News

A brief newsletter to give you an over-view of our year and to update you on our current services, products and other general information.

At the beginning of the year we  moved our offices into Wheathill Lane Garden Centre which has been of benefit as it puts us in front of potential new customers. At our office we have a selection of crystals and books on healing plants for sale, so do pop in if you are passing.  We are also now selling a selection of paving and aggregates for use in the garden.

As you will see, the website has recently been updated and re-vamped with our latest landscaping projects and a more unified image.  Do take the opportunity to look at the photographs of the jobs we completed at Westbury, London and Charlton Horethorne.  During the Summer (if you can call it that) we were kept occupied by the rebuilding of a substantial natural stone wall in Dorset, and two large contracts in London.  The sensory / science garden created at High View School in Clapham is giving staff and pupils a great deal of pleasure since term started this Autumn.  Recently we have been asked to provide a design for the RSPB and hope to present it to them soon.

Things to do in the garden...

• Late Autumn is a good time to consider any large changes required so that the work can be done and all areas made good before the Spring.  Ideal for getting any hard landscaping done.
• Re-designing the garden, whether just a border or the whole garden can also be done at this time of  year because having seen the main season through and any changes you need or want to make will be apparent.
• Fencing can be creosoted / painted to maintain it and any suspect posts should be replaced before the winds come.
• Lawn care - now is the time to scarify, weed and feed ready for the Winter, also lawn seed can be sown or re-turfing done as the autumn rains should reduce the need to water.
• Borders, vegetable patches would benefit from organic compost being dug in.
• Hedges and shrubs could do with being pruned back.
• Herbaceous borders should be tidied up, dividing any large clumps as necessary.
• Leaves shoud be swept up and composted as these make excellent compost.
• Any empty composts bins can be checked and repaired before being used.
• Winter bedding and baskets can bow be planted with plants like pansies, primulas and ivy to give colour until the Spring.
• Ponds should be cleaned out removing all new leaf debris and then trawled gently using a fine net to remove the finer material that has been stirred up.

We would be delighted to offer advice and provide a free quotation should you require assistance on any of the above jobs as we offer a complete around the year landscaping and gardening service.

Andy Cole

Crystal Healing Weekend

On Sunday 22 June at our office within Wheathill Garden Centre, Milborne Port, Lifestyle Landscapes is hosting taster Crystal Healing sessions with qualified Crystal Healers.

As well as giving the Crystal Healing, the therapists will be available throughout the day to answer your questions and advise you on how to choose a crystal should you decide to purchase one from those held in stock.

Come along and esperience for yourself this ancient form of healng, so many elements of which are being incorporated into modern medicine today.  Also, take the opportunity to talk to Andy about your garden, visit the aquatic centre on site and tike time for some refreshments in the Wheathill tea rooms.

Opening times are 10 - 4 on Sunday

We Have Moved

Lifestyle Landscapes has moved our office to Wheathill Garden Centre in Milborne Port.  We will be continuing to offer our services as garden designers, landscape and gereral gardeners specialising in healing, sensory and meditation gardens. Now that we have new office premises, we will also be offering a selection of gardening books as well as healing crystals for sale.

The office will be open from 9 to 5.30 daily and from 10 to 4 on Sundays.

Over the weekend of 3,4 and 5 May, we are launching our new premises and would like to invite you to come down and visit us, have a glass of wine, meet some of the team and see what we have been up to lately!

Every year Lifestyle Landscapes supports a charitable cause and this year it is to raise money for a healing and sensory garden at St Margaret\'s Hospice in Yeovil.  We have already made a donation and also promised them help with the man-power needed to create the garden. We are actively engaged in raising funds as well. If you would like to join us and donate funds for such a worthwhile and local charity you can either join us on our opening weekend or send your cheque made out to St Margaret\'s Hospice Yeovil to us at the address below so we can collate them before forwarding them to the organiser of the charity.

Lifestyle Landscapes, c/o Wheathill Garden Centre, Wheathill Lane, Milborne Port, Sherborne, Dorset DTD9 5EX.

Telephone No. 01963 251284

We look forward to seeing you all.

Andy Cole

Can you help?

As you are all aware, Lifestyle Landscapes are passionate about improving people\'s lives whether it is through gardens for the less able, healing gardens or our commitment to helping worthwhile charitable causes.  Our proposed trip to Kenya to help those living in poverty build their own simple housing had to be cancelled due to the political situation that developed over the Christmas period.

As a result, we have decided that for 2008 we shall be supporting St Margaret\'s Hospice in Yeovil.  St Margaret\'s cares for those with life limiting illnesses, and for the most part can only keep their service running through donations.  On top of the costs of running the hospice and caring for those in need, St Margaret\'s inYeovil is raising additional funds to redesign and create a special garden for their patients to make the existing space more suitable for them and enhance their lives, and will include a water feature plus sensory area.

This seemed to be an opportunity too good to miss as it matched our remit and belief to the letter.  Consequently we have offered them our suport both financially and physically

We are asking for a donation from you or your company to assist us in supporting such a worthwhile cause. We have made our own donation as well as supplying some of the manpower required to construct the garden.

Any donation would be greatly appreciated. Please can you send your cheque made payable to St Margaret\'s Hospice to me at Lifestyle Landscapes, 656 The Knapp, Charlton Horethorne, Sherborne, Dorset DT9 4PQ so that we can collate them and forward them all together to the organiser for the charity for Yeovil hospice.

We will be keeping everyone updated via bulletins on the website and are also hoping to list everyonewho has generously helped us in the venture on the site. So if you would be so kind as to indicate whether or not you will approve of this when you send your donation we would be grateful.

Thank you very much for your time

Andy Cole

April Showers!

Showers, bright sunshine, warm weather and possibly snow and frosts - April can see them all.  So what can we expect in the garden?

Lots of new growth of foliage and stems, those fresh translucent shades that only spring can bring.  Petals all over the lawn when the wind blows through the winter flowering cherries (Prunus subhirtella autumnalis) and scatters them like confetti all across the garden.  The splashes of pure colour of Chaenomeles as it flowers.  Then there are the climbers, often they are the first to show signs of activity as they are often protected against walls or as they scramble across sheds or pergolas, look out for Clematis montana with its eye catching displays.  Rock and alpine beds are often at their most exciting with every plant seeming intent on outdoing its neighbour.

The list of things to do will as ever  be endless but when the sun does come out and on those rare days when it is warm enough to sit out side - JUST DO IT!  After all the garden is there to be enjoyed and the jobs will all still be there tomorrow.