I love this little video explaining our profession.

Some other great examples on the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) site

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All professionals have myths that they have to regularly counter and in my work as a landscape architect I regularly come across a number that persist.  I've drawn up my top three but there are many more!

Myth #1 - All Trees Have Tap Roots

Truth - Very few trees have any type of tap root.  They are not dandelions!  Of the 4511 trees surveyed after the October 1987 storm by the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew only 2.4 % had taproots.  Most people don't realise that between 90 and 99% of a tree's roots are in the top 1m of soil.  With their roots so close to the surface they are very susceptible to damage so that large truck trundling close to a tree won't just break overhanging branches but could also be causing severe damage to the roots.  As mature trees can take many years to die the damage may take a long time to come to light. 

To ensure that you protect the full root protection zone (RPA) for each tree that you want to retain you need to commission a report by a qualified arboriculturist early in your project.  They will also help you assess the health of each tree as well as the amenity value.

Once you have the RPA for each tree your landscape architect can work out the line of the tree protection fencing which should be done to British Standard “Trees in relation to Construction - Recommendation ” (B.S. 5837 2005)  And no, the area inside the tree protection fencing is not somewhere to store that pallet of slabs.

You can find out more in this useful Forestry Commission document (PDF download)

Myth #2 - Soil Is Just Soil

Truth - soil is full of micro-organisms that need air and water to survive.  There can be up to 5 billion bacteria in just a teaspoon of soil and most of these need light and air to function.  The numerous micro-organisms in soil are vital to soil health, and healthy soil means healthy plants.

 It can take up to 500 years to produce just 2cm of topsoil so it is essentially a non-renewable resource.  It is quite easy to degrade or even kill soil by mistreatment.  I'm always amazed how few contractors know that that when they store their topsoil in a 5 metre high mound in just a few weeks much of that soil will be too degraded to use. The soil in the centre of the mound becomes anaerobic, or free of oxygen.  Soil weighs about 2 tonnes per cubic metres so at the base of a large soil mound the pressure will be substantial and the loose, crumbly rich fruit cake texture that is typical of healthy topsoil will be lost .  Part of the myth is that adding some compost to the soil will improve it enough to be used for landscape works .  The soil might hold up the plants long enough to sell the house but long term the chances of plant survival are slim. 

For more information see the Construction Code of Practice for the Sustainable Use of Soils on Construction Sites produced by Defra (PDF download)

Myth #3 - A Few Weeds Won't Do Any Harm 

Truth - in private gardens I'm a fan of letting some weeds grow as they are a wonderful resource for wildlife.  However on large scale planting schemes where establishing the planting can be part of the planning conditions control of weed growth between plants is vital.  The facts are staggering - effective weed control can increase survival rates by 50% and growth rates by 80%.  Weeds compete for water, nutrients and light and can choke out your planting scheme. How weeds are be controlled should be detailed in your landscape specification and a maintenance schedule agreed with your landscape contractor.

What are the myths in your profession?  I'd love to know!

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Today is a bit of a milestone for me as it marks the fifteenth anniversary of my business.

Cast your mind back to the summer of 1996 - the Summer Olympic Games had just started in Atlanta, Wannabee by the Spice Girls was on the radio and the X Files were on TV.  And I left a perfectly good salaried job to set up on my own.

Fifteen years, four computers, five mobile phones, three offices, one recession, two banks, 5,319 tweets and who knows how many emails later Thirlwall Associates is still here.

When I set up in business the internet was still a novelty but being a bit of a geek I had a £10 a month dial up account with Demon.  My dad made my business possible by buying me a computer that cost an unbelievable £1,500, complete with a 3.5" floppy drive. As browsing the internet tidied up the phone line and also cost money, it was a good job that websites were basic and not that engaging.

I also have the business plan I wrote when I started, and I think that my views then still hold true.  Thank you to everyone I've met along the way for making those fifteen years immense fun!

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I recently watched this fascinating film from The Guardian about the flower producing industry in Kenya and the impact on the local environment and community.  It shocked me that that the local community has to compete with the flower industry for such a vital resource as water.

It is easy to overlook the hidden or virtual water use needed to produce many of the products we buy.  IBM's Smarter Planet website includes a great summary of water use for common products, some of which are startling. 

