Planning your outdoor kitchen

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

• Categories: Advice and tips, Cheshire, ecological garden design, ecological landscape design, ecology, Garden design, Outdoor kitchens
• July 1st 2022

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Five years since gold at Tatton

Five 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

• Categories: Advice and tips, Awards, Business news, Cheshire, ecological garden design, ecological landscape design, ecology, Garden design
• June 24th 2022

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Superbloom at the Tower of London

I'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

• Categories: Advice and tips, Business news, Cheshire, ecological garden design, ecological landscape design, ecology, Garden design
• June 20th 2022

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Award wins for RHS Bridgewater

The RHS Bridgewater welcome building has won a prestigious RIBA architecture award – North West Building of the Year. This is very well deserved news as it really is a beautiful design, housing a café, gift shop and plant centre. The gardens themselves have been hugely popular as the first RHS garden to be created in an urban area. I also noticed that there was recent news of the new National Trust ‘skyline’ garden being created on a viaduct in the Castlefield area of Manchester. Work begun in March and the garden bridge is due to open this summer. Bringing high quality landscape and garden

• Categories: Advice and tips, Architecture, Awards, Business news
• June 10th 2022

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Adding the glamour to a wildlife garden

It's a common misconception that wildlife gardens can't be 'sexy' and that growing food in your garden is the reserve of those with land to spare. The Cloud Nine Kitchen Garden put paid to that. Particularly relevant to small town and city spaces, the garden dealt with issues of food security, wildlife conservation and sustainability in a tiny 6 x 4 metre plot. This was my first show garden, at RHS Tatton Park in 2015, and my first chance to show the world my passion for gardens. Back then, the majority of garden designs did not incorporate wildlife and ecology but I wanted to showcase

• Categories: Uncategorised
• May 27th 2022

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Planting sunflowers and lavender

Could 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

• Categories: Architecture, ecological garden design, ecological landscape design, Garden design, landscape architecture, Landscape design, Michael John McGarr
• April 22nd 2022

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Is it barbecue season yet?

It doesn’t take much for a British person to light up the barbecue. Just a warm Saturday afternoon with some sun rays to tempt us outdoors. However, a few burgers and sausages burnt to a crisp really doesn't cut it anymore. Since I've been a garden designer, outdoor kitchens have grown enormously in popularity. Now the majority of my clients want some sort of outdoor cooking experience, as well as fully zoned areas, such as relaxing areas and dining areas within the garden.We’ve always use Alfa wood fired ovens because they are such a superior quality and very versatile. They are

• Categories: Garden design, Landscape design, Michael John McGarr, Outdoor kitchens
• April 15th 2022

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An edible garden

The Eat & Shelter garden was designed for homeowners to be able to cook, use the surrounding edibles and create a unique habitat for wildlife too. This is an ultra low maintenance garden which proves that you can provide for wildlife while still having a luxury contemporary design.Eat and Shelter combines contemporary planting with plenty of texture from grasses and tall flowering plants, with a top-of-the-range Alfa pizza oven and fire table. Edible planting such as thyme, rosemary, fennel and chives means diners can simply pick herb and salads straight from the garden to add onto their meal.Taking the place

• Categories: Uncategorised
• March 4th 2022

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What is a carbon landscape?

I have been researching this brilliant project, which protects a unique landscape which is based on carbon, stretching across Wigan, Salford and Warrington. The Carbon Landscape Partnership is a £3.2 million project funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The project connects the landscape across the three different boroughs, including reclaimed mining land. These landscapes include the wetlands of Wigan, the mosslands in Salford and Warrington and the Mersey Wetlands corridor. This project covers an amazingly diverse landscape of waterways, fen lands, wet grasslands, wet woodlands and lowland raised bogs. By protecting these amazingly diverse parts of the North West, we have the chance to save

• Categories: Uncategorised
• November 26th 2021

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Low-maintenance garden design- experiments, developments and lessons in outdoor living.

by Michael John McGarr The 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

• Categories: Advice and tips, Business news, ecological garden design, ecological landscape design, ecology, Garden design, innovation, Lancashire, landscape architecture, Landscape design, Manchester, Michael John McGarr, Outdoor kitchens, Residential garden, sustainable garden design, wildlife
• November 29th 2019

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Six ways you can help the environment in your garden

by Michael McGarr Environmental 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

• Categories: Advice and tips, Business news, ecological garden design, ecological landscape design, ecology, Garden design, innovation, landscape architecture, Landscape design, Michael John McGarr, Residential garden, sustainable garden design, wildlife
• October 21st 2019

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