Garden Advice

June is the month in the garden where nearly everything is looking its best. Roses should now be in full bloom (especially if you’ve followed my rose pruning guide in the winter), ornamental grasses will be swaying in the breeze and your herbaceous perennials will all be bursting into flower. It’s typically a month where […]

Updated 2024: Flower beds and borders are the staples of any garden, and they come in all shapes and sizes! I get asked all the time for help when it comes to garden design and planting flower beds. Given the endless opportunities, it can seem overwhelming to decide where to start. Most new gardeners simply […]

Plants are incredibly tough, but during heat waves and summer, they may need a bit more assistance in the hydration department. If you’ve recently planted new shrubs, trees, or herbaceous plants, you’ll have to help them out by watering them until they are established. Top 10 Garden Water Saving Hacks If you’ve planted bedding plants, […]

When I first started gardening many moons ago, I never saw the importance of sharpening tools like secateurs. How bad can pruning cuts be from a less-than-perfect set of secateurs? Well, I had a pretty bad experience early on in my career. After using blunt snips on one poor shrub, I subsequently lost it to […]

I’m a glass half full kinda guy. I try to refuse, where possible, to let myself end up in negative cycles. The media, in particular, like to theme January as the month of personal debasement. To try and amplify the parts of your life you’re not happy with. So much so there’s now a Blue […]

We seem to have a bit of an issue with pruning as gardeners. I remember when I first started gardening, the thought of cutting off parts of the plants I’d spent ages nurturing felt horrific. I let them grow however and wherever they wanted. Just grateful they were growing. However, this laissez-faire approach always ends […]

When I first started gardening many, many moons ago, I always used to garden barehanded. It gave me a real feeling of connection with the earth and the process of gardening. It wasn’t long, though, before coworkers were giving my dirt-stained hands and nails the look of horror. It looked like I’d clawed my way […]

A neatly mowed lawn is a quintessential component of the British garden. The majority of my design clients ask for a lawn as an essential part of their garden layout showing just how indispensable they are to homeowners. However, with peoples busy lives it can feel like a bit of a chore needing to cut […]

I’m often asked by new and experienced gardeners how to prune fruit trees in summer. Many gardeners know of winter pruning before spring as housekeeping but summer pruning often gets overlooked. Maybe its the euphoria of long sunny days, flowers all around the garden and hazy nights watching sunsets. However, if you fail to keep […]

Watering a garden can be a time consuming and sometimes thankless task. In a heatwave, it is essential to efficiently water your plants to stop them from wilting, getting stressed or dying due to exhaustion. Before you reach for the sprinkler and set your alarm for 5 am, you may want to read this guide […]