Ivydene Gardens Home: About Chris Garnons-Williams

Chris Garnons-Williams was born in the late 1940s in Egypt of British parents. After an education that spanned Gordonstoun and Brunel University, I worked for a number of years for a major defence contractor. I am married, and live in Kent (England) with my wife.

Eventually, realising that work in horticulture would improve my quality of life, I attended Hadlow College of Agriculture and Horticulture for a 1 year course in horticulture (it should be noted that this course contained no garden design content) before setting up my own garden design, landscaping and maintenance business in 1991 as a sole trader.

Chris is a qualified horticultural gardener. I am a member of the Royal Horticultural Society and was a member of the Medway Fair Trader Scheme until January 2013, before retiring at the end of March 2013; due to heart failure problems.

I speak English, and when not engaged on other people's gardens or my own, I have enjoyed church candle making and DIY. As from November 2012, I have started taking photos of plants and use the photos on this website. It is a Canon Powershot S100 , where I use Autofocus and the Zoom feature. During the last few years I now use my next camera - Powershot SX50HS - and most of the photos in the Camera Photo Galleries come from this excellent camera.

I did design, construct and maintain private gardens using the organic methods and companion planting techniques detailed in this website and these will be shown in Chris Garnons-Williams Work Done 1 Gallery.

In carrying on creating this website, I call a spade a spade and so if I think something needs to be stated for the benefit to the public, then I will state it:-

• like the problems with trees within pavements in Madeira to me are like Madeira is playing Russian Roulette with its native population and its visitors.
• I state the pruning instructions stated by the RHS and the ones stated by another authority for RHS gardens open to the public, where I find that neither pruning system has been followed as well as no garden plan has either been created or maintained year by year.
• Investigating a book on Fragrance of Plants I discover that what is stated in the book cannot be verified by the information from mail-order nurseries and so I say so.
• stating the asthma health problems caused by traffic for new school pupils and their lack of any tap water (either in their new homes or at school) in a year's time when they attend their new school.

and I provide information to help you in your gardening, which I hope you find useful.

Chris Garnons-Williams

I received an invitation to attend a Drinks Function in early December 2017 from the Chair and Principal of Gordonstoun to thank me for my generous support and this is the email I sent:-

Dear Organisers,

Thank you for the personal invite to thank me for my generous support by the Chair and Principal of Gordonstoun.

The following parts of my medical condition prevent me from attending:-

I have had atrial fibrillation diagnosed in March 2013. Part of the treatment was Electrical Cardioversion

https://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/electrical-cardioversion-defibrillation-for-a-fast-heart-rate

Was administered not just once but 3 times in one afternoon in hospital. The pill for reducing my heart rate by 30 beats per minute had to have another to reduce it by another 30 beats per minute after that electrical surgery.

The result is that my heart rate is forced lower by 60 beats per minute and that still leaves the heart beating irregularly; which means that my body does not get rid of water as well as before even though another pill as a Diuretic

https://www.healthline.com/health/diuretics

Helps by persuading me to go to the toilet 3 times a night, etc. The further side effects are that water collects at my ankles and in my throat area. I use a toilet roll within the car to catch the ejaculation of phlegm from my mouth and sleep on a settee to elevate my legs and head above my stomach - to drain my legs and stop me drowning or choking to death.

When I attend my female dentist, I must close my eyes as soon as I get into the chair; otherwise her close proximity will send my blood-thinning tablet medication round the bend for 2 months. I do not open my eyes until she has retired to further than 3 feet from me.

I cannot attend the theatre or cinema due to the noise level and heat - my temperature range is 18-20 degrees Centigrade (a side effect from the motorbike accident in 1972). 24 degrees centigrade was the temperature to bring the theatre down by the air conditioning at the theatre in Canterbury, but the air conditioning was not switched on and so I had to leave as soon as I could at the intermission. I listened to 4 African singers in the same theatre who simply sang and the noise level increased to a level of pain for me so I did not hear the end of the concert.

I also cannot attend formal dinners or occasions inside buildings due to the steadily rising heat. My 8 medications some twice a day preclude alcohol, cranberries and sweet desserts (I also have type II Diabetes).

I cannot dance, due to the motorbike accident in 1972 and landing on my head at 60 miles an hour thus dislodging a third of my brain from my skull. It also led to losing the power of speaking English - I taught myself, but I gradually become very tired after 10 minutes and my speech becomes slurred and slows right down, when I cannot remember the word that I wish to say next. If I get knocked the rest of the brain could also be detached which could have fatal consequences.

