John e mailed asking for information about planning and planting a clematis Garden, and what a great idea! Clematis are really popular climbing plants and feature a lot in gardening questions. It was hard to know where to start on such a big topic and so I advised as follows:  With regard to your Clematis project, this sounds very exciting. At this stage I can offer some general advice and please feel free to ask anything ..read more

Sarah is new to gardening and E- mailed saying : I'm a rather new gardener. I moved into a new property with a south east facing garden and hoping to install a cottage garden theme boarder. Any advice would be much appreciated about possible design layout or even when to start the process as in what time of year best. Answer: My advice was to start with the basics and go from there. A garden facing South East will receive a fair amount of sun which i ..read more

The drought of 2022 had quite an impact on our gardens. We may not have such severe drought in 2023, but we are dealing with climate change, and this often means warmer and drier summers. The RHS did a survey to find out which plants had suffered the most damage in the drought. Good to know what not to plant. We cannot afford to use precious resources watering thirsty plants. This makes drought-resistant plants invaluable.  Inevitably, some plants will have died during the d ..read more

Although the tradional time for planting Tulips is often suggested to be October, in fact you can  plant tulips from October, and the good news is that it is not too late to plant tulips in November and even into December.  Tulips are best planted before the first frosts whilst the soil is still workable. One of the reason to plant tulips late is so that they enjoy a period of cold weather which helps to reduce the chance of tulip fire disease. Tulips ..read more

The heatwave is a wake-up call. It invites another look not only at drought resistant plants, but equally important how we design and plant our gardens. Designs incoporating scree gardens, gravel mulched borders, and "no water gardens" will, I think, eclipse the previous trend of "no dig gardens".   Even if we do not have another drought next year it is clear that water conservation is key. Mulch i ..read more

No garden Chillies Enjoy cheap and lovely rocket salad   During the lockdown, there was a surge of interest in growing your own veg, and now we have a resurgence of interest driven in part by the rise in food prices. The price of basics is rising and one way to chip away at it is to grow your own. You do not need a big garden.  You can grow in containers on a patio, balcony even a window sill.  The cheapest way t ..read more

At this time of year its all about looking forward and its a good time to check out the strawberry patch. If your plants have been yeilding less fruit it maybe time to think about replacing them. Strawberry plants don't last for ever, after 2/3/4/5 years, depending on the variety and growing conditions, yields diminish and it is time to think about replacement. This can be done by new plants or using runners which can be taken from healthy plants. For cultivation tips and inf ..read more

It maybe mid November, but the good news is that it is not too late to plant tulips. In fact it is the ideal time as Tulips are best planted in November, even into December.  Tulips are best planted before the first frosts whilst the soil is still workable. One of the reason to plant tulips late is so that they enjoy a period of cold weather which helps to reduce the chance of tulip fire disease. Tulips are best planted in areas of the garden which are not to ..read more

We could learn from the honeybee. Researchers at UCL have evidence that honeybees increase social distancing when the hive is under threat from parasites. They reduce the amount of foraging dancing and grooming increases, along with distancing . Clever bees, and very interesting research from UCL.  It is a fascinating bit of research which involved studying the behaviour of two colonies of bees one with, and one without, the parasite threat to consider how their behaviour ..read more

Fallen autumn and winter leaves are not good for ponds and are best skimmed off and removed. . This is because the leaves will rot down and add to the slurry at the bottom of the pond, but more importantly, decomposition will add nitrates to the pond water.  Nitrates enrich the water which process can upset the natural balance, which in turn will make algae more likely and increase the chances of having a green pond in the spring.    If t ..read more