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Do you have one in your garden?

• Message 1. 

  Posted by green-buddha (U11615833) on Sunday, 30th August 2009

  I first noticed them some years ago along the sides of motorways where they were used to shore up embankments. Then, a couple of years ago some wag at Chelsea used them in a garden design, trying to con us into beliving that they were a thing of beauty (the horticultural equivalent of "The King's Magic Suit of Clothes"). Now Joe and Toby are at it too. On Friday they set one up in their 'Seaside Garden'. What it had to do with the seaside wasn't exactly clear to me. It looked more like a rubbish bin full of rubbish - including old bottles (but come to think of it they do have rubbish bins at the seaside, often with old bottles in them too).
  
  I refer of course to 'gabions' - wire cages usually filled with rocks. Am I alone in thinking them hideous? Does anyone actually have one (or more) in their garden? Toby mentioned how much they had cost, but I wouldn't put one in my garden even if you were to give it me free and pay me to put it there.

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  Posted by PenylanSue (U13901201) on Sunday, 30th August 2009

  I love them and have since I first saw them used in civil engineering.
  I have piles of stones everywhere and one day I too will have gabions.

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  Posted by Tigerredwood (U13742280) on Monday, 31st August 2009

  Hello green_buddha
  When I first started gardening in my trade many moons ago my journeyman taught me all aspects of of the job. It took 5 years of hard graft to get my degree but was as pleased and proud as punch to get that piece of paper after all the trials and tribulations associated in getting there.I remember that I couldn't wait to get to work in the morning whistling all the way there so I could learn something new about plants, trees, shrubs, annuals, perennials, bulbs, seeds, pollination, bugs that were friends or foes, diseases, flower arranging, types of soil, how to use tools properly, topiary, how to use timber, build sheds and storage, blending of colours in displays, vegetables and fruit, grafting, forcing and harvesting and storage and gardening design etc. etc. etc.
  Everybody's taste is different in garden design and so be it, but you are 100% right, that hideous rubbish bin malarky makes a mockery out of the trade I love.IMHO.

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  Posted by Bluedoyenne (U2341157) on Monday, 31st August 2009

  I'm of the same opinion as PenylanSue - gabions when used for the right job and in the right place can look wonderful.

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  Posted by interested123 (U8327494) on Monday, 31st August 2009

  they are hideous and should be used to maintain the stability of weak earth walls.

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• Message 6

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  Posted by poshHebeJeebie (U9319867) on Wednesday, 2nd September 2009

  Emperor's New Clothes!
  
  There are very few situations that could remotely be seen to be enhanced by them. Boring banks of motorways, perhaps. Gardens? I don't think so!
  
  PHJ

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  Posted by Ariadne Knickerbocker (U4534559) on Wednesday, 2nd September 2009

  I have used a gabion planted with succulents instead of a hanging basket and it draws lots of admiring glances and appreciation from passers by and visitors. I guess you need to be gifted with some imagination to see the possibilities with them.
  
  I can't say Toby's did it for me but the Tatton Show garden this year had used them to interesting effect.
  
  It would be a sad world if we were all so stuck in our ways that we could only see the boring cube side of gabions.

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• Message 8

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  Posted by poshHebeJeebie (U9319867) on Wednesday, 2nd September 2009

  Ok Eva - so I obviously lack the imagination of a Rhododendron!
  
  But I have never seen an example fit to draw admiring glances. But then - I haven't seen them all, so stand corrected!
  
  PHJ
  
  (Except I wouldn't want one in my own garden . . .)

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• Message 9

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  Posted by Tigerredwood (U13742280) on Wednesday, 2nd September 2009

  Hello Eva Brick
  It would be a sad world if proper training of 5 years in design and horiculture and 30 years plus in the trade was left aside so that square rubbish bins could be filled with stones and be called design that could be learned in 2 minutes. My imagination stretches past the gullible, but if they do it for you I'm pleased. If they are not completely covered up with plants they are an eyesore anywhere even on motorways embankments.

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• Message 10

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  Posted by Ariadne Knickerbocker (U4534559) on Thursday, 3rd September 2009

  Hi Lionredwood
  
  The gabion should be treated merely as a receptacle for your imagination. It is just a shape that can be filled with what you want. Personally I thought that Toby's gabion was unnecessary and boring but then I thought the whole GW seaside garden was clichéd. I have seen gabions used to interesting effect in gardens at Hampton Court and
  Tatton but when they start becoming popularized and people fill them with any old rubbish then the whole idea loses its impact.
  
  Despite having no training in design or horticulture I was pleased with the hanging gabion that I planted up a few years ago as it was then an original idea.
  
