Les Ballard

I have spoken before about making living furniture, eg growing trees as a bench or a shelter, with a tree leaning away a little way off as a lightning conductor, that is surprisingly vandal proof. The fact is we have rules, regulations, laws and lawsuits re safety but anything we can do to ameliorate the use of cold plastic and concrete seems a…[Read more]

they aint all lengthy but cheers! lol  As for thebook I was waiting until I’m old and grey.  Oh!  I am – rofl

Some of the English country houses had exceptional owners – not to mention landscapers – and systems from the first own electricity lit home, to diverting rivers, to creating lakes and ice houses to get ice and store it for cooking/drinks, etc.  The overwhelming rule I think I may have discerned is, however much trouble you have to go to…[Read more]

o agreed nick i was listing things to do in between more xtreme stuff (while sporting a plaster cast? lol) 

its nice there are slopes but u need some kind of a flat area – maybe you can chop off a mountain and hollow another out as labour isn’t a problem and, re the ganges, someone has to risk any suggested water flow problems associated with…[Read more]

Do you have mountains or holes in the ground, holes in any flight paths over the site to allow for local flights and a stretch of water without predators, etc. for those sports?  What are local safety laws and medical facilities or will you have to introduce them?  How will you cover insurance costs and requirements?  Finally, what can you pr…[Read more]

you may find this interesting http://uspace.shef.ac.uk/servlet/JiveServlet/previewBody/4504-102-1-9286/Cemeteries-churchyards-and-burial-grounds%20inc.%20andy%20Claydon.pdf

Lost Gardens of Heligan slope and can be seen at – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Gardens_of_Heligan

Whereas many slopes are terraced, especially to grow crops like rice, or provide a flat area for building, it is also possible to embrace a slope and have a house on a concrete raft raised at the front on stilts and being at ground level at…[Read more]

The Islamic tradition is to have cool courtyards away from prying eyes just as their art escapes human forms yet embraces mathematical patterns.  When given a chance to start afresh and with money no object, you get places like the Alhambra Palace in Spain.  When the area has to grow organically, in the heat and the dust, the wind and the dirt o…[Read more]

Are you just interested in planting something to be green until changed by a contractor, to make folk more amenable to dropping their wallet at the mall and go home maybe, or is there some kind of vision?  Is it to reflect local flora in a natural habitat or be forward looking, say to support elfin figures like a fairy lustre plate as a backdrop…[Read more]

In reading your post some things occur to me and wonder if you would have any wish to respond here to the points below.
Local authorities in the UK seem to be led by the clubs they all belong to though they contract for tree and planting services as a rule.  No doubt other countries have similar advisers.  Since Victorian times there have been p…[Read more]

The London protest started just outside St. Paul’s Cathedral and it closed for a while losing £20k a day income.  I think the scale of the income shocked a lot of people as did one journalist going inside for the first time, when it opened again after health and safety fears were addressed, to see priests on the tills in the shop taking the c…[Read more]

Oh how exciting but even the idea of networking to get laws with teeth must feel like getting yours pulled in relation to the pollution.    I would say the port will get what the government are willing to do and enforce but just the drawings and sketches could be nice even if pitched in tranches, sections being finished one at a time.  It is sa…[Read more]

Go write 100 times “If I can’t do it, no-one can”.  You are there to play God, you have a piece of paper that says so, just make sure you get it right.  
In Britain we have lost all our girl black poplars and the boys, that are on general sale and come from micro propagation or cloning, aren’t being bought to plant.  They are dying out because th…[Read more]

Oh the joys of 20 acres, me and a bitch to play with lol!  Everyone is frightened.  If necessary, you should have ID and sign in to enter the park.  You should be allowed to do what you like, mainly on CCTV loop just in case you hurt someone or something but, generally, you do as you wish.  What will attract old people is good lighting and smo…[Read more]

You put plot plants on a board over a manhole cover maybe, or sink it below the level of a lawn, but for a larger size you can disguise it with a lightweight box, maybe in sections, that can permanently support the weight of what planting you fancy.  Think semi-permanent but strong film sets.  
Equally, you can add a fountain or gazebo with hard l…[Read more]

A tongue is quite good equipment though i empathise with the view not to do anything solid without a survey.  Often, land has been surveyed in the not too far distant past and/or there are aerial photographs and satellite photos/maps available,  I once found guys before a ruined pavillion and whitewash shed in a flat open area surrounded by lar…[Read more]

Find the oldest photographs you can of this and close/similar areas from archives and see what grew then.  Check for what local tribes picked/ate/used.  Consider replacing areas of dead sand, ie not yet converted to soil but not likely to have sand added now and consider upgrading them.  Spent mushroom compost mixed with a top layer of fresh so…[Read more]

Charles’ baby is Poundbury.  Google it and check the prices there.  There are no council estates as far as I know and everyone I have ever seen associated with the place is white.

Oh sorry = kettling is a new term for crowding protestors, for example, into a small area, barracking is generally harranguing someone and dear is expensive. 
 
All the police pictures displayed tonight on a TV programme covering all the cities in the riots and incuding actual cctv recording of people breaking into shops, requesting informers to…[Read more]

These riots happened shortly after the kids broke up for the school holidays and under 16’s of afro-caribbean origin did most of the damage.  Most of these sought props for their preferred lifestyle from x-box units to trainers and tops.  Almost all else, including fires, was the standard trashing that follows illegitimate activity including the b…[Read more]