Snails, what can you do?

Hello

I seem to have been fighting the good fight all year against slugs and snails, both in my garden and on the allotment - see the photo of said critter on my precious young Acer forestii. So much so, that as the weeks and months have gone by, I have become more creative (devious) about how I deal with them. It is now time to take stock of the situation.

I am not keen on the use of pellets; bad for slugs (good), bad for birds (bad). Beer traps are effective, but a waste of beer. If someone filled my swimming pool (if I had one) with beer, I'd probably get drunk, fall in and drown as well. Encouraging wildlife to scoff them down seems good, birds and hedgehogs are welcome but they don't eat enough, the slugs & snails have the upper hand. I am now considering eating them myself; l'escargot, Surbitonstyle. I understand one has to feed them a healthy last supper (five days long) to rid them of impurties and then out with the garlic butter etc etc.

I have even taken to picking them up and throwing them at least three gardens away, to a wild garden further up the road. I realise that this sounds a little cruel, but I reckon they are tough enough to survive, the snails have their shells to hide in and the slugs seem to bounce. Anyway, if I was a slug and the options were, as listed above; I'd take my chance with the short flight of fancy. Imagine, you spend all your life in the undergrowth and then for a brief moment you are flying high in the air, across gardens, over fences, ponds and lawns. What a tale you would have to tell your offspring but would they believe you?

If anyone has any better suggestions, then please don't hesitate to comment

Until later

Waterwell - for Garden Lighting or Irrigation

Another show garden!

Hello again,

Hot on the heals of the successful BUPA garden at the recent 2008 Chelsea Flower Show we are now straight into planning the next show garden at the Hampton Court Flower Show. The esteemed garden designer, Sally Court, has been asked (at rather short notice) to design & build a garden to celebrate the National Year of Reading. The garden is being designed to appeal to the imaginations of children and to trigger an interest in books and reading. Nearer the time, when the designs are finalised, I will update you on Waterwell's plans for the irrigation. & lighting.

Until next time...

Gold

Hi again,

Good news, Cleve West has won a coveted gold medal at the 2008 Chelsea Flower Show.

I have to say that, it was thoroughly deserved; quality design, well executed landscaping and fantastic planting add up to another success for Cleve. Because Cleve is a modest guy who doesn't make a big deal out of his success, I shall try to do it on his behalf. The garden, sponsored by BUPA, is intended to benefit people with dementia and is a great sensory journey; sight, sound, scent and touch all working in harmony.

We (Waterwell) can only take credit for the lighting. We created a framework of light by uplighting each of the six Amelanchier trees and then used a fabulous colour change LED light to bathe the "boule" in a constantly changing wash of light that ensures the boule is the centerpiece of the garden at night as well as in the day.

Have a look at this image, more to follow when we can organise them.

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"Boule" on the grandest scale

Me again,

It has been a while since I blogged but I have vowed to myself that from now on I shall try to be more regular, frequent and brief - that sounds awful doesn't it?

To update you (with my Waterwell contractor's hard hat on), we are in the process of helping the renowned garden designer, Cleve West on his garden at the Chelsea Flower Show in London. The garden is being sponsored by BUPA, their first foray into the competitive world of show gardens and is based around a garden designed to benefit people with Dementia and Parkinson's Disease.

The focal point of the garden will be the huge, 7 foot diameter, textured concrete "Boule" that will sit on the edge of a reflective pool. The "Boule" has been created by the French sculptors, Serge and Agnes Bottagisio-Decoux.

Our involvement is to light the garden for the gala night on Monday, one of the key society events of the London social scene. We will be using a unique, one-off light fitting designed by one of our suppliers, the Italian manufacturers, IGuzzini. This new light uses an array of 36, one watt Luxeon colour change LED lamps. Using this fitting, the huge “Boule” will be intensely lit from one side with concentrated, colour change light to produce a constantly evolving scene. The illumination of the “Boule” with an ever-changing spectrum of colour will be the centre piece of the garden at night, bringing it to life and creating drama and excitement for any occasion”.

To contrast the colour change effect on the “Boule” there will be soft ambient uplighting of each of the six Juneberry trees (Amelanchier lamarckii). This gentle, warm light will provide the backdrop or “setting” for the illumination of the “Boule”.

In my next blog I hope to attach an image or two of the lighting effect that we produced for the BUPA garden so that you can see for yourselves if it lived up to the hype.

See you next time, Simon

More Art(icles)

Further to my last blog, I thought I'd take the opportunity to update you on the results of the Psaier auction.

I went along to the auction with a friend, who is predominantly a garden designer, (of some note) but is also a writer, artist, allotmenteer and to some extent, a developing eccentric (a work in progress). His intentions were mainly to view the auction, see how it works but maybe to buy "a little something" if the right piece came along.

