Category: Garden style & living

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…

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…

Paul Bangay is a top international garden designer, and has designed gardens all over the world. And he has described his own garden, Stonefields, as being the sum of all his ‘travels and inspirations’. He’s now set out those inspirations in his latest book ‘Paul Bangay – A Life in Garden Design’. He writes about his…

A contemporary cottage garden fuses traditional cottage style with ‘naturalistic planting’, according to garden designer, Tim Pilgrim. ‘It uses common plants – both edible and ornamental – as in traditional cottage garden planting, but planted in larger drifts. And there’s more thought to colour palette and repetition,’ he says. He’s gained a lot of publicity for his recent…

We all have ‘difficult garden areas‘ or spaces we want to revamp without re-designing the whole garden. It may be a corner where nothing wants to grow. Or a space which just seems to attract clutter. If a shed has rotted or a tree has died, or you want to use the garden in a…

Sue Oriel has started a business growing cut flowers to sell from her garden. It’s called Country Lane Flowers, which she runs with her friend and neighbour Stephanie Bates. And although Sue’s garden is quite large – an acre – she only uses about a tenth of it for growing cut flowers, so people with much smaller gardens…

English country garden style is loved all over the world. But many beautiful ‘English country’ gardens are not even in England. So it can be quite a difficult style to define. I’ve asked a range of experts to say what they think English country style is, with tips on how to achieve it in your own garden.…

Pink flowers are at the heart of my summer garden colour. While editing my photos for my summer garden tour, I noticed that the most beautiful plants and plant combinations had pink or variations of pink in them. So here are some pink flowers and why you should consider them. Roses – the classic pink flowers…