and strain of going away …

If you are unaffected by the hose-pipe bans coming in, an automated irrigation system is a god-send during the watering season. This makes light work of the endless chore of restoring moisture to baked soil; adding mulches to plant borders will do wonders to not only help retain moisture, but will also fend off unwanted weed growth minimizing the hours spent weeding - and some mulch materials can also serve as a dramatic style feature in their own right. 

Replacing some of the grassed areas with hard landscaping (paving / decking / aggregate finishes) will naturally reduce the man hours spent mowing and if you invest in mowing strips, you can make the weekly mow-a-thon even quicker!  If you are interested in down-sizing in terms of the labour of love required to maintain your outdoor room, why not speak to one of our Garden Designers to find out more about further low maintenance measures to incorporate in your outside space ….

Merging Indoor Living with Outdoor Living

A recent article in The Independent drew attention to the number of hours we can sometimes spend choosing planting schemes and agonizing over paving materials for the garden, which is sometimes in sharp contrast to the lack of effort put into selecting the  furniture which will adorn the outdoor room. 

Given that a sizeable chunk of our well earned ‘garden’ down time is likely to entail eating, drinking or simply chilling, it seems ridiculous that  we are content to compromise on such a significant detail.  However, as the trend for outdoor living spaces continues to gather momentum, there is a growing body of designers who take pride in incorporating bespoke seating into their plans to achieve not only the delivery of a functional practical seating solution but to also provide a striking stylish focal point for the outside room. 

Choice of material, colour and the all important comfort factor are important points to consider when reviewing built in seating options and in our wonderful British climate, it is also advisable to incorporate some easy to access storage options to house any cushions during the less sunny months!  Speak to a member of our design team to find out more on this subject ….

HOT HOT HOT in the Garden this Summer!

It’s been a long time coming - a whole 12 months, in fact - but it seems the country really is on course for a barbecue summer. And this prediction comes from a forecaster with a more reliable track record than the Met Office who famously told us to expect a 'barbecue summer' in 2009, which turned out to be so spectacularly wrong that it led to an embarrassed Met Office dropping long-term seasonal forecasts.

In fact, last summer was a washout, as correctly predicted by Positive Weather Solutions, which has 'out-forecast' the Met Office over the last two years with a string of accurate long-term predictions. And it is PWS that is confident that Britain will indeed see a barbecue summer this year commenting saying “there will be stifling temperatures, making it possibly the warmest UK summer on record and placing it at least in the top three warmest summers recorded”.

Armed with this knowledge, it may pay to consider some creative ways in which to inject some shade into the garden before the temperatures begin to rise and the heat is really on!  Rustic pergolas boasting fragrant climbing roses or clematis; ultra chic modern sails; natural thatched sunshades and patio awnings are just some of the many options available.  Why not talk to our Garden Design team to get the low down on the latest stylish shade solutions?

Garden Design. Planting Plans.Garden Build by Lime Orchard

Great Gardens Add £££s to your Property

As if we didn’t already know it, getting to grips with your outdoor room represents a worthwhile investment – and not just in terms of the enjoyment that you will derive from the project but also in relation to the £££s you will be adding to the value of your property.  According to a survey of over 2,000 British homeowners commissioned by QVC, an untidy garden can knock as much as £5,000 off the price of a house and a massive two thirds of Brits are put off buying a house if the garden is unattractive.  No surprise then that over 55% of house hunters reported that the state of the garden is as important as the inside of the house.

Features in the outdoor room which are deemed to add the most value to a property are privacy, ie a garden which offers sanctuary from the outside world, patios and a tiptop lawn.  Interestingly, decking definitely got the thumbs down in the survey, with 50% of respondents claiming decking was an off-putting ‘garden gripe’. Lime Orchard - Your Dream Garden Designed, Built, Planted
  

What's Hot and What's Not!

Following the theme of trend forecasts, our very own garden trends commentator, Design Director Ian Dexter has some predictions of his own in terms of some top tips for what the best-dressed gardens will look like in 2010!

I want it now! : Society’s growing lust for instant gratification has been dubbed ‘nowism’ and this emerging trend will also be witnessed in the outdoor room.  No longer willing to wait for nature to take its course, the modern homeowner is likely to seek out mature specimen trees to create immediate impact.  Pleached tree screens, mature buxus balls and ‘to go’ established hedging are all rising in popularity and it seems that price is no barrier when it comes to fulfilling the desire for quick fix results.  

Space aware:  Gardens are not necessarily getting any bigger, and indeed with many urban based home owners looking to partake in a spot of ‘garden living’ despite the obvious restrictions which go hand in hand with city life, the optimum use of space is another popular theme for 2010.  Espalier fruit trees which are trained to grow upwards rather than develop expansive branches to the side, are tipped to feature heavily this year as are living walls and living roofs. As well as the obvious aesthetic appeal, low maintenance living green roofs deliver additional environmental benefits such as reduced flooding, improved sound and heat insulation and the obvious provision of a wildlife friendly environment.  Any flat roof or a roof with a slope of up to 45 degrees can be used to grow a fabulous range of sedum products or eco friendly wildflowers creating a dramatic roof top sensation. 

Green, green, greener: As we’ve already heard the ‘go green’ trend is well and truly here to stay, so adopting environmentally friendly strategies in the garden is most definitely ‘in’.  Prepare to see the use of eco-friendly and recycled materials, water harvesting, composting and an increasing reliance on solar energy all grow in popularity. In addition to this, there will be a ‘greener’ approach to selecting key features for the outdoor room. Modern, man made, synthetic features such as shade sails & stainless steel water features will be replaced by more natural looking elements such as pergolas shrouded in fragrant climbers and natural stone spill stones & drilled boulders.  

Lime Orchard - Garden Design. Planting Plans. Garden Build 
 

Blue is the Colour

Well a turquoise shade of blue to be precise! If you want your garden to be bang on trend this year colour experts and trend houses are predicting turquoise as the key colour for 2010.  Voted the official ‘colour of the year’ by Pantone – the world-renowned authority on colour -  apparently turquoise will ‘transport us to an exciting tropical paradise while offering a sense of protection and healing in stressful times’. So even if your bank balance won’t allow for visiting tropical sunnier climes this year, all  you need to do is introduce some splashes of turquoise into your outdoor room, sit back and prepare to feel the force of the tropics!

Lime Orchard - Garden Design. Planting Plans. Garden Build