Greenhouse gardening can stretch the flowering season, giving you blooms up to six weeks earlier than usual. And although a full size greenhouse can also be a living space – a haven away from the world – you can get the same growing benefits from lean-to greenhouse shelving, cloches and cold frames. Tom Brown is …
Scented plants tap into the brain’s emotions. They trigger nostalgia, calm, happiness or other memories. And scent is vital for wildlife. Foraging pollinators use scent to help find their way to nectar and pollen. Yet many of today’s plant varieties have had scent bred out of them. While we were all focused on getting plants …
You may not have heard of a ‘blobbery.’ But you have almost definitely seen blobberies in some of the most stylish gardens. They give a garden structure and interest all year round. And they are easy to clip and maintain. It’s a term coined by the company Architectural Plants, so I talked to Guy Watts, …
Trees — in all their forms from mature specimens to ornamental stumps — are the stars of many show gardens at this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show. Create a patch of ‘woodland’ in a small urban garden These show gardens are small compared to real gardens. So they demonstrate that you can create a patch …
I’ve just visited the Horniman Museum & Gardens in South London to talk to Head of Horticulture, Errol Fernandes, about their innovative gardening ideas and techniques. These new ways of gardening are all about working with your garden and climate rather than battling to impose a set definition of what constitutes a beautiful garden. This …
The phrase ‘low maintenance garden‘ usually conjures up an image of dull, regimented shrubs and evergreens. But writer Anne Wareham and photographer Charles Hawes have created Veddw, a garden bursting with personality, colour and structure. And, as the author of The Deckchair Gardener, Anne is known for her no-nonsense approach to what she regards as …
The RHS Hampton Court 2025 Garden Festival had some lovely ideas that we can try in our own gardens. Whether your style is natural and romantic or more sleek and modern, here are some practical takeaways that could work in your garden, whatever its size. The most dominant planting theme at RHS Hampton Court 2025 …
Think garden watering means lugging heavy cans or wrestling with a tangled hose? Think again. Most of us water more than we need to—and often in ways that waste time, money and precious resources. But what if you could teach your plants to thrive with less? To find out how, I went to RHS Wisley, …
Garden design details make all the difference between an ordinary garden and one with the ‘wow factor’. In this town garden, top designers Charlotte Rowe and Tomoko Kawauchi reveal how paths, levels and seating areas can make a space feel bigger, more magical and show off the planting. It’s a private garden on the edges …
Garden screening plants are a speciality at Architectural Plants. ‘It’s what about 90% of our customers want,’ says Guy Watts, the company’s MD. So I asked him what was new in screening plants and design, how to avoid mistakes in garden screening and his top seven garden screening plants. Guy advises ‘layering’ your plants rather …