Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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Eco-friendly garden design – what you need to know before you spend money
Eco-friendly garden design can save you money on landscaping. It can also make your garden look more individual, reflecting your personal style. And if you want to be more sustainable or encourage wildlife and biodiversity, then the design of your garden is an essential starting point. So I visited the Walworth Garden to find out more…
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Right plant, wrong place? How to create your ideal garden micro-climate
Have you thought about how your garden micro-climate affects how well your plants grow? For example, you might wonder why some plants aren’t flowering. Or perhaps others are getting scorched leaves, even if the same plants seem to do well in your neighbour’s garden. The key is to understand – or create – different ‘climates’ within your…
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How to grow wildflowers – add colour to your garden all summer long!
You can grow wildflowers in a border, a pot and a window box as well as in a meadow. A good wildflower seed mix can keep colour going with changing flowers for months at a time. And the cost of a few packets of seeds makes this a cheap way of filling a border. It’s easy but…
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5 inspiring garden ideas from visiting gardens
I’m often asked for advice on visiting gardens in the UK. And the first thing I say is ‘look up the National Garden Scheme.‘ The National Garden Scheme opens gardens around England and Wales to raise money for a range of charities. While grander gardens often open for a special NGS day, the main strength of the scheme…
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Discover the magic of a rewilded garden
When the rewilded garden by Urquhart & Hunt won ‘Best in Show’ at RHS Chelsea in 2002, it triggered a debate about whether rewilding could be called gardening at all. Traditional gardeners thought it looked messy and unkempt. If you just let your garden ‘go’, it will be full of weeds. Surely that can lead to invasive…
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Growing flowers and vegetables together – discover the new trend for edimentals
Edimentals is a new term for growing flowers and vegetables together. Gardens today are often too small to have a separate ‘veg patch.’ Of course, traditional vegetable growing won’t fit into your herbaceous border. If you plant a row of carrots beside your roses, you’ll have a gap when you harvest them. So this means looking…
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A small wildlife garden for towns and cities – and it’s really easy to maintain
This small wildlife garden is very pretty and easy to look after. Plus it attracts a wide range of wildlife. Is a small wildlife garden realistic, especially in a town? Would it be easy to maintain? And how managed does a garden have to be? And she also never buys plants, because she allows plants to colonise…
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Rose garden ideas – how to choose a rose for an obelisk, arch, fence or pergola
A rose garden used to mean a garden planted only with roses. It was superbly romantic, but the wow factor only lasted a few weeks. Today’s rose gardens combine roses with other plants. They have all the show-stopping colour and scent of a rose garden, but they weave in perennials, shrubs and trees. So the garden looks…
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Recycled garden ideas from RHS Chelsea 2024 – plus tips on how to find the bargains!
If you’re looking for recycled garden ideas, then this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show had them on almost every garden. Recycling is a great money-saver, and it also gives a garden texture and character. Stone, brick and timber recycled from National Trust properties are used in this Octavia Hill garden for the National Trust. This log…
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7 beautiful border plants to plant in spring (plus planting tips!)
If you buy your garden border plants from the people who grow them, you’ll benefit from their expert advice and knowledge. That’s why going to a plant fair can be such a rewarding way to buy plants. The Plant Fairs Roadshow is a collective of independent plant nurseries, who organise plant fairs in beautiful gardens around South East England.…
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