'Bougainvillea-growing' would be a pre-requisite for any country I might emigrate to -
Thursday 9 March 2023
Bougainvillea - swathes of colour in the Bahamas
'Bougainvillea-growing' would be a pre-requisite for any country I might emigrate to -
Tuesday 21 February 2023
Hugelkultur - composting in situ
Hugelkultur is really a long - German for 'hill culture' - word to describe composting in place, which gardeners have been doing for generations, but layering the matter to be composted in a specific way to conserve moisture in the soil as well as providing slow-release nutrients for plants.
+ provides slow-release nutrients for plants;
+ as the woody materials and organic matter breakdown, the process generates heat and warms the bed, giving you better germination and extending the growing season;
+ reduced need for watering.
- benefits may not be apparent the first year as your hugel settles down and continues to absorb nitrogen;
- banked sides may need support.
Thursday 17 February 2022
Hellebores - winter jewels in the garden
Helleborus argutifolius - Corsican hellebore |
Helleborus x hybridus 'Naomi' |
Helleborus 'HGC Cinnamon Snow' |
Friday 15 January 2021
Extend the growing season with a hotbed
Other people's gardens are always full of good ideas and inspiration, and few more so than Barnsdale, the garden of the late garden writer and presenter Geoff Hamilton. This 8-acre site is home to Hamilton's extensive kitchen garden and around 38 demo gardens or garden rooms. On my last visit I was particularly taken with the hotbeds in the kitchen garden.
Wednesday 23 December 2020
Happy Christmas from The Urban Hedgerow
A pretty challenging year all round in 2020 and also a busy one - my thanks go out to suppliers and contractors who kept going in restricted times, and to all my lovely clients who entrust me with their gardens.
Monday 17 August 2020
A front garden on a hill
A hilly site brings its own challenges. This sloping front garden in Weybridge, Surrey, has three partially submerged retaining walls built with sleepers, with the above-ground rocks performing a more cosmetic job of keeping the soil in place.
Thursday 2 July 2020
The versatile Pittosporum Golf Ball
Giving these Pittosporum tenuifolium Golf Balls a trim this morning, I reflected that while it's a pretty unassuming plant, it's also probably the first shrub on the team sheet for most of the planting schemes I design.
It seems to do well in the London clay soil, and is happy in anything except deep shade. They're good mixers too: the bright-but-not-showy green leaves blend well with other greens and different textures. They can be clipped, not too tightly, into spheres, or left to grow out into shaggier spheres - they're a naturally tidy plant.
And versatile: I've planted them as standalone shrubs, as hedges, as focal points in a border, and as Buxus substitutes. And they're evergreen, so look good all the year round.