A landscape in your Garden
My favourite local view looks out across a small river valley, framed by a Beech hedge shot through with Ivy and a tall Holly tree. It is a slice of the quintessential landscape of this corner of the Kent-East Sussex border. Fields for grazing are divided by hedges and clusters of Silver Birch, Hawthorn, Oak and more Holly. And equally...
Holiday Gardens
Late summer is a time when UK gardens can start to flag, particularly if the lawn is looking a bit crisp after a hot dry spell. By the way, there is no need water an established lawn in summer to keep it alive; green shoots will soon appear when the rain returns. But yellowing grass and fading flower power from...
Choosing trees for a small garden
Trees can add instant height, structure and several seasons of interest to a garden but choosing a tree for a small garden takes careful consideration. July is not the best month for planting if you can avoid it because the soil is dry and temperatures higher and these add to the stress of the plant when the roots are disturbed...
Climbing Combinations
Most gardens contain a smattering of climbing plants decorating house walls or reducing the impact of metres of wooden fencing. But there are plenty of imaginative ways to use climbers to provide more colour for a longer time if you use plants in combination. In this blog I explore a few different ways of getting more colour and joy into...
National Gardening (Therapy) Week
National Garden Week 2020 saw me writing a blog post for the ellenor Hospice on how we can all benefit from time spent enjoying our garden or a local park. With current global worries about COVID-19 and much reduced personal contact with family, friends and community, the ability of nature to relax and restore make those green spaces we do...