Les Ballard

Yes I would love to help but would need a brief and details and the work involved could not be free. Are you making a national park or a smal open space? You are welcome to contact me since I gather there are various moves in your part of europe to do things that have not be en done previously in any proper way and you are all in the first stages…[Read more]

And why not.

Would be nice to see some people involved in all this. Car production is one of the last great employers and they need all the perks they can get. Some of the 50,000 trees could be fruit producers for staff to pick free fruit or just help crop for local charities. Some can be used to make an angle for factory walls and act as…[Read more]

I hope it is constructive to suggest that you do not want to know what you ask but to create other environments within the (future) boundaries you can expect in your area. While I am sure that your previous experience will be invaluable in this respect, I would suggest that you look at the project to preserve the oryx in the African desert. They…[Read more]

I am sure the older native trailing or climbing roses, which you can let grow down, will do well and you can block varieties by colour leaving the nice smells for the base where the people are. For water, a half horsepower pump works wonders and any plumbing company will tell you what power you need for the height you have, volume you want and…[Read more]

Again – I replied to Morroccan discussion – look at sicilian cooking and influences. Sicily was inhabited by folk from all over the med and this influence is retained in sicilian cooking. Dont forget researching fruit and wine/liquers. There is a Sicilian TV series with Jamie Oliver you can watch if u google it where he goes through market and…[Read more]

Look at the food – see all the herbs and spices they use in moroccan cooking and what the verieties are. Consider aspect and elevation if in the mountains but dinner and its flavourings are what is grown and always roses – check damascus varieties i think – old ones anyway. Dont forget rosewater is also used in cooking.

Luv n Lite

Les Ballard

I think if you search the forum this subject was well covered. (No pun intended,) However, if you search the bay area and central London in satellite mode on google am sure you will see a number. For London, search around West End between say Harrods and Bloomsbury neighbourhood around Brtish Museum. All those names are searchable – go west from…[Read more]

The joke used to feature an engineer, an artist and an architect – the consensus of those in the pub each of the said professions arguing for their own side mainly – was that God must be an architect to design a woman as who else would site the sewer outlet next to the fun factory. I always wondered if a freemason invented the joke as, of course,…[Read more]

Hi,

There may be differences between planning larege and small pinetums and mixed arboretums. However, at all such tree museums here (and I have been to one in France too) there are shops both to sell plants, trees and other garden centre type equipment and souvenir shops which have some kind of history of the site in book form. Often these are…[Read more]

HI, there is a shop on the BBC TV website which commissioned and showed all the Attenborough series. I think some clips are availabl on utube but, as the BBC would sell their undies for sufficient inducement, I cannot imagine their not facilitating your purchase of Attenborough series direct. Google BBC TV and follow your nose from there. While…[Read more]

Ask local rangers where you can buy sticks to plant or whole trees. Use stock as local as possible. If near the sea this may even be a little salt tolerant. Depending on how much bank you want to cover you can add say 9% foreigners. You could, for example, plant Britsh osier and pussy willow in with that 9% with a view to cutting back the pussy…[Read more]

I will be pleased to accept a brief and design something. However, most hotels have to cut according to their cloth in the space they have. Later refurbishments will naturally be edgier though, as always, some goofoff boss always wants to cut corners and save cash. Respectfully, therefore, I would suggest you look at several hotels in London,…[Read more]

The cure for Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI) or tendonitis is stopping doing it! However, some rest, attempts at being ambidextrous and having a friend to massage hand, etc. all help. In addition some relief may come from using Rhus. Tox. cream available from health food shops and the like. Look it up first and always tell your doc, if you are…[Read more]

hi, dolls house makers are everywhere and have a trick to replicate everything using locally available materials. For example, we have 2 grades of Milliput and a clay that sets called das for your purposes but, you may not. i believe you do have something called silver clay though that you set in a domestic oven. We use here tea, from used tea…[Read more]

Nothing seemed sadder than a huge orangutan, with a finger in the filler hole of a huge plastic barrel, banging it around the back of its small enclosure. There was a clear pane between us but other visitors just interacted between themselves and didn’t include this social creature, almost as intelligent as us, in what they did or said. As with…[Read more]

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”. I like drifts of flowers with veg. planted between, while others like a lot of black earth and a single row of red tulips! The change from winter to summer and back again, however, in any project, is probably best copied from Mother Nature as she seasonally changes her cloak.

On or through the snow, folk…[Read more]

As I have suggested before, an LA can have plants grown on a part of a site to be planted out as buildings are ready to be beautified. That means the young plants get used to the soil as they grow and do better than plants brought in though few really care about that when the plant merely provides a focus to empty their dogs. The dogs care even…[Read more]

Yes Nikka you are right. However, planning buildings should include consideration of cardinal points and we certainly must, along with lattitude of course, while a good old fashioned light meter will help determine what will grow where. I do deplore the regularly changed palms in malls and plastic foliage in the fast food restaurant – something…[Read more]

Not only is it a chagrin inducing policy, it isn’t abnormal, discourages grey water system establishment (and other green ideas) and flies in the face of the idea that, since our streets are often undermined anyway and subject to mains fracture by vibration from traffic, where are the futuristic ideas gone for saving all our rainwater with pierced…[Read more]