Belgium – pot plants
Canary Islands – chrysanthemums, roses
Caribbean – tropicals, foliage
Chile – carnations, roses
Colombia – standard & spray carnations, roses
Denmark – pot plants
Ecuador – carnations, roses
Holland – all flowers and pot plants
India – roses
Israel – roses, gypsophila, waxflower, anigozanthos, all summer flowers
Italy – carnations, chrysanthemums, foliage, foliage plants
Kenya – roses, carnations, spray carnations, statice
Malta – chrysanthemums, `Paper White' narcissi
Morocco – spray carnations
South Africa – proteas, strelitzia, roses, exotics
Spain – carnations, chrysanthemums
Thailand – orchids
Turkey – spray carnations
Venezuela – carnations, roses

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In this climate of cuts and cost savings it is great to have some positive news. Perhaps as a reaction to economic uncertainty the number of lottery tickets sold has greatly increased. This increase is part of the reason that the Heritage Lottery Fund's (HLF) annual budget has risen from £180 million in 2007 to an amazing £300 million in 2012.

So why am I telling you all this? As part of the review of the direction of HLF's work they are running an online consultation until 26 April. If you have any interest in heritage please take the time to respond.

Heritage is a very broad term and ranges from museums and collections to landscape scale projects protecting our natural heritage. A new potential area of funding is digital only work, such as putting archives online. As an innovative and tech savvy crowd I would love your views to be added to the debate. Don't worry if you don't feel you know much about heritage as it isn't a test of your knowledge. The wider the range of responses the better.

You can find details of the consultation at www.hlf.org.uk/consultation2011 Thank you!

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It was a gorgeous sunny day in London with clear blue skies and even a hint of spring in the air. So why on earth were so many built environment types sitting in a darkened room busily tweeting, blogging and avoiding daylight?

The explaination was another great Be2camp event at the Building Centre in London.  The event included the Be2awards, the world's first awards for social media in the built environment.  The result should be online later this week at the Be2awards website for those who missed the day!

Congratulations to all the winners and commiserations to those who didn't win, some by the tightest of margins.

As on previous occasions there was a Be2cake.  This time it was a Wordle cake generated from the Be2awards website.  Thank you to the staff at the Building Centre for taking delivery of it for me and saving it from the risky journey by public transport.

And I promise Andy's award will be passed on soon!

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The recent news that the Governement is considering moving woodland in England out of state ownership has attracted a great deal of interest in the media.  Concerns range from the possible risks of reducing public access to threats to biodiversity.

However none of the news stories I've seen to date relate to the original purpose of the Forestry Commission, that of "rebuilding and maintaining a strategic timber reserve."  Timber resources had been in decline since the Middles Ages and the First World War highlighted how precarious the situation had become.  Timber imports could not be relied on and so on 1st September 1919 the Forestry Act came into force and the Forestry Commission began the task of reforestation.

So why is our timber reserve relevant in 2011?  We no longer use timber props in trench warfare and there is less demand for timber as fuel for heavy industry.  However, we consume huge amounts of timber products such as paper, card and board.  In 2010 we imported 82% of our wood and with our existing level of land under forest we are unlikely to ever even achieve 25% self-sufficiency. 

I have wondered for some time how we will deal with the inevitable rise in price of plastic and other petroleum derived products and what materials will be used in place of the ubiquitous uPVC.  We already use waste newsprint as insulation material and timber windows and doors are far from new as a concept so timber seems the main possibility.

Perhaps the original motive for the creation of the Forestry Commission still holds true and that as well as considering peak oil and our fuel security we out to be considering the risk of peak timber and planting new forests now to ensure that once again we have a sustainable timber reserve.

To finish a wonderful clip of the poet Robert Frost reading the poem that inspired the title of this post.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/poetryeverywhere/frost.html

"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" from THE POETRY OF ROBERT FROST edited by Edward Connery Lathem. Copyright © 1923 1969 by Henry Holt and Company. Copyright © 1951 by Robert Frost

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/statistics

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When I travelled by train during the recent cold weather I was surprised to see that some smaller streams and rivers had partially frozen.  I don't ever remember seeing this before in the UK.