  
  
  
  
  If I was going to be pretentious I would say that I had planted up a cube to challenge the idea that hanging baskets were generally bowl shaped.
  
  

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• Message 11

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  Posted by Nanpickle (U8967581) on Thursday, 3rd September 2009

  I must confess Eva - that is the first time I have ever seen a gabion that I liked. A truly novel idea ! Nan x

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• Message 12

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  Posted by Obelixx (U2157162) on Thursday, 3rd September 2009

  The succulents in a miniature gabion are a definite success.
  
  However this sample from Malvern 2008 is definitely a "How not to" for gardeners -
  
  At Tatton 2007 I saw gabion cages over spikey plants such as phormiums in a garden called Restraint but it looked more like Entrapment to me.
  
  This summer in France I saw gabions used effectively in a huge landscaping project to provide a hidden, sunken car park and tourist info centre at St Gillem. They were brand new and they and the surrounding planting schemes looked young and raw but the whole thing had been cleverly planned and executed and will undoubtedly mature well.

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• Message 13

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  Posted by Tigerredwood (U13742280) on Thursday, 3rd September 2009

  Hello Eva Brick
  As with anything beauty is in the eye of the beholder. As an example I read last week that the painting by Jackson Pollack No.5 fetched an astounding world record $140,000,000 in Feb 2006 at auction for what I can only describe as paint drippings on a canvas. Maybe I am not qualified enough to comment on the painting but I still see it as paint drippings and it is certainly not worth the stupid price paid for it. By all means experiment in your garden, I'm all for it, but the gabion I commented on by Toby looked no more than a pretentious rubbish bin filled with rubbish and I stand by my comment. I commend you on your original hanging basket, if rather large for the plant scheme, but as I said earlier it has to be completely covered in plants to hide the ghastly framework of the metal to have any kudos with me, IMHO. Please do not take this personally as I do not mean it to be, let's just agree to disagree on the subject.

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  Posted by Ariadne Knickerbocker (U4534559) on Thursday, 3rd September 2009

  Hi Lionredwood
  
  I don't take it personally and I don't think we are actually disagreeing that much. We do agree on Toby's efforts looking rubbish, LOL! I don't think they are even that cheap if I remember right and didn't he use two, one inside the other and fill the gap between?
  
  I do like the experimental nature of these things though, this
  
  
  
  from Tatton this year made use of gabions and I thought (from the TV coverage) it looked really rather exciting. Whether one would want to live with it is another matter. Unfortunately as Obelixx noted these gabions have already been rather seized on as a design tools and will no doubt become the new 'decking' and everyone will soon be heartily sick of the sight of them.

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• Message 15

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  Posted by Ariadne Knickerbocker (U4534559) on Thursday, 3rd September 2009

  Ps. I meant to say thanks Nanpickle, I'm glad you like the hanging gabion.
  
  Also I have always pronounced it gab ion (as in gift of the gab) whereas TB and Joe said gaybion - which is right?
  
  I say saxifrage (age as in old age) and they said saxifrage (as in large).
  
  Is this just me?

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• Message 16

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  Posted by Tigerredwood (U13742280) on Thursday, 3rd September 2009

  Hello Eva Brick
  Google Merriam Webster to hear the proper pronunciation of the words, even though it is an American site and they say tomaito instead of tomato Gabion as in gift of gab is right and saxifrage is saxifridge according to them See what you have started

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  Posted by Obelixx (U2157162) on Thursday, 3rd September 2009

  Whilst I hesitate to accept pronunciation advice from an American I have always said GABion and SaxiFRIDGE and also CLEMatis rather than clemaytis.
  
  Here are the poor plants in cages that I mentioned earlier -
  
  Somehow not the same as growing a clematis up an obelisk.

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• Message 18

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  Posted by Nanpickle (U8967581) on Thursday, 3rd September 2009

  Now I think they look dreadful - not at all like Eva's hanging "basket" Nan x

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• Message 19

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  Posted by Tigerredwood (U13742280) on Thursday, 3rd September 2009

  Hello Obelixx
  Those plants definitely look as they are in jail and I'm sure that the plants' health and general wellbeing react with their surroundings but maybe a good way to protect the plants in transport? There is no comparison with an elegant obelisk and those pesky gabions.

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• Message 20

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  Posted by the cycling gardener (U2350416) on Friday, 4th September 2009

  I first noticed them some years ago along the sides of motorways where they were used to shore up embankments. Then, a couple of years ago some wag at Chelsea used them in a garden design, trying to con us into beliving that they were a thing of beauty (the horticultural equivalent of "The King's Magic Suit of Clothes"). 
  