The above are some of the negative aspects, but being more positive, neither my pituitary gland tumour, my glaucoma or my diabetic diet of little fat, no sugar and only a small amount of protein cause any further social interacting problems, when I do so with my wife.

I suspect that you might have heard of The Bricklayer’s Story

https://monologues.co.uk/Sketches/Bricklayers_Story.htm

As its better to finish reading this epistle with a smile,

Regards,

Chris Garnons-Williams

Still creating

https://www.ivydenegardens.co.uk

I think it was clear enough and so no reply has been received, although by February 2019, the number of my medications had increased to 11. Although I can no longer do physical work, I can still do mental work to aid others in their garden endeavours, free of charge since I am retired.

I have been associated with the Society Of Garden Designers and I currently use the following Clause 3.3 and 3.4 of their Code of Conduct and Practice in this website:-

Society Of Garden Designers

Code of Professional Conduct and Good Practice

Scope of the Code

The code, reprinted below was adopted by the Council of the Society of Garden Designers on 15th January 2003 under Clause 7 of the Society's Constitution.

This Code is binding on all members of the Society with effect from 15th January 2003.

3. As a member of the Society, you must act with integrity and avoid conflicts of interest

 

3.1 Before commencing any work for a client or employer you must disclose in writing any business, financial or personal interest of yours, or that of any partner, co-director or associate, the existence of which, if not declared, would or might be likely to raise either a conflict of interest between you and the client or employer or doubts about your integrity.

 

3.2 You must not (in a garden design practice) be a partner, co-director or take up employment with an unsuitable person. Examples of unsuitable persons are:

- A person whose name has been removed from the Directory of Registered Garden Designers by virtue of disciplinary measures

- A person disqualified from membership of a recognised professional body

 

3.3 You must refuse any gift, favour or hospitality that might be interpreted, now or in the future, as an attempt to obtain preferential consideration.

 

3.4 When you specify or recommend a product, contractor or any other service, you must ensure that your advice is based on your professional opinion as to the relative advantages and disadvantages of alternative products, contractors or services and is not based on commercial gain.

Cheer up

Mr Common Dog Violet,

stop watering with your Common Winter-cress watering can

and let off some of your Thale Cress rockets!

See Wild Flowers of British Isles

See Rosa 'Adelaide d'Orleans in the Rose

Why I like jokes to put in this website

A man and his dog were walking along a road. The man was enjoying the scenery, when it suddenly occurred to him that he was dead.  He remembered dying, and that the dog walking beside him had been dead for years.  He wondered where the road was leading them.

After a while, they came to a high, white stone wall along one side of the road.. It looked like fine marble. At the top of a long hill, it was broken by a tall arch that glowed in the sunlight.

When he was standing before it he saw a magnificent gate in the arch that looked like mother-of-pearl, and the street that led to the gate looked like pure gold. He and the dog walked toward the gate, and as he got closer, he saw a man at a desk to one side

When he was close enough, he called out, 'Excuse me, where are we?'

'This is Heaven, sir,' the man answered.

'Wow! Would you happen to have some water?' the man asked.

'Of course, sir. Come right in, and I'll have some ice water brought right up.'

The man gestured, and the gate began to open.

'Can my friend,' gesturing toward his dog, 'come in, too?' the traveller asked.

'I'm sorry, sir, but we don't accept pets.'

The man thought a moment and then turned back toward the road and continued the way he had been going with his dog.

After another long walk, and at the top of another long hill, he came to a dirt road leading through a farm gate that looked as if it had never been closed. There was no fence.

As he approached the gate, he saw a man inside, leaning against a tree and reading a book.

'Excuse me!' he called to the man. 'Do you have any water?'

'Yeah, sure, there's a pump over there, come on in.'

'How about my friend here?' the traveller gestured to the dog.

'There should be a bowl by the pump.'

They went through the gate, and sure enough, there was an old-fashioned hand pump with a bowl beside it.

The traveller filled the water bowl and took a long drink himself, then he gave some to the dog.

When they were full, he and the dog walked back toward the man who was standing by the tree.

'What do you call this place?' the traveller asked.

'This is Heaven,' he answered.

'Well, that's confusing,' the traveller said. 'The man down the road said that was Heaven, too.'

'Oh, you mean the place with the gold street and pearly gates? Nope. That's hell.'