Most people have heard of the Frost Fairs that were held on the River Thames in London with the last fair being held in 1814.  You can read more about these in Lucy Inglis' excellent blog Georgian London.

I'm not sure why but I'd not heard of the other fairs that were held in the rest of the country. Fairs were held on the rivers Severn and Wye in Worecestershire and the River Tyne in Newcastle into the Victorian era.  Rivers froze over in other major cities, as shown in this wonderful photograph.

The River Thames in Oxford in the 1890s

It is unlikely that any of these rivers will freeze solid again as they have been changed significantly over the last century.  Most rivers in urban areas are far narrower than their natural width as land along the banks has been claimed for development.  Narrowing a river makes it flow faster, which in turn means it is less likely to freeze.

I wasn't quite clear on the exact science behind this so my favourite Twitter scientist @SmallCasserole has helped me here.  Still water settles into layers, so in a pond the top layer can be significantly colder than the bed.  That is how your goldfish can survive underneath the ice in your garden pond.  With no flow there is no mixing of these layers so the top layer can freeze even if the average temperature of the water is above zero.  In a fast flowing river all the layers of water mix together (in river terminology it is "delaminated") so the river is the same temperature throughout.  If the temperature is cold enough any river will freeze however fast it is flowing. 

This wonderful Pathe clip shows that it can get cold enough for Niagra Falls to freeze (short advert at the start)

NIAGARA FALLS FROZEN SOLID

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I've been keen for the Centre to explore the landscape context of schemes so it is wonderful to get the chance to work more closely with them.  I also have 14 years experience running my own landscape practice so I will be helping with the business side of the Centre. 

The Centre provides guidance and advice as well as holding a huge database of previous river restoration projects. 

This song seems strangely appropriate - enjoy!

14_-_Caught_By_The_River.mp3 Listen on Posterous

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Having spent much of last week talking to people whose homes have been damaged by flooding I have been reminded of the awful devastation caused by floods.  Even the smallest trickle of water can destroy treasured personal possessions.  Many people don't realise that the water that flows into your airbricks and under your front door often contains raw, untreated sewage. 

During heavy rain the sewerage system backs up causing polluted water to mix with the rain water.  News footage often shows children playing in the flood waters - I'd urge you never to walk through flood water unless it is to escape.  As well as being polluted you have no idea what could be hidden underneath the water.  The force of water in the drainage network can be so strong that manhole covers are lifted leaving an uncovered drain already full of fast flowing water.

The National Flood Forum website provides useful information for those at risk of flooding as well as supporting communities dealing with the impact of floods.

To finish

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St Bega's Church, Bassenthwaite Lake

I was lucky enough to spend last week in the stunning Lake District and not surprisingly visits to rivers and lakes featured heavily during my trip.  I mainly work on lowland rivers and I really enjoy this work but I have to confess that for me upland rivers have the upper hand.

Aira Force

The drama and force of these rivers, with their waterfalls and pools, is awe inspiring. 

The Aira Beck, up stream from Aira Force.

When restoring rivers the same principles apply whether you are working on a gently flowing chalk stream or a fast flowing beck. The power of upland rivers though is usually far greater and the stakes are much higher if mistakes are made.  I don't think it is a coincidence that most experimental river restoration work is tested on low powered lowland rivers before the techniques are used on upland rivers as lowland rivers are usually much more forgiving of interventions.

The devastating floods in Cumbria in November 2009 demonstrated the force of the River Derwent after 372mm of rain fell in just two days.  The steep fells and narrow valleys had to cope with a staggering 200 million tonnes of water and lead to flood water depths of over 2 metres in some locations. 

The impact of even small areas of flooding is shown in this great film from 2008 - you can see water cascading down the hillsides.

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Having now attended four Be2camp events, three in person and one virtually, I thought it was about time for a blog post. Partly to explain the #be2camp hashtag that fills my twitter stream during the events but mainly to thank those who organise the events.

