Garden Advice

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 pretty bad in my experience early on in my career. After using blunt snips on one poor shrub I subsequently lost it […]

A gardens aspect is one of the first things I do when I’m working on new garden designs. If you ignore it you will struggle to find the correct plants, choose the best seating areas, plan paths that aren’t for example shady, damp and slippy. When designing and planting, you can accommodate virtually any aspect if […]

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 […]

It’s a sad fact that an area the size of the UK is being lost each year worldwide to deforestation. Trees are being felled and cut down at an alarming rate. Now even local UK councils are stealth tree felling claiming that their ‘maintenance’ costs outweigh trees environmental benefits. It’s all too easy for homeowners […]

We seem to have a bit of an issue with pruning as gardeners. I remember when I first started gardening that 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 […]

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

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 […]

Artificial turf is now serious competition for real lawns in our gardens. One installer has seen a 200% year on year increase in the demand for artificial turf compared to living grass. A visit to a ‘Garden & Landscaping’ exhibition this year gave me first-hand experience of the sheer amount of artificial grass being pushed […]

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 […]

If you’ve started to dig around a little into the world of Garden Design or been binge-watching Gardeners’ World you’ll have come across the term Borrowed Views. Other terms like focal point or eye hook are sometimes used and it may have sparked your imagination on using these yourself in your garden. What on earth […]

Whether you have just planted a hedge or inherited one in your garden this guide will show you how to trim a hedge in the most efficient way. Ignore those fears that trimming a hedge is a full weekend of drama. It really doesn’t have to be with the correct technique and tools. With hedges, […]

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 […]

Plastic-free gardening is a hot topic at the moment. I’ve been detailing this journey on my gardening blog and my Youtube channel. So if you want to see where it started then have a look at this playlist to get up to speed. The idea of being plastic-free in the garden can sometimes be easier […]

It’s easy to think that increasing your hedge height, fences or trellis will bring peace and increase privacy in your garden. However, with the maximum fence height set at 2m in England. You’re only able to achieve so much with this method. I’m going to show you with a recent example of how you can […]

Henchman is a British company more widely known for its incredible wobble proof ladders, especially for people who don’t always feel stable standing 12 rungs up a ladder cutting trees and such. If you want to read more on their tripod ladders here’s my guide – they are brilliant. However, it’s not just ladders they […]