'Doesn't it make you mad for them to use your name like that?'

'No, we're just happy that they screen out the folks who would leave their best friends behind.'

Soooo.

Sometimes, we wonder why friends keep forwarding jokes to us without writing a word.

Maybe this will explain.

When you are very busy, but still want to keep in touch, guess what you do? You forward jokes.

When you have nothing to say, but still want to keep contact, you forward jokes.

When you have something to say, but don't know what, and don't know how, you forward jokes.

Also to let you know that you are still remembered, you are still important, you are still loved, you are still cared for, guess what you get?

A forwarded joke.

So, next time if you get a joke, don't think that you've been sent just another forwarded joke, but that you've been thought of today and your friend on the other end of your computer wanted to send you a smile.

One Hungry Little Mouse

The extraordinary scene was captured by photography student  Casey Gutteridge at the Santago Rare Leopard  Project in Hertfordshire.

The  19-year-old, from Potters Bar, Hertfordshire,  who was photographing the leopard for a  course project, was astounded by the mouse's  behaviour.

He said: 'I have no idea  where the mouse came from - he just appeared  in the enclosure after the keeper had dropped in  the meat for the leopard.

'He didn't  take any notice of the leopard, just went  straight over to the meat and started  feeding himself.

'But the leopard was  pretty surprised - she bent down and sniffed  the mouse and flinched a bit like she was  scared.

'In the meantime the mouse just  carried on eating like nothing had  happened..

..but even a gentle shove does not deter the little creature from getting his fill...

'It was  amazing, even the keeper who had thrown the meat  into the enclosure was shocked - he said he'd never seen anything like it before.' 

Project owner Jackie James added: 'It  was so funny to see - Sheena batted the  mouse a couple of times to try to get it away  from her food.

'But the determined  little thing took no notice and just carried  on.'

Sheena was brought in to the Santago  Rare Leopard Project from a UK zoo when she  was just four months old. She is one of  14 big cats in the private collection started by  Jackie 's late husband Peter in 1989.  The African Leopard can be found in the  continent's forests, grasslands, savannas,  and rainforests.

Chris Garnons-Williams taking photos of roses at R.V. Roger Nursery field. Photo taken by I. Roger in July 2014.

Work in progress by Chris
Garnons-Williams, who is retired and who continues to create, maintain and pay the running costs of this small educational website
from March 2013:-

Roses

Using photos taken by myself, I am currently adding 235 roses (July 2013) from The Jubilee Rose Garden and Bowes-Lyon Rose Garden of the RHS garden at Wisley with their juvenile, middle-age and mature flowers to the Rose RHS Wisley A-F, G-R and S-Z galleries - the middle-aged flower is then used for flower comparison purposes. I am continuing to update the roses with Bloom Shape, Petal Count and Fragrance / Not Fragrant Comparison Pages and adding the remaining 125 roses from Wisley out of the 235 plus 215 roses from grower R.V. Roger in October 2014. This was completed in January 2015.

Mixed Borders Garden Design

Using photos taken by myself and Heather Kavanagh of the Mixed Borders at Wisley, these have been added to Mixed Borders sub-topic to the Garden Design Topic. Photos in each of the seasons show the change to 10 sections of the East Border and 9 sections of the West Border which are alongside a wide and long lawn. The plants are detailed in their respective Photo Galleries.
I will provide further unqualified advice in 2015 concerning the design of each section to show how given a basic permanent structure of plants; then with a small amount of work; different flowers, fruit, bulbs, climbers, vegetables could use the same section of remaining ground in the 4 different seasons without competing with each other as well as showing what Wisley is doing on that remaining ground.

Bee-pollinated Plants for Asthma sufferers

After July 2013, I have created the following:-

You can compare the flower colour of the bee-pollinated plants with all the other bee-pollinated plants (who have Plant Description Pages in this website) using the Bee-pollinated 12 colours of Bloom in each Month Gallery. There are also additional bee-pollinated plants (who may not have any Plant Description Page in this website) in the 12 colours per month pages of the Bee-pollinated Index Gallery.

Heathers

The following work on heathers is in the photo gathering stage and from November 2014:-
Using photos of heathers to be taken each season from the Heather Collection in the Royal Horticultural Society Garden at Wisley, England by myself and Heather Kavanagh - Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter - more plant description pages of heathers will be created. The Heather Index Gallery Pages are being created in December 2014 - before the new Heather Description Pages in 2015.