For those of you yet to discover the be2camp concept, the name refers to

• be = Built Environment

• 2 = Web 2.0, such as twitter or blog sites

• camp = a collaborative, relaxed and informal event

My introduction to be2camp was be2campEast in Chelmsford in April, and then again in June when I bravely presented a Pecha Kucha. A fortuitous meeting cancellation allowed me to watch the live stream for Be2campNW in Manchester where I managed to lower the tone by repeatedly mentioning toilets (in my defence it was related to design collaboration!) and my most recent Be2camp experience was Be2campBrum on 12^th August 2010.

One wonderful aspect of a Be2camp is that you are in a room with other people who don't think it is at all weird to simultaneously watch a presentation, tweet, look at weblinks and connect on LinkedIn. Each event has stretched my brain as well as my perception of what is possible to achieve with Web 2.0.

If your idea of an event involves a nice shiny name badge, a neatly typed agenda and sitting passively watching PowerPoint presentation after PowerPoint presentation Be2camp is not for you.

But if you enjoy really getting involved in an event, commenting and asking questions in real during presentations, an amazingly friendly atmosphere and learning more in one afternoon than you normally learn in one month then you are an ideal candidate for Be2camp.

For a run down of Be2campBrum you can view MeshedMedia's great blog post

I am hoping to organise a Be2campOxon in Oxfordshire this autumn so suggestions for speakers and sponsors are very welcome. Following the popularity of the cakes at Be2campBrum a pastry chef might come in handy! The venue I have in mind has an amazing chef so I'm hoping we can come close to matching previous events.

And for those of you were puzzled by Bubblino, here he is in action. (the sideways aspect is my fault!)

12082010003.mp4 Watch on Posterous

I'd like to say a huge thank you to all those involved with Be2camp and I'm so pleased to have discovered the events via Twitter.

To close, a very tenuous link that is really just an excuse to include this early 90s song by The Wonder Stuff (it was included on the soundtrack album for the film “Camp.”)

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To try to explain I'll use an analogy – humour me!

Noel runs a chain of successful Christmas shops in the North West. Due to the seasonal nature of his business he earns most of his money during the lead up to Christmas, and the profit he makes during that time allows him to keep his shops open all year round.

In the lead up to Christmas 2009 Noel's business only sold 308 boxes of baubles, compared to the usual 529 that he sold in an average year. This meant that his business had only made 58% of what it made in an average winter and Noel was worried that he wouldn't have enough profit to keep the shops open throughout the summer.

In July 2010 one of the towns where he had a shop held a fancy dress parade and that shop sold 50 boxes of baubles in one day, as locals looked for innovative ways to decorate their floats. It was a boost to that shop but the profit wasn't enough to make up for the shortfall across all the shops in that year.

To ensure that his business retained enough money to keep trading until next Christmas Noel made the difficult decision to reduce the opening hours of all his shops over the summer.

I apologise for my clumsy analogy but it does illustrate the issue – short, localised periods of rain are not enough to make up for the low water levels across the region. The numbers are based on the figures for the region that provides drinking water for the North West, with boxes of baubles replaced by millimetres of rainfall.

One fact to bear in mind is that running a hosepipe for just one hour uses as much water as an average family of four would use in an entire day, so even if you are outside the region covered by a ban please think twice before using a hosepipe!

To finish a beautiful rain related song by The Eurythmics.

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 The age of the book is given away by the price - just 20p.  The books were sold in National Trust shops - I suspect the book was probably a reward for behaving during a visit to a stately home.

I remember that I loved this book as a small child and I wonder if it was one of the things that inspired my career as a landscape architect.  Rather precociously I decided on my career at 14, as it combined my love of plants with my love of design.

The topic of books that inspired a life long interest, and a love of history in particular, was covered by the wonderful Lucy Inglis in a blog post on her site Georgian London.  The discussion continues in the comments section and was also taken up by the very entertaining Gentleman Administrator

An appropriate song to finish with by the fabulous Miss Dolly Parton dueting with Linda Ronstad

05_-_Wildflowers.mp3 Listen on Posterous

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The garden was founded in 1673 by the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries and was used to teach plant identification to trainees. The site has links to Sir Hans Sloane, of Sloane Square fame, as well as Sir Joseph Banks and Robert Fortune. There is an excellent history of the garden on the Chelsea Physic Garden site.  The garden still focuses on ethnobotany and includes collections such as The Garden of World Medicine and The Pharmaceutical Garden

This little cabin on wheels marks the work of Swedish creator of taxonamy, and one of my heros, Carl Linnaeus.

