Summer Gardening

Quick Answer To plant a successful flower bed, first choose your site and test your soil, then prepare the ground by removing weeds and adding organic matter. Design using three plant layers (ground cover, mid-layer, and tall), pick a unified colour scheme, and use repetition of plants in groups of three or five. The whole […]

Quick Answer Lawn edging is a strip of metal, plastic, brick, or timber that creates a permanent barrier between your lawn and flower beds. Installed correctly to a depth of 10–15cm, it prevents grass creeping into borders, eliminates the need for a half-moon edger, and allows a mower to pass over the top without strimming. […]

The plants on this list are the ones I return to again and again in my own garden designs because they deliver season after season with minimal intervention from you. Besides, once you’ve bossed these specimens, you’ll be relishing more challenging plants in future years and thats where the gardening magic really happens! Quick Answer […]

I’ve been working as a professional garden designer and presenter on BBC Garden Rescue for over 20 years, and choosing the right trees has always been the first element I consider in any new design. Get the tree right and everything else falls into place around it. The common fear is that trees are only […]

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 […]

With the right plant choices, they can host some of the most dazzling, naturalistic planting schemes imaginable. As an RHS-qualified garden designer with over twenty years of experience, including gardens on some of the driest, sandiest plots in the UK, I can tell you that the secret is simply working with what you have rather […]

If you’ve ever wondered what all the fuss is about, or if you’re planning your first visit and want to make sure you get the most out of every minute, this is the guide I wish someone had handed me the first time I walked through those gates. We’re going to cover everything: the show’s […]

The shift from petrol-powered to cordless battery-powered garden tools has been one of the most significant changes in UK domestic gardening over the last decade. When I started in garden design, petrol was the professional standard and battery tools were the weak compromise you gave to someone who did not know better. That is completely […]

Quick Answer: Pruning Overgrown Star Jasmine Prune star jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides) immediately after flowering finishes in late summer (August-September). Cut back overgrown stems by up to two-thirds, removing old woody growth to encourage fresh flowering shoots. Star jasmine flowers on the previous year’s growth, so avoid spring pruning, which removes flower buds. Established plants tolerate […]

Quick Answer: Dying Conifer Diagnosis Conifers turning brown typically indicate one of five problems: Avoid hard pruning back to old wood, then check soil drainage, as overwatering or heavy clay kills more conifers than any other cause. Improve drainage, remove affected portions, and ensure adequate spacing for air circulation. Most fungal problems cannot be reversed, […]