Gardens Illustrated Magazine

The Gardens Illustrated team gather round to discuss their favourite features from 2008 and chat about their Christmas gift ideas. Columnist Frank Ronan continues the theme with his own thoughts on the most suitable presents for gardeners.

Senior lecturer in the Dept of Landscape at the University of Sheffield, Nigel Dunnett talks about rain gardens, using design and planting to capture and utilise rain water - avoiding storm run off and floods. Disconnect your drainpipes!

Mark is a landscape designer and founder of green walling company Biotechture Ltd. His view of sustainability is that with the implications of peak oil, gardens must sustain our society with cyclicle production. Solutions he suggests include algae biotechture, forest gardens and aquaponics.

This month we remind garden designers of the 12 January deadline for entries to the RHS Hampton Court Flower Show Conceptual Gardens section and editor Juliet Roberts talks to Tim Richardson to find out more about what the judges might be looking for.

Earlier this year David Cooper, professor of philosophy at Durham University discussed whether we need a philosophy of gardens. His talk considered the aesthetic, semantic and ethical meaning of a garden as experienced by both garden visitor and garden creator.

Not a full podcast this month – more an introduction to our extra podcasts available from the ‘Other Events’ section. But we do have Frank Ronan with his comment for October. This month he turns his thoughts to the search for appropriate attire when working in the garden.

Introduction to event with welcome from Victoria Walsh, head of public programmes at Tate Britain and Peter Thomas the chair of the SGD. 'A Landscape Can be About Anything' - Tim Richardson sets the subject into context with a look at its meaning in terms of garden design and its historical background.

Botanist and landscape designer Kate Cullity of Taylor Cullity Lethlean from Adelaide, Australia. As a partnership, their designs aim to establish an investigation into the poetic expression of the Australian landscape and contemporary culture. Kate talks through some recent projects in her presentation entitled 'Telling Stories; Inspiration from Art, Science and Landscape'. www.tcl.net.au

Landscape designer and artist Andy Cao and landscape designer Xavier Perrot of Cao Perrot Studio in Los Angeles, New York and Paris presented 'A place for Dreaming - the beauty of imperfection'. In this recording Andy Cao talks through projects to describe their work as 'a blending of landscape and art'. www.caoperrotstudio.com

Landscape architect Claude Cormier is based in Montreal in Canada and works on urban landscape projects. His talk is entitled 'Artificial... Not Fake'. His first conceptual garden was created 20 years ago as a bamboo forest in a nightclub. This bringing together of opposite worlds continues to inform his work. www.claudecormier.com

Eelco Hooftman of Edinburgh-based landscape architects Gross Max talks on the 'Art of the Artifact or Cult of the Cultivar'. The studio has undertaken many project throughout Europe earning a reputation for its contextual approach to urban spaces. www.grossmax.com

Question and answer session featuring all designers and question from the floor.

Swedish landscape architect Monika Gora is best known for her temporary exhibits within existing landscapes in which she aims to transform the relationship between landscape and buildings. She speaks on 'Inventing Places and Exploring by Doing'. www.gora.se

Fergus Garrett, head gardener at Great Dixter in Sussex talks about the dahlia trials at Wisley and comments on some of the findings and his favourites.

In the September podcast we indulge in our delight for dahlias with interviews from the RHS Dahlia Trials Open Day held at Wisley in Surrey. We also hear from gardener and television presenter Sarah Raven about her top tips for growing vegetables through the autumn and winter. And columnist Frank Ronan is delighted by colour in the garden.