  The first time I noticed them in a garden application was a few years ago on 'Ö÷²¥´óÐã Front' with Diarmuid Gavin. I seem to remember he used them very successfully as a design solution in a garden with an Anderson shelter which I thought very original at the time. He made much of his design philosophy of taking inspiration from everyday objects, buildings and materials and translating them experimentally into garden structures (cue shots of Gavin driving in front of motorway gabions). Since then they've popped up in numerous 'show' gardens and have achieved the ultimate acceptability factor of being available to buy at your local garden centre ready to fill. The ultimate in naffness.
  
  I've never used them in my designs. I find them brutal and difficult to place, the metal heats up in the sunshine making them challenging for humans, animals and plant material and there are many more pleasing methods of retention. I love Eva's hanging gabions though. There's something comedic about them that makes me want to chuckle. (Sorry Eva). They'd look great festooned with lights at Christmas!

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  Posted by Ariadne Knickerbocker (U4534559) on Friday, 4th September 2009

  </quote>They'd look great festooned with lights at Christmas! </quote>
  
  Cycling Gardener that is the best idea!!! I will build a little Xmas crib in one with the baby jesus et al and trail some tasteful Christmas lights round it. I could put a poinsettia in the other. There you are - you see I told you all these things need is a bit of imagination. LOL!

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• Message 22

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  Posted by marcia (U14085462) on Friday, 4th September 2009

  I've got leaf mould in my gabion. It's quite big.
  
  I used to call it "the cage where the leaf mould is". Now I know better.
  
  

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• Message 23

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  Posted by pinktequila (U2803141) on Friday, 4th September 2009

  Look like chinchilla cages to me. Someone is having someone on.

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• Message 24

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  Posted by TallyHo (U2364821) on Sunday, 6th September 2009

  You see, this is why I can't watch anything Joe or Toby presents. I just don't like their ideas, in the same way I didn't like a tv chef's food recipes.
  
  It's all part of the 'let's show the underlying structure and pretend it looks good' thing that so blights our modern town-scapes. I don't want my home to look 'edgy' and the same goes for the garden.
  
  I think this 'so what?' attitude is so immature and the pair of them ought to grow up.

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• Message 25

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  Posted by Trillium (U2170869) on Sunday, 6th September 2009

  Gabions are a bit overused in contemporary designs, but can be stunning.
  
  Reaseheath College used them at Tatton Show this year to create a retaining wall, filling the gabions with logs, pine cones, and different coloured pebbles in a series of curves to create a truly beautiful feature. It was for me and many others the most eye-catching and inspirational idea at the show. I'll try and find a picture.
  
  I do think every idea deserves a good look and a fresh attitude to decide if it works or not. For instance, I think the upright sleepers works superbly in the seaside garden at Greenacre as a nod to coastal groynes. I'd never have thought of it.
  
  

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• Message 26

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  Posted by Trillium (U2170869) on Sunday, 6th September 2009

  Here you go...
  
  [IMG]/IMG]

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• Message 27

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  Posted by Tigerredwood (U13742280) on Sunday, 6th September 2009

  Hello
  Aww those nasty stones and stuff have squashed the chinchillas

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• Message 28

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  Posted by Trillium (U2170869) on Sunday, 6th September 2009

  

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• Message 29

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  Posted by crouchee (U13371975) on Friday, 11th September 2009

  I'll second Nanpickle, love your hanging gabions, Eva, may I steal your idea for next year? Never hung baskets from my south wall - too hot for ordinary bedding. Where did you get your gabions from, not seen any that small?

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  Posted by groovygran (U2934690) on Saturday, 12th September 2009

  When I first saw one I thought it was a container of stones waiting to be used for building a wall! Don't like them personally, feel they have more of a commercial use than a domestic one. Do like them as a hanging container, tho' Eva, and the way they were used at Tatton Park. But how long would the contents keep their shape at different rates of decomposition? They certainly give the impression of being a temporary structure.

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• Message 31

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  Posted by Ariadne Knickerbocker (U4534559) on Saturday, 12th September 2009

  The gabion I used was actually quite large (either 12" or 14" can't remember). THey were not particularly cheap, also they are quite heavy. I used one of those black pond pots with the tiny mesh holes in it and filled that with a mixture of compost and quite a lot of polystyrene chips to take the weight out otherwise it would have pulled the hanging hook off the wall. Then I cut larger holes in the plastic basket so I could poke the stems of the succulents through the gabion mesh into the square plastic pot. This took ages and was a real faff.
  I tried to cover as much of the sides of the black pot as possible to hide it and then eventually the succulents bushed up and covered it. The top is easier because you can undo the gabion lid and plant easily into it.
  
  

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