My intentions were originally quite simple, go along, see if anything grabbed me and make a bid. Having previously purchased six other pieces, I had assured my wife that I wouldn't go overboard..... However, between my last post and the auction I had visited a client on business and got talking about art. It turned out that her husband has a Warhol print and she has collected a great deal of art (including a number of original David Hockney pieces). Her problem though, was that she was about go on holiday and couldn't attend the auction. As I was going to attend, I offered to bid on her behalf and suggested she look at the catalogue online, tell me what she liked and what she would like to pay. She emailed me a list of 8 pieces that she was keen to buy.

On the day of the auction, I got stuck into the bidding on behalf of my client, racking up the works that she had asked for. My friend Cleve, now also became infected with auction fever and bid on a very unusual commercial piece that Psaier had done of a pair of used shoes, much to the amusement of the auctioneer and the other participants. Later, another, bigger lot came up which was of a number of pairs of shoes with gold and pink glitter dust adorning them. Cleve had not viewed this piece but the auctioneers good natured prompting about Cleve presumably owning a shoe shop and my gentle dig about his new found foot fetish, got him going and Cleve, being on his toes, got the upper hand, put the boot in and socked it to the auctioneer. It was soled in no time. Sorry about the puns. It turned out to be a really good piece and possibly the bargain of the day.

For my part, I managed not to get too giddy until it came to a huge, quite unusual piece (approx 1.8m diameter) that Psaier had done in respect of Ossie Clarke the 1960s & 70s fashion designer. The lot had a guide price of £1500 - £2000 (way beyond my budget) but there was no interest and with a reserve of £1000 there were still no takers. At this point I achieved on of life's minor achievements, I haggled with the auctioneer, in the middle of a live auction.

I called out an offer of £500
The auctioneer exclaimed "I'm not here to give it away"
I repeated my offer of £500
The auctioneer countered with £800 as his best position before moaning "this [auction] is going the wrong way"
I upped my offer to £600
The auctioneer refused
I repeated my offer of £600 as my last offer
The auctioneer, finally beaten, wearily said "you've beaten me, it's yours for £600"

At that point, Cleve nudged me and quietly said "I have seen it all now". Mastery of the understatement or what?

So, other than the practical difficulty of getting my lot home (crudely tied onto the roof of my car) and then having to explain to my rather shocked but patient and broadminded wife why I had bought it and why I liked it, a good day was had by all.

You never know, the art might even appreciate as well, time will tell....

Waterwell - for Garden Lighting or Irrigation

Contemporary Art(icle)

As an aside to the business (Waterwell) that I run, I have become increasingly interested in contemporary art of late.

I have always enjoyed modern & contemporary art in galleries but it viewing it in a gallery doesn't compare to owning it yourself. Having your own art is a right of passage, you find something you like, by an artist you rate, you commit your hard-earned cash and hang it on your wall. But what do you get and was it a good investment? Investment aside, if you like the art then you will get the pleasure of seeing it every day, in different lights, when you are in different moods and each time, you will see something new. It might be the way the morning sun lights your picture, it might be a detail you hadn't spotted before, it might be the emotions it generates in your soul.

But with the massive growth and interest in modern art, with record prices being achieved at auction for works by Warhol, Damien Hurst and the like, how can contemporary art be accessable to ordinary folk?

Well, I will let you into a little secret, I have been buying works by Pietro Psaier at auction. Pietro Psaier created pop art based upon icons such as Marilyn Monroe, The Beatles, Jagger and Bowie but he also experimented with printing techniques and 3d works. Currently his works go from as little as £100-200, often much more but still in the grasp of most people.

Pietro Psaier is an Italian born in 1936. His father was a designer for Ferrari in Maranello and Pietro followed in his fathers artistic footsteps by collaborating with him in the 1950s. After a spell living in Franco's Spain, Psaier settled in New York where he hooked up with Andy Warhol and Rupert Jasen Smith to create art at "The Factory". It was here that much of Warhol's work was produced, often by Psaier and Smith who were the artists while Warhol was the front man.

When Psaier's relationship with Warhol fizzled out in the 1960s onwards, Psaier continued to work until his untimely death in the 2004 at the hands of the Tsunami, when his remote beach house in Sri Lanka was washed away.

Unusually, since his death, Psaier's works appear to have been randomly dumped onto the art auction market in great swathes instead of being controlled and managed. This means that currently there is much choice available but the supply is finite. Once the artist's catalogue has been bought up there will be no more and at that point the prices will climb.

If you are interested, then maybe Google his name and see if you agree with me. Real, quality art by a recognised artist avialable and "Ordinary Joe" prices, it has to be worth a look.

09:36:00
by Simon Sales

Waterwell - for Garden Lighting or Irrigation


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