We are still receiving many enquiries about outdoor kitchens with a full range of facilities – so now is the best time to plan out exactly what you want.It’s best to plan around where the sun falls in your garden, during the middle of summer, and decide which parts of the garden you are most likely to use in the morning, the afternoon and then in the evening. Take a look around and figure out where are the best places to cook, where you would put your dining area, and where you want a sunbathing area. Most people want a high quality
Read MoreFive years ago we were in the middle of building the ultra-futuristic ‘2101’ garden for RHS Tatton, which went onto win a gold award. The concept was around planting for climate change, with huge cowboy-film style Saguaro cacti, as well as the large round ‘mother-in-law’s cushions’ golden barrel cacti. We used large format porcelain paving to create a large path and seating area, with shaded pergola to shade from the intense sun. There was also a rain garden, designed to absorb excess rainwater, for climate extremes. People don’t realise just how much work goes into making a show garden picture-perfect, planning every
Read MoreI've been following the fantastic work of visionary designer Nigel Dunnett, with his new project at the Tower of London to commemorate the Queen's Platinum Jubilee. More than 20 million seeds have been sown in the moats around the historic landmark, which have just recently sprung to life and flowered. The naturalistic planting scheme is carefully planned to evolve into a riot of colour and scents over the summer. A slide will transport visitors directly down into the flowers, for a fully immersive experience. As the professor of planting design and urban horticulture, Nigel is well-known for his stunning Olympic 2012 meadows and
Read MoreFor some reason, many homeowners do not consider using grasses within their front or back gardens. Yet as a garden designer, I almost always use one type of grass within a design as they have so many functions. Carex Nigra is one of my favourite grasses and I use it a lot within design. The green and black seed heads sit above translucent lime green stems, gently waving in the breeze. On top of that, it is tolerant of poorly drained soil and exposed sites, so is a really hardy plant as well as being visually quite stunning. As well as providing a great
Read MoreI love the #NoMowMay campaign and finally people are realising that dandelions and daisies are not a danger and clover should not be cleared. It's fantastic to see so many people on social media showing photos of their lawn and saying they will let their lawn grow, as part of #NoMowMay. Research has found that letting flowers and plants within your lawn bloom naturally can provide 10 times the amount of nectar for bees, butterflies and other pollinators. I would recommend choosing an area of lawn to leave growing, and still mow the parts of the lawn that you use. You could create
Read MoreThis week I had a meeting in central Manchester, so I went into town early to take a look at the biodiversity work done around Bridgewater Basin on the Rochdale canal. Years ago, this was a tired dirty canal basin, surrounded by beautiful buildings such as the Bridgewater Hall. Now it's been given a biodiversity makeover and it is far more in keeping with a modern city centre, that brings together re-development with supporting local ecology. Now these floating active ecosystems help improve the biodiversity and the water quality, creating a haven for wildlife and obviously increases the aesthetics for passersby. This
Read MoreCould there be a more British combo than planting lavender and sunflowers. Not necessarily together – but they are both classic garden plants that are easy to grow and bring us huge amounts of pleasure. Now the RSPB has launched a campaign for homeowners to plant more of these plants in order to help reverse the decline of common garden species, such as starlings and bumblebees. The organisation says that starling numbers have fallen by two thirds since the 1970s, while populations of half of bumblebee species falling. The RSBP wants people to plant flowers that produce seeds/ nectar that are loved by birds
Read MoreI read this fabulous piece of news that hedgehog numbers are increasing in urban areas (although not as great news that rural numbers have still dropped.)Your average person’s knowledge of hedgehogs’ habitats has increased due to brilliant education around creating ‘hedgehog highways’ between urban gardens to allow hedgehogs to roam throughout the night.Hedgehogs can travel up to 12 miles per night, so our urban or suburban walls and fences make this really tricky for them. We always design in hedgehog highways into any fences, walls or boundaries that we design – these small factors can make a huge difference. Pictured is
Read MoreI’ve been doing a lot of research about biodiversity on brownfield sites for one of my projects, which led me to this fantastic lecture by landscape designer John Little.John runs the Green Roof company, which has enabled him to bring wild biodiverse-rich landscapes to schools, public spaces and roofs.He lives on a four acre plot where he tests out various structures and landscape materials, with different types of planting and how well they work in terms of ecology. He even talks about a shopping trolley found abandoned in a pond - it looks terrible but is brilliant in ecological terms, because it’s
Read MoreTree planting season is coming to an end so now is a great time to think about investing in a multi-functional specimen tree to get planted before spring. It’s important to look at the end size of a tree compared to the size of your garden – you don’t want a 20m high Scots Pine in a small back garden in 10 years time! There are many benefits to using the beautifully named Mophead maple (Acer Platanoides ‘Globosum’) within a garden planting scheme, including its autumn colour. Its round tight canopy carries a contemporary look which allows underplanting of bulbs and gives
Read MoreHowever much we love a certain plant, flower or tree in our gardens, we should also be asking ourselves – what function will this have within my eco-system? All plants are multi-functional in many ways, so it makes sense for a garden designer to plan out a new landscape as a mini eco-system, with every plant in the right place. While my design aesthetic is to create the ultimate in luxury, I also bring into play the ecology of the surrounding landscape. What are the functions of plants?Climatically, plants are important, as we all know. As our climate changes, we must also
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