We wish a Happy New Year to all of our friends and clients.Our New Year’s resolutions are to continue pushing the boundaries of high-end garden design, working with the best quality suppliers and being as ecology and environmentally friendly as we can.There is no doubt that people value their homes and their outdoor spaces even more, after we’ve all lived through numerous lockdown situations. More and more people are now working from home, so want to create garden offices or work-friendly outdoor areas. Creating a truly wonderful and flexible outdoor space can massively expand your living space and how you can enjoy your garden.Creating
Read MoreThis week I’ve been spotting some fabulous late-flowering perennials, which due to the mild October and smattering of sunny days are still covered in various types of bees.The bright purple blooms above are Aster x frikartii 'Monch', spotted at RHS Bridgewater recently - looking very healthy and being enjoyed by bees. I've also recently spotted a classic ‘butterfly bush’, otherwise known officially as Buddleia, which was covered in honey bees. These are fast-growing late flowering plants, come in various wonderful shades of purple, pinks and whites.And lastly, ivy is another fast growing and late flowering evergreen perennial, which when left to
Read MoreAutumn is a brilliant time for buying and planting bare-rooted fruit trees. It’s cheaper to buy them bare-rooted and gives the plant a good chance to settle in before growing season starts in the spring time. Planting an apple or pear tree (or maybe both) makes for a classic British garden, especially when you get a glut of fruit and offer them around your neighbours, and you have to eat apple crumble every weekend. In the springtime, both apple and pear trees have a really pretty white flower, which smells delicious. There's a huge selection of flavours and varieties of fruit, and size of
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 Moreby Michael John McGarrThe first question that many clients ask me on that very first consultation meeting is can I design a beautiful garden that will stay beautiful? How do I create a high-spec luxury outdoor living space that is really and truly low maintenance?My contemporary outdoor living spaces are actually naturally low-maintenance. I would not design a stunning space and then tell you that the huge lawn needs mowing twice a week and you need to hand-weed dandelions out of it (who could be bothered to do that?!).I won't leave you with swathes of bedding plants that need to
Read Moreby Michael John McGarrThe quest for RHS gold is a long and arduous one, and one which is all too familiar to myself.Our gold medal achievement at RHS Tatton 2017 for the futuristic garden design '2101' was a triumph, which took almost a year to plan and just a few short weeks to execute on the ground.Scars, blood and a descent into alcoholism were just some of the by-products of achieving an accolade on the highest stage of one's industry.Overnight success?The myth of the overnight success is prevalent across all industries. The winner holds up the awards for the cameras
Read Moreby Michael McGarrEnvironmental issues are top of the news agenda at the moment, and the recent State of Nature report really hammered home how perilously the UK's fragile ecology was faring.This article I read on the BBC stated that:- In the UK, one in seven species are threatened with extinction - 41% of UK species specified have declined since 1970. - one in five plants are at risk of extinction - wildflowers have been lost at the rate of one species per year since the 1950s.These facts and figures are horrifying and I just hope that our Government will take heed of this
Read MoreWhen it comes to garden design, planning should take place during the colder months to allow the greatest reward in terms of enjoying the garden during the hottest months of the year," says Michael John McGarr, director and garden designer at Warnes McGarr & Co.Spring is a season full of potential for both the plants about to spring to life in your garden, but also for homeowners to lay the seeds of their garden design planning ideas.The arrival of spring also means that summer is just around the corner, so take the time now to really think about how you want
Read MoreSo it begins! It was great to get on the "big train to the big smoke" on Monday. As I dragged my suitcase through the streets of Wigan towards the train station, my usual penchant for garden design observation kicked in. I began to take in the good, and not so good gardens and landscape architecture within the public spaces around town. I needn't have been too concerned with this, as what lay in store for me was something far more exciting. The London College of Garden Design are hosting the "Spring Info Burst : New Ideas : New materials"
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