Ideas for New "Room" #1

PeterS, that's my preference....grasses-based. I grow several varieties but if I had the space would devote it to swathes of billowing grasses. What better in a hot dry.summer?

 

Plenty of time - Ain't no construction gonna happen 'till the Autumn

We're having a hot, dry summer? Whoopee!

 

Oh yes! A hot dry summer

 

Bookmarked!

 

I've been here a couple of times. In one area, they have that thing with 'raked up' gravel, with some rocks thrown in. Now, I guess I'm like many that doesn't see the value of such things, but I have to say that I was quite transfixed. Indeed, I climbed onto the back of a giant Albatross, which flew through a crack in the cloud, to a place where happiness reigned all year round, and the music played ever so loudly....

hmm, I'll get me coat....

 

Freddy - I really like this page. Looks like a good place to visit!

 

http://www.angelfire.com/wv/thebonsainursery/zen2.htm

I've been to the mother of all gravel gardens Ryoan-ji in Kyoto, Japan several times. The first time, as a naive newcomer to Japan, it meant nothing to me other than "very nice". After being immersed in Japanese culture for a couple of years when I then returned to Ryoan-ji I spent an hour or two just sitting in contemplation. Dunno whether older-than-I-was Brits would naturally appreciate its tranquillity ... but I have my doubts ... I think my mates would think it was "'raked up' gravel, with some rocks thrown in"

http://www.ryoanji.jp/smph/eng/

By the by Ryoan-ji is as impossible for Westerners to pronounce as it is for Eastern folk to distinguish between Light and Right. To my ear it sounds like you start with L and switch to R half way through sounding the "Ry" sound

If I made a Japanese garden over here I would have some running water, to help muffle any other sounds, and thus create the tranquillity.

 

That site is using Frames, so the link doesn't work (goes to home page) I'm afraid. You'd need to find whatever links to the page you liked and then right-click that link and use open-in-new-Tab/Window to get a URL that will take you to the page ...

"Frames" has kinda died a death as a way of making websites nowadays.

 

Hiya Kristen.

Not sure I follow? Are you saying you can't follow the links?

 

Ahhhh...........

This is the page to which I was referring.......................

Not that it is achievable in reality!

 

The links work, but the site "doesn't". When you change pages on that site the Address (in the browser's address bar) stays the same - so if you cut & paste that address into a message all you get is the home page ...

In case you are interested in the techie bit basically there is a web page (the "Home Page") within which is a "frame" - in fact the frame takes up 99% of the actual page. When you click on a link (i.e. within the frame) the new page is loaded within the frame - and thus the address in the browser's address bar doesn't change.

This mechanism was typically used to have a menu on the top and/or left and as you clicked on things the content, on the right, changed but the top/left panes didn't - that right-hand-content was actually in a "frame" - it saved the time of reloading the top/left pane content again, and if you had scrolled it etc. that didn't go-back-to-top when you got to the new "page"

I suspect that was partly because ADSL didn't exist back then, connections were slow, probably dial-up, and programmers were looking for ways NOT to include the whole of the top/left-hand-menu on EVERY page you viewed. Now your connection is uber-fast so programmers slash development costs instead and just ship you I-don't-care amounts of content on every page ... including a horrific amount of freeware libraries that they have bolted together to save them having to actually "engineer" a sleek and elegant solution. (I just had a look at this page - 165K of "real content" and a supporting cast of 250K of styling information, 33 program files totally well over 1,000KB, and then over 1,000KB of images ... amazing the thing gets off the ground with that much fuel onboard!)

(Actually, the modern equivalent of the menu-on-the-left which doesn't refresh is a technique usually referred to as AJAX which allows the web page to "go get" some additional content and then "insert it into the page" where the old content used to be. Almost no way at all to cut & paste a link to that into a forum message like this :( )

 

Its not Perlite then?

Having said all that I do think that Whiskey's garden is excellent

http://www.fujiyamagarden.com/

 

It does give me an idea though.................

A "Lost" garden. Cheap concrete (?) statues which are mutilated and weathered using yoghurt. Much as I dislike Ivy, some choice ornamental varieties left to ramble up them. Various coloured foliage shrubs planted too closely so that the colours merge. A leggy Fuchsia magellanica growing through them. Perennial Ipomea rambling unchecked, Perriwinkles too (hate them as well). Added to the mix could be some popular perennials from the late Victorian gardens. No beds as such, just these plants emerging from unmanicured grass. Plus a couple of old knackered cast iron benches.

I can picture it, just not describing it very well.

 

I suspect these guys produce a quality product that fits the bill:

http://www.geoffs-garden-ornaments.co.uk/

My daughter has been plaguing me to do a tumbled down wall (as some sort of trompe l'oeil / mural thingie) ... it would fit in well with what you describe.

yeah, could have some fun with all the old stalwarts that I wouldn't be seen dead planting. I think that Christo Lloyd would be proud, and envious particularly if it upsets the establishment somewhat!