Sheffield Park Gardens - a beautiful Autumn visit

As the Autumn Season is well and truly here beautiful days out are becoming less and less frequent.  This morning the sun rose over Haywards Heath in West Sussex revealing a gorgeous, clear and sunny but chilly day.  With not a cloud in the sky and a small gap in my schedule before my next landscaping job, today gave me a prime opportunity to visit one of my favourite National Trust Gardens.  As it is only a ten minute drive away from my home I dusted off my Canon 450D, got in the car and took a well earn't trip to see what pictures I could capture of this glorious time of year.

Sheffield Park Gardens is a magnificent informal landscape garden.  It was originally laid out in the 18th Century by the iconic 'Capability' Brown and was developed further in the early 20th Century by its current owner at the time, Arthur G Soames.  The original garden was based around four lakes that form the main centerpiece of the gardens.  The grand cascade has to be one of my favourite places to get spectacular views accross the main lake.  The autumn colour is starting to appear and you also get a beautiful view back towards part of the original house.  Sheffield Park Gardens is definitely one to visit with the family or that special loved one, with different year round attractions.  There are dramatic shows of daffodils and bluebells in Spring and the rhododendrons and azaleas are spectacular in the early part of summer.  Autumn and winter brings stunning swathes of beautiful copper and aurbun tones from the surrounding rare trees and shrubs.

Anyone looking for more information on opening times and directions to the gardens can visit the new webpage that is currently being worked on to give it a more modern and up to date feel.  Also if you are one of the many millions of Apple i Phone users there is a great little app available from The National Trust that will make finding gardens near you even easier.  

Visit:  http://www.beta.nationaltrust.org.uk/home/item273215/   

 http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/iphone.htm 

                    

Happy garden hunting!

Bulldog Hand Tools- Tough enough for the landscapers

Through my years of work Landscaping in West Sussex, I have lost count of the numbers of forks, spades shovels and rakes I've taken out for a days work and have sadly never made it back home.  Whether its a handle snapping because its made of a low quality piece of timber, or the metal weldings have sheared and split, either way the numbers are well into the double figures.  I'm a strong lad and work my tools hard but to add insult to injury the tools aren't cheap to start with so you would expect a reasonable amount of reliability, durability and strength, however this is generally not the case!

But wait, have you heard of Bulldog Tools ?  I hadn't for a number years until someone in the landscaping community suggested I try a new brand of tools known for being robust, hardwearing, reliable and fantastic value for money  My first investment was a Grafting Shovel, with a long metal handle its generally used for digging fence post holes and gets a bit of abuse levering posts and lumps of stone in the ground.  True to reputation this tool has been a fantastic weapon of choice, it has done everything requiered and where previous predecessors  would bend and eventually snap, this tool has kept on going and going!

Since then, Bulldog has become my number one choice for where I go to buy any new hand tools.  The picture above is my two latest purchases the Irish Spade (left) and the Bulb planter (right).  The irish spade has been a fantastic little shovel, when times were tight digging footing trenches by hand, its compact handle and smaller head were pefect for getting in the tight spots where other shovels would have struggled, alternatively its a perfect  little shovel for turning over garden flowerbeds in the home enviroment.  The buld planter is for jobs in autumn/winter when buld planting will commence, this tool will be worth its weight in gold when it comes to planting over 2000 bulbs!

Whats Bulldogs secret to sucess I hear you ask?  Well their range of shovels, forks, spades and many others tools are nothing less than you would expect from this company thats been in buisness for over 200 years.  The use of high quality materials in production combined with years of expierence create and end product head and shoulders above the competition.  They cater for all types of people whether your a hobby gardener, a landscaper like myself or even in the public sector working with underground services like electricity.  Bulldog have many different ranges of tools to suit everyones needs.  Visit their website http://www.bulldogtools.co.uk/ for everything you and your garden could possibly want.

Garden Design & Construction West Sussex - Boi Project

A 3 story town house with North facing garden in West Sussex. Apart from early morning and late evening sun this garden is prodominantly in shade, cast from the house.  Due to this the lawn was patchy and would hold water for long periods of time.  The client was looking for a paved area to allow for better evening dining, and due to lengthy stays away from the home, was also looking for something with minimum maintenance.

The lawn was replaced with Indian Sandstone Paving, and close to the house a new drainage system was installed to collect and control the water run off.

A small town garden

The clients were looking to replace their old patio that had sunk and broken up over a number of years.  Being a small town garden we reduced the patio in size slightly as it was dominating the garden.  This also allowed the clients children a bit more valuable playing space. 

We replaced with a new natural stone paving to give the area a cleaner and more modern feel.  A recess cover was installed to allow to an un sightly manhole to be hidden in the lawn.
A new panel fence was also erected to replace and old fence that had seen better days.

TH Garden & Landscape Design...modern day hero?

Hello to all and Happy Easter. Spring is finally here! This is a just a quick blog to highlight the latest advertising campaign aimed at raising my company profile....my friends thought it would be a good idea and thanks for all their efforts! Please click on the link below and take 2 minutes out of your busy schedules to enjoy this video!

Bon Appetito!

http://en.tackfilm.se/?id=1270830808406RA79