A piece of advice from The Heather Society - "To get decent photographs of heathers you really need young, well-pruned plants, not over 5 years old".... The age of the heathers at Wisley range from when God was a boy to the age when released from a nursery. My State Pension is unable to afford the frequency of visits to the new public display of heathers in the Riverside Garden in Perth, Scotland required to photo each of their different heathers at least 4 times in a year to fulfill that advice from The Heather Society. I have asked the members of that Society for photos of heathers through their administrator some years ago with no response.

Instead of only using flower colour, then you could use changing foliage colour in your planting designs.

Starting in December 2014, each Heather Comparison Gallery Page has 1 or more corresponding Heather Index Pages in the Heather Index Gallery; due to there being more than 800 heathers to be compared in the Heather Comparison Gallery from the number of heathers photographed by H. Kavanagh or myself in the RHS garden at Wisley and the complete index of all these 800+ heathers cannot be put into a table on each page.

Other Website Details

You can choose clothes from a commercial clothes catalogue and then have them delivered mail-order from a commercial supplier in that catalogue.

You can choose plants/ services/ products from this educational website with the same kind of information as in a clothes catalogue, then link to and mail-order an external commercial supplier to buy them yourself.

There is no shop in this website, which is my hobby and whose expenses I pay for.

There is no commission paid to or received from any other person or company; through your use of this site or in me creating it.

I regret the lack of finance throughout the world in the Plant Mail-order Nursery Business to take and display photos of their plants showing the flower, foliage and overall natural shape to help the public to choose.
After requesting them for those photos for 6 years until 2013; I (at my own expense, with the photographic help of Heather Kavanagh till 2014) have decided to take those photos in public areas - whilst I am still currently on medication for heart failure since March 2013 - before displaying them on this website to help those impoverished firms improve their sales directly with their public.

Work in progress from September 2012 to February 2013:-

This site was originally built for screens of 800 pixels wide.

Now most people have screens that will accomodate at least 1200, so I am moving the main menu and the page menus to the sides as shown here and fixing them. Then, the existing data of 460 pixels wide goes in between these menus and as you scroll down the page the data will change, but the menus usually remain where they are.

Included in this change for every page are the Page Description Pages to include these Topic and Page Menus.

The INDEX pages have been replaced by an added INDEX link to Plant Description Page table to the right of the Pages Menu in every page of that photo gallery topic.

The Colour Wheel for Flowers has direct links to the relevant Page Description Pages so that IPHONE users can use it. Clicking part of the text in the Text Description below the thumbnail in the All Flowers per Month will have a direct link to the Page Description Page. This will be in addition to the Link to New Window from clicking the Thumbnail to add that Page Description Page for users who allow more than 1 Window.

Click this thumbnail to see if you allow Link to New Window

to get the Window on its Plant Description Page of Erica carnea 'Sherwood Creeping' added to your screen.

Completing the change from 825 to 1225 for the width of the Plant Description Page in the Link to New Window Action from every Thumbnail to the respective Page in February 2013.

Also, changed 7 flower colours per month Colour Wheel to make it easier to click required colour in required month for
Bulb,
Deciduous Shrub , Deciduous Tree , Evergreen Perennial , Evergreen Shrub , Evergreen Tree , Herbaceous Perennial in January 2013.

Instead of using the Link to New Window above, I am now (October 2014) using a Map Link to change the page to the Page Description Page rather than adding that Page, starting with the roses in the Rose Galleries, before I moved onto the Heathers in December 2014.

My retired wife became a church warden at St. Margaret's of Rainham in Kent in 2016. I am sure that she would wish to thank the bank which deals with each of the (lost within the bank from its local branch to the central bank location where that application is processed) 3 sets of "transfer from previous church wardens to the current church wardens" application forms. At the end of February 2017, this change of church warden bank signees has occurred. It has only taken 11 months. Minor detail from Clause 7 of The Churchwardens Measure 2001 - A brief Guide -"Churchwardens are chosen and hold office for only one year at a time.". It seems therefore that the next church warden in April may suffer the same fate and I do wonder how the Church of England survives on only having financial officers authorised to handle church finance for 1 month in 12.

Technically during that time my wife might have borne a child and no doubt that might have affected the information provided to the bank on its forms and elongated the process even further.
Knowing how long it takes the bank to process its forms, it would be appropriate if they took the same length of time before having incurred a penalty for using the bank before it took the lucre.
It is possible that because of their inefficiencies that therefore each client who has an account with them reports with their passport or driving licence to their bank every day of the week in person, just like parolees report to the police. Then at least the banks would know which of their clients was alive 11 months previously.

