Blog

Here’s the thing about lawn weeds that drives most gardeners completely bonkers: you can’t treat what you can’t identify as a lawn weed. I’ve lost count of how many times clients have told me they’ve been battling “that yellow flowery thing” or “the spreading green stuff” with completely the wrong treatment. It’s like trying to […]

This comprehensive guide will walk you through the most effective methods for removing weeds from your lawn while keeping your grass healthy and thriving. I’ll help you identify common culprits to understand why they appear in the first place, and you’ll learn practical, beginner-friendly techniques that actually work from me, Lee Burkhill – the Garden […]

Starting to garden as a beginner can be daunting. You search the shed and find a rusty trowel, maybe a wobbly-handled spade that has seen better days. They may have even been left by the last owners, too ashamed to take them with them. You have a go at using them to find that they […]

What frustrates me about most “best secateurs” guides online is that they are written by people who borrowed a pair for a weekend or were sent them by a company in return for positive reviews. Worse still, some gardeners barely prune or have little expertise in using and maintaining secateurs. It means that when you […]

What I find surprising is how many gardeners spend a significant amount of money on plants and tools but use a folded-up cardboard box as a kneeling pad. Your knees are irreplaceable. A good garden kneeler costs between £10 and £40 and will serve you for years. That is a straightforward investment in long-term gardening […]

Quick Answer The best orange flowers for UK gardens include Crocosmia ‘Emberglow’, Helenium ‘Moerheim Beauty’, Geum ‘Totally Tangerine’, and Kniphofia for summer and autumn impact, with Tulipa ‘Princess Irene’ and Wallflowers delivering spring colour. Choose from trees, shrubs, climbers, perennials, annuals, and bulbs to achieve orange flowers from March right through to October. Orange spans […]

Quick Answer Scarify your lawn in early autumn (September to October) once the grass is growing well but weed pressure is falling. Mow short first, set blades 2 to 3mm into the soil, make two passes at 45 degrees to each other, then overseed immediately at 15 to 35 grams per square metre and water […]

Every time I visit a new garden client for the first time, I do the same thing before I look at a single plant or design element. I pick up a handful of soil and feel it. I look at what is already growing there, both the plants people have chosen and the weeds that […]

Compaction is the silent killer of UK lawns. It happens gradually, almost invisibly, through nothing more dramatic than regular foot traffic, the weight of a mower going back and forth, and the natural settling of soil over time. By the time you notice the symptoms, including waterlogging after rain, patchy moss colonies, and grass that […]

I have overseeded dozens of lawns over my career, both in my own garden and on client projects. The results never fail to impress. A lawn that looked beyond saving in March, with bare patches, thin coverage, and that general air of defeat that sets in after a hard UK winter, can look genuinely lush […]