A Bumper Year for Fruit in the Garden…

  It has been a bumper year for fruit in our gardens and I often include fruit trees in my garden designs.  A great way of making the most of sunny walls and fences in a garden is to wire them up and add some trained fruit trees.  Or you can put in wooden posts...

A Deja Vu Design Moment…

I am sure we have all had one or two deja vu moments in our lives, but I was not expecting a design one.  I had been asked to redesign the rear garden terrace of an Arts and Crafts House with a wide set of steps up to the terrace from the lawn. I felt very strongly...

Gardens to visit….

People ask me, “Do you enjoy visiting gardens when you are on holiday?” The answer is definitely “yes”.  I can enjoy them as a visitor without the worry of designing them, or worrying how the planting is doing and in this hot weather, are the...

A Woodland Garden – final phase – soft landscaping….

The final phase of landscaping is the installation of a paved circle for a sitting area, lawn and plant bed preparation.  Soil preparation is the key to good strong plant growth.  The plant bed area is cleared of unwanted vegetation and bricks, concrete, stones etc...

A Woodland Garden – stage 2 – construction – sloping driveway…

The sloping area of the driveway presented a problem as gravel could not be used and the clients did not want to use paviors, concrete or asphalt as a surface material.  The solution was to use Ecogrid with resin bound stone, which is SUDS (sustainable urban drainage)...

A Woodland Garden – Construction – stage 2 – driveway…..

  A gravel stabilisation grid system with a permeable membrane was laid on top of the driveway foundations with a sett edging.   Using a gravel stabilisation system stops gravel movement (the effect you get walking on loose gravel which can be unstable) and...