Even though we don’t go outside into our gardens as much during the winter, they are still full of wildlife. It’s important to make sure they have plenty of nourishment until the nature bursts into life again in the spring.This year has been particularly mild (we’ve still had tomatoes in the greenhouse until recently!), so flowering plants have survived for a lot longer. However, we do have frost forecast in the coming weeks so think ahead!There are still plenty of small garden birds outside, feeding on seed heads and berries, but by keeping seed feeders full, this ensures that they
Read MoreSelf-seeding flowers are one of a gardener's joys, especially if you have large areas to plant. Once these plants are established in your garden, you can scatter the seed heads elsewhere in your garden to spread the joy!Of course, they may seed anywhere, but once you become familiar with the seedlings, you can pull them out if they appear somewhere you don’t want them to.If you want to establish these plants from scratch, you are better waiting until spring to sow your seeds. Eschscholzia californicaThese wild orange or yellow poppies, otherwise known as California poppies, bring joy every time I see them. If
Read MoreRHS Tatton was a fabulous show yet again this year, despite the builds suffering from the intense heatwave earlier last week (we’ve been there and it’s hard work!). One of the standout gardens for me was the ‘Working from Home’ garden by 26-year-old Will Scholey, who achieved 'Young Designer of the Year', as well as a silver gilt medal. The design concept was to create a space to work from while reducing the homeowner’s carbon footprint. The ‘daily commute’ was a winding gravel path through native meadow planting with multi-stemmed trees. The hard landscaping was all reclaimed, and there were mounds of
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 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 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 MoreBy Michael John McGarrA landscape design survey for wildlife shouldn't just be an exercise in measuring the site backwards and forwards, anyone with a laser level can accurately achieve this task.The key to creating a garden design that is beneficial to wildlife is to understand the current site conditions on a deeper level.More often than not wildlife is abundant on sites that have either been neglected or mismanaged for any length of time.Ironically the biggest danger to existing wildlife is the potential threat of further construction and development. The onus is then on the landscape designer to cushion the effects
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