Of course, as with fashion, not everything you see will transfer to your own garden. The flower borders, for example, are fantasy. Enjoy them! But many of the garden design ideas and details transfer brilliantly to real gardens, especially as show gardens are designed in such a limited space. So…
The way you plant a tree makes a huge difference to whether it will survive. A badly planted tree won’t necessarily fail in the first year, according to award winning garden designer Jamie Butterworth, MD of Form Plants tree and shrub nursery. But it will fail at some point. And…
Indoor outdoor plants are plants you can grow in winter as house plants, then move out onto your terrace or garden when the warmer weather comes. If you don’t have a greenhouse but want to grow plants that won’t survive your winters, then plants you can bring indoors when the…
I started thinking about garden soil recently when a friend complained to me about her gardener. She’d just had a large bundle of bare root roses delivered. So she asked her gardener to plant them immediately. But the gardener spent hours picking bits of old builder’s rubble and stones out…
There are three factors that influence autumn colours in your garden. The first is quite obvious. Choose the plants that are well known for good autumn colour. I’ll list some later in this post. The second is often forgotten. You need to plant them in the right place. I’ll explain…
An evergreen garden looks as good in winter as it does in summer. And taking that all gardens need maintenance, it’s also relatively easy-care. I’ve just visited a beautiful evergreen garden in Norwich, which also has some brilliantly clever touches that would suit any garden. It belongs to Roger Lloyd…
The jungle garden look takes the contemporary, lush layers of today’s houseplant-filled interiors out into the garden. This style of garden is a foliage-based green haven, with layers of plants and different leaf shapes. And you don’t have to live in a tropical country. It can be achieved in cool…
I’ve asked top gardeners Steve Edney and Louise Dowle for their tips on how to create an outstanding perennial border. They’ve just created one of the longest herbaceous borders in the UK – from scratch. It was a field two years ago. Now it’s a stunning, harmonious display of beautiful…
Resilient flowers are an essential part of a successful garden. However carefully you choose the right plants for your weather, soil or zone, there’ll always be the unexpected weather event. Here in South East England, we usually have quite dry weather in the summer. We had double the normal summer…
RHS Hampton Court 2023 is short for The RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival. But that sounds far too grand. ‘Hampton Court’ is the Chelsea Flower Show’s much loved younger sibling – more relatable, less crowded, not as tainted with the whiff of ‘being fashionable.’ Because we gardeners often declare…
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