Planning a garden

Quick Answer If you have inherited a garden or never quite got round to your own, start by assessing aspect, drainage and soil, then audit what is worth keeping before you remove anything. Spend on safety and soil first, learn your garden’s seasonal rhythm, and buy the handful of tools that actually earn their place. […]

Quick Answer No dig gardening means covering weeds or grass with cardboard and a thick compost mulch instead of digging or tilling the soil. You plant straight into the compost, top it up once a year, and let worms and soil life do the cultivating for you. It is quicker to start, kinder to your […]

I’m an award-winning garden designer specialising in the Manchester, Liverpool, Southport and Cheshire areas of the North West of England, specifically small, awkward or unconventional gardens. I love problem gardens and love to use my creative design and problem-solving to make incredible spaces for customers. I have a passion for good design with plants, and alongside […]

You’re staring out at your garden right now, aren’t you? That rectangle of lawn, those overgrown borders, that wonky patio that the previous owners slapped down in 2003. Maybe it’s a brand new build with nothing but builders’ rubble and a token bit of turf. Either way, you’ve got absolutely no idea where to start, […]

Quick answer: Free and paid garden design templates are a genuinely affordable way to get started, from around £30 for a set of professionally drawn options, but they’re generic by nature and won’t account for your garden’s specific soil, aspect or shape. A bespoke garden design starts from £2,500 and is built entirely around your […]

Quick answer: Professional garden design starts from £2,500 for a typical small garden and increases with size and complexity. An online video consultation is £250 per hour, my day rate for planting and styling is £650, and hard landscaping materials typically run £100 to £150 per square metre, with planting-only schemes closer to £30 to […]

Quick Answer To make a compost bin from pallets, stack three matching pallets into a U shape on level, free draining ground, then screw the corners together with decking screws and angle brackets for rigidity. Hinge a fourth pallet to the front to act as a door. Always choose pallets stamped HT rather than MB, […]

Quick Answer Japanese knotweed has hollow, bamboo like stems speckled with purple, shovel shaped leaves that grow in a zigzag pattern, and clusters of small white flowers from August to October. It dies back to ground level every winter and regrows from the same root system each spring. Several ornamental garden plants are regularly mistaken […]

Quick Answer A beginner beekeeper needs a hive, a bee suit or jacket with gloves and boots, a smoker, a hive tool, frames and foundation, and a feeder, which together cost roughly £400 to £650 for a complete British National setup. Extraction equipment such as an uncapping knife, extractor and settling tank can wait until […]

Quick Answer For exposed and windy UK gardens, choose tough, flexible plants over rigid ones. Hawthorn, field maple and blackthorn make the best windbreak hedging, while Escallonia, Griselinia and Pittosporum are reliable evergreen shrubs. Achillea, sea holly and Stipa grasses sway rather than snap. Build shelter first with a permeable windbreak, never a solid fence, […]