Category: Garden style & living
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Brilliant garden border inspiration – how to choose colours, shapes & structure
If you’re re-vamping your garden border this year, I’ve picked out the best borders from the gardens featured on the Middlesized Garden. Plus there are key tips from their head gardeners. The first tip is that if you’re going for a complete re-design, you do need to clear the border completely. As I said in ‘how to…
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How to choose the best garden furniture for your garden
When our garden furniture began to fall apart last year, it was surprisingly difficult to make the right choices for our garden. The factors are style, cost, durability and maintenance. We don’t have anywhere to store chairs and tables in winter, and I don’t want to cover them. I want to enjoy our winter garden, and be…
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10 gardening goals – and how to make sure you achieve them
Scientific research has proved that if you write down specific gardening goals, you will get a better garden. So I’ve researched the most popular goals for gardens today and looked at my own garden to come up with 8 gardening goals to transform your garden this year. And I’ve identified where to start or what is…
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No dig flower borders – easy, weed-free and brilliant
I’ve always wondered about ‘no dig flower borders’ for annuals, shrubs and perennials. Not that I ever do much digging. But I wondered if the principles of no dig veg and no dig flower borders were the same. Was I doing the right thing by mulching my borders but not digging it in? What else…
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Easy budget makeover – from garage to garden room
Francine Raymond, Daily Telegraph gardening writer and author, recently turned her garage into a stylish garden room and potting shed. And she did it on a minimum spend, without losing its use as a garage. If she needs a garage again, she can take a few things out and drive the car in, without making…
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North facing garden tips – how to make the most of your space
I’ve just visited a narrow north facing garden with some charming thin garden ideas and a wildlife friendly focus. It’s also on a slope – so the garden conditions could be considered challenging. Yet Richard and Jacqui Drew make the most of their shady garden. It’s full of inspiration for anyone who loves gardens. Richard and Jacqui…
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Growing roses – expert tips from Hever Castle rose garden
Hever Castle is famous for growing roses. It has more than 4,000 of them. So I asked head gardener, Neil Miller for his best tips on growing roses in our own middle-sized gardens. Hever Castle is best known as the childhood home of Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII’s fated second wife. It’s believed he first saw her in…
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Curved gardens are back in a big way
Curved gardens are back in a big way. That was my conclusion after going round the show gardens at the RHS Hampton Court Garden Festival. The Cancer Research Garden, designed by Tom Simpson, turns a rectangular space into an entirely curved one. It has a winding path, circling round, then down to a circular seating area and…
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Feeling overwhelmed by your garden? 11 easy, practical solutions
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by your garden, especially in late spring when plants and weeds are bursting into growth. The gardening to-do list at this time of year can seem endless. Of course, the first step is to make a list. But when it gets too long, that is overwhelming in itself. So it is…
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How to group pots – plus practical tips for fabulous container planting
When you group pots to create a complete border with them, you can achieve the colour and impact of a herbaceous border in a smaller space and often over a longer time. If something isn’t working, you can move it round or take it out and put something else in. And you can experiment with different colour…