Summer Gardening

July is usually one of the warmest months here in the UK. As with all weather expectations, it’s not always that predictable and we’ve had our fair share of rain this month. However, I’m a glass-half-full kind of person so at least my wildflower meadow hasn’t needed watering as much! Either way the garden is […]

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 […]

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 […]

Everyone has their preference when it comes to colour. I’m a sucker for the reds, orange and yellows of the colour wheel. I absolutely love planting up red hot colours for garden design clients bringing that feeling of summer to a border. When I started to design the #explodingatomgarden the red hot central core was […]

High impact borders can bring the wow factor to your garden. It doesn’t matter whether you have a postage stamp sized garden or a few acres, the principles are the same. Here in the Exploding Atom Garden, I’ve been planting up what I’ve nicknamed the ‘Moody Goth Border’. The aim for this border is to […]

I must admit I was intrigued when I got an email out of the blue asking to come to see some community gardens up in Bury. It wasn’t just the offer of tea, slices of cake and seeing some beautiful borders; it was the fact that these gardens had been created from scratch only a […]