Although having signed a cheque for a larger amount, which was then refused, she was grateful that cheques for smaller amounts went through with no problem. Although she is finding it difficult to locate the name of the personnell who should receive her epistle concerning her appreciation of the loss of her personal details within the bank, I feel that I must be positive (nobody appreciates someone who is moaning) and support the actions of our British Bank System, that allows someone to write cheques for small sums which the bank then honours; despite that person writing the cheque not having the bank's authority to do so.

Realising that the terrorist threat being imposed by church wardens applying to change the signatures for the church bank account is too great to be handled by the personnel within the local branch, perhaps instead of transferring the paper forms to the central location, they could be digitised and sent directly to the relevant clerk in the relevant department of that central bank electronically, who is protected within bomb-proof and bullet-proof buildings and has the necessary security clearance to deal with Church of England accounts, and then those forms and personal detail paperwork might not then get lost between the 2 locations. It might be possible to train the local staff so that they can perform these duties instead of just accepting cheques / cash and handing out cash. ATM's do do this apparently, so get rid of local branches and employ Big Issue sellers to provide instruction to the bank's customers in how to use an ATM (the rent from their use of the area next to the ATM could then pay their wages for doing this extra work for less than 16 hours a week. This would save the UK government money due to that rent then also being removed from their benefits each week) - profits could then soar and the directors could add another million to their bonuses each Xmas.

This row gives a very clear overall description of the
Cultural Needs of Plants
from Chapter 4 in Fern Grower's Manual by Barbara Joe Hoshizaki & Robbin C. Moran. Revised and Expanded Edition. Published in 2001 by Timber Press, Inc. Reprinted 2002, 2006. ISBN-13:978-0-
88192-495-4.

"Understanding Fern Needs
Ferns have the same basic growing requirements as other plants and will thrive when these are met. There is nothing mysterious about the requirements - they are not something known only to people with green thumbs - but the best gardeners are those who understand plant requirements and are careful about satisfying them.
What, then, does a fern need?

All plants need water. Water in the soil prevents roots from drying, and all mineral nutrients taken up by the roots must be dissolved in the soil water. Besides water in the soil, most plants need water in the air. Adequate humidity keeps the plant from drying out. Leaves need water for photosynthesis and to keep from wilting.
All green plants need light to manufacture food (sugars) by photosynthesis. Some plants need more light than others, and some can flourish in sun or shade. Most ferns, however, prefer some amount of shade.
For photosynthesis, plants require carbon dioxide, a gas that is exhaled by animals as waste. Carbon dioxide diffuses into plants through tiny pores, called stomata, that abound on the lower surface of the leaves. In the leaf, carbon dioxide is combined with the hydrogen from water to form carbohydrates, the plant's food. This process takes place only in the presence of light and chlorophyll, a green pigment found in plant cells. To enhance growth, some commercial growers increase the carbon dioxide level in their greenhouses to 600ppm (parts per million), or twice the amount typically found in the air.
Plants need oxygen. The green plants of a plant do not require much oxygen from the air because plants produce more oxygen by photosynthesis than they use. The excess oxygen liberated from the plants is used by all animals, including humans. What do plants do with oxygen? They use it just as we do, to release the energy stored in food. We use energy to move about, to talk, to grow, to think - in fact, for all our life processes. Although plants don't talk or move much, they do grow and metabolize and must carry on all their life processes using oxygen to release the stored energy in their food.
Roots need air all the time. They get it from the air spaces between the soil particles. Overwatering displaces the air between soil particles with water, thereby removing the oxygen needed by the roots. This reduces the root's ability to absorb mineral nutrients and can foster root-rot.
Plants need minerals to grow properly. The minerals are mined from the soil by the plant's root system. If a certain mineral is missing, such as calcium needed for developing cell walls, then the plant will be stunted, discoloured, or deformed.
Some plants tolerate a wide range of temperatures, whereas others are fussy. If the temperature is too high or low, the machinery of the plant will not operate satisfactorily or will cease entirely.

The basic needs of plants are not hard to supply, but growing success depends on attending to these needs with care and exactitude. The remainder of this chapter is devoted to a discussion of these requirements, with the exception of mineral needs, which are discussed in Chapter 5.

"