The location close to the River Thames gives the garden a unique microclimate which allows species not usually hardy in the UK to survive.

The garden is beautifully maintained but manages to retain a relaxed, informal atmosphere with plenty of quiet corners to just sit and watch the world go by. 

And to finish a garden related song from 1993 by green anarchists The Levellers

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Yesterday I used Twitter to ask the question "what is your top presenting tip?" as I was finalising the slides for my talk at the River Restoration Conference so presenting skills were very much on my mind. I had some wonderful responses so I thought I would share them with you.

@publicityoxford Catherine Warrilow of PublicityOxford, a great presenter herself, suggested this:

"try and make eye contact with lots of people as you speak, don't single out one person."

@Garry_Hartley Garry Hartley of Out and About Advertising was a huge help with great three tips:

"My best Presenting tip - If you are nervous, simply think you are just telling your best friends a joke in the pub."

"Another presenting tip - Make eye contact with everyone in the room and smile.  Prof Brian Cox never stops smiling."

"Presenting tip 3 - raise and lower your voice to gain interest and pause for a moment.  Its about timing."

Matt Johns of Johns Associates inspired the title of this post with this great approach:

" I always think, "right, you're on the rollercoaster, you are strapped in, there's nowhere to run! Hand on for the ride!" and things go OK from there."

I agree with Garry about Professor Brian Cox. He is a great presenter and that smile never breaks!

Thank you to all of you who gave your advice and I'll let you know how the talk goes.

To finish I had to include this really, didn't I? (Sorry!)

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Having read some fascinating and inspiring blogs to mark Ada Lovelace Day I was inspired to write my own blog post. Ada was the daughter of Lord Byron and wrote the world's first computer programme in the 19th century. Ada Lovelace Day is an international day of blogging to celebrate the achievements of women in science and technology. Rather than discuss specific achievements I thought I would share the top five forms of technology that I use in my work, in an effort to dis-spell the myth that science and technology is different for girls.

Evernote - even if they don't actually use elephants to process the information Evernote is still pretty impressive. It is simply a virtual place to store "stuff," from websites you have visited to a book you saw and keep meaning to buy. I take photos of things I need to remember and add them to Evernote and I can can see them from my mobile or my pc. The technology actually reads the text in any images so they are then searchable. Great for business cards you receive so you can search later. I find it is much closer to how my brain remembers things than the filing cabinet style of Windows Explorer and I can also access it anywhere. True genius and the basic version is free!

Agree A Date - not a dating site but a neat website that helps you organise a meeting or a social event without endless tooing and froing. You can set reminders, ask it to chase those who have yet to reply or have a web based page for open meetings. You can add a poll to the meeting so people can comment on the venue or decide the choice of biscuit for the meeting, or whatever you like. It saves me hours and is free for the low user version.

Project Clock - this is something you do have to pay for but for me it has paid for itself many times over. It is project time recording that is incredibly simple and helps me track both fees due to clients for time charged work and to track the actual time spent on lump sum projects. I have years of data and it makes pricing new work much easier. It isn't a flashy system but has never crashed and is simple to use. The technical support is great as they respond in person to your emails and they have even added a feature that I asked for. If you are organised you can connect it to your accounts software so it knows how much to bill your clients, but I've not sorted that bit out yet!

Feedly - I read a number of blogs, have various RSS feeds and also some twitter searches and I view them all in one place via Feedly. You use your web browser to view your blogs and it looks like a magazine with thumbnails of the blogs you have yet to read. It is a stylish site and links well to Twitter, Posterous and Facebook.

NBS Software - This won't be of interest to anyone outside the construction sector but I have used NBS Landscape to write my specifications for a number of years. It has built in quality assurance so you can't miss out any details and the details are updated to reflect changes in British Standards or legislation. I have been lobbying them to produce a web based version for collaboration as for me that would be a great addition.

You can read more Ada Lovelace blogs at http://findingada.com/list/ One of my favourites today is by Jean Valentine who worked as a code breaker at Bletchley Park during the Second World War.

And finally to demonstrate even more technology, a You Tube clip of the song that inspired the title of this post.

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