Category Archives: UK/Europe

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‘Every tree counts’: Dutch come up with cunning way to create forests for free | Trees and forests via The Guardian [Shared]

‘Every tree counts’: Dutch come up with cunning way to create forests for free | Trees and forests | The Guardian

In a clearing in the Amsterdamse Bos, a forest on the outskirts of the Dutch capital, is a “tree hub” where hundreds of saplings, among them hazelnut, sweet cherry, field maple, beech, chestnut and ash, are organised by type.

The idea behind it is simple: every day unwanted tree saplings were being cleared and thrown away when those young trees could be carefully collected and transplanted to where they are wanted.

Volunteers have already collected thousands of saplings cleared from woodland paths and those unlikely to survive in the forest shade. On Saturday, on donate a seedling day, people will be encouraged to take unwanted saplings or cuttings from their own gardens and give them to 200 tree hub locations across the Netherlands.

Read ‘Every tree counts’: Dutch come up with cunning way to create forests for free | Trees and forests | The Guardian

Vintage Botanical Print – 78 in a series – Orange Sherbet from Magasin för Blomster-Älskare och Idkare av Trägårds-Skötsel

The image depicts a botanical illustration of a plant with four flowers. The flowers are vibrant orange with jagged edges and a central cluster of stamens and pistils. The petals have a slightly translucent quality, with visible veins and a gradient of color from a deeper orange at the edges to a lighter shade towards the center. The plant has a green stem with several leaves, some of which are broad and oval-shaped, while others are smaller and more elongated. The leaves have prominent veins and a glossy texture. One flower is partially open, revealing its inner structure, while the others are fully bloomed. The background is a plain, off-white color, which contrasts with the vivid colors of the flowers and leaves. The illustration is detailed and appears to be from a scientific or educational publication, with a signature or initials in the bottom left corner.

Provided by @altbot, generated privately and locally using Ovis2-8B

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from The Historical Library of Karolinska Institutet and the Swedish Society of Medicine

Orange Sherbet
Magasin för Blomster-Älskare och Idkare av Trägårds-Skötsel. –
Author: PFEIFFER, August (1777-1842)
Pfeiffer’s “Magazine for Lovers of Flowers” is the first and only flower book in Sweden with hand-coloured plates presenting cultivated decorative flowers and fruit. It is a beautifully hand-coloured flower-book with most of the plates drawn and engraved by Pfeiffer, who also coloured the plates himself.

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Home composting: how to use compost bins and tumblers to make your own compost 2021 via Yorkshire Evening Post [Shared]

Home composting: how to use compost bins and tumblers to make your own compost 2021 | Yorkshire Evening Post

If you have a garden and can afford a small corner of space, then making your own compost is one of the most environmentally sound practices you can do.

It gives you a handy way of disposing of garden and kitchen waste, provides you with nutrient-rich compost that will feed your plants and improve the soil, and also helps keep armies of worms and bugs happy as they get on with the work.

At its simplest, all you need to do is create a pile of suitable material and, with minimal effort, it’ll, eventually turn into compost if you give it a year or two.

Read Home composting: how to use compost bins and tumblers to make your own compost 2021 | Yorkshire Evening Post

Bee garden ideas – 8 expert tips to create a bee sanctuary in your garden via Ideal Home [Shared]

Bee garden ideas – 8 expert tips to create a bee sanctuary in your garden

Help save the bees by creating a bee garden with lots of great ideas from bee-friendly plants to building a bee hotel.

Britain’s declining bee population has become an increasing worry – these poor little creatures have lost 97% of their grassland habitats in the past 60 years. With so many gardeners incorporating wildlife garden ideas in their gardens, it’s prime time that we focus on our bees.

Read Bee garden ideas – 8 expert tips to create a bee sanctuary in your garden

Required Reading: Gardens Under Big Skies—Reimagining Outdoor Space, the Dutch Way via Gardenista [Shared]

Required Reading: Gardens Under Big Skies—Reimagining Outdoor Space, the Dutch Way – Gardenista

When we think of the Dutch landscape, water and flatness come to mind—a scene so “monotonous” that British writer Noel Kingsbury used to complain to Holland’s garden superstar Piet Oudolf that it was impossible not to get lost. “Learning to read the landscape takes time,” says Oudolf in the foreword to this erudite and fascinating new book, “and not all visitors are prepared to do that.”

Gardens Under Big Skies, published by Filbert Press, lavishly illustrates that the devil is in the detail: Dutch gardening is distinguished by “its clarity of form and its desire to embrace the contemporary,” in the words of co-author and photographer Maayke de Ridder. The low-lying landscape (about a third of which is below sea level) is key to the rigorously forward-thinking garden scene in the Netherlands.

Read Required Reading: Gardens Under Big Skies—Reimagining Outdoor Space, the Dutch Way – Gardenista

‘Every tree counts’: Dutch come up with cunning way to create forests for free | Trees and forests | The Guardian [Shared]

‘Every tree counts’: Dutch come up with cunning way to create forests for free | Trees and forests | The Guardian

In a clearing in the Amsterdamse Bos, a forest on the outskirts of the Dutch capital, is a “tree hub” where hundreds of saplings, among them hazelnut, sweet cherry, field maple, beech, chestnut and ash, are organised by type.

The idea behind it is simple: every day unwanted tree saplings were being cleared and thrown away when those young trees could be carefully collected and transplanted to where they are wanted.

Read ‘Every tree counts’: Dutch come up with cunning way to create forests for free | Trees and forests | The Guardian

Robotically wound flax makes up this unique garden pavilion [Shared]

Robotically wound flax makes up this unique garden pavilion

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It’s a beautiful, quiet spot surrounded by nature. The livMatS Pavilion looks like an amazing spot to relax and take pictures, but it’s also the first-ever building with a load-bearing structure completely made out of robotically wound flax fiber.

Read Robotically wound flax makes up this unique garden pavilion

Captivating Cactus and Striking Succulents – 73 in a series – Cactus and Succulents at the RHS

Cacti and succulents

This plant group is extremely vast and diverse, from the very small and intricate to the striking and architectural. There is a cactus or succulent to suit everyone, whether young or old.

Quick facts