The Gardening Bible

Sometimes gardens are designed without giving thought to the occasions when we can relax outdoors and enjoy what we have created. It is a pity to find that the only place to sit is an uncomfortable chair on a narrow path or in a cramped porch! Despite the unpredictable nature of British weather, garden design increasingly takes into account the gardener’s leisure needs – Read more [...]

A new lawn can be made either by sowing seed or laying turf. The latter is more expensive but provides a usable lawn more quickly; the former enables you to choose your seed, depending on what use the lawn will be put to. If the lawn will be used primarily by children for playing, a strong mixture such as a rye grass selection should be used. For the average lawn you can buy Read more [...]

Water makes an attractive feature in the garden because it is always moving. Even a slight breeze will ripple the surface of a still pool, while a waterfall creates a visual delight. Water can be used in contrasting ways, either formally or informally. In a small town garden a formal rectangular pond looks most effective edged with square paving. Suitable planting can add Read more [...]

Rockeries can form the most delightful features of any garden and, contrary to general belief, can give colour throughout the year. They begin flowering with dwarf bulbs in January and finish in December with more dwarf bulbs and late autumn-flowering carpeting plants. Naturally, there are highlight periods of bloom, but a rockery’s overall contribution to the colour and Read more [...]

Once the preliminaries of planning and major construction have been dealt with, you can turn to any special areas of interest or function. If the scale of your garden allows, a rockery and stream can look natural and dramatic. In a smaller garden do not have too many special features and keep outlines fairly simple. TIMBER Timber makes very effective use of a natural plant Read more [...]

Tips for Steps in the Small Garden As a general principle, it is wise to avoid the use of steps rather than to create them because they can be difficult to negotiate. However, there are occasions where steps are necessary on steeply sloping sites. If you have a gently sloping garden, it jars slightly to insert vertical steps but if you can create a stepped path around a border Read more [...]

A very careful choice needs to be made of trees for the town garden; if pruning is necessary in later years when the trees are mature, they can look a travesty of their natural form. Choose the right tree for the right position and you will have a visual delight as well as the possibilities of privacy, fruit, disguise or, if you want, a pleasant cover of shade. Choose trees Read more [...]

VEGETABLE PLOTS There are many good reasons for growing vegetables. It is usually cheaper than buying them, they can be organically grown if you prefer, and the fruits of your labours can be eaten when they are fresh enough to be at their most delicious. A well-planned vegetable garden will yield crops throughout the year, especially if there is some form of glass protection. Read more [...]

FENCES Fencing serves the same functions as walls do but is obviously less massive, less durable and much cheaper. Be careful to place your fence on your boundary in the interest of good neighbourly relations. Wood, metal and concrete are the usual materials. Plastic fencing is also available. It looks neat and urban; hurdles, the other extreme, look very rural. The environment Read more [...]

The vast majority of us live in towns and cities, where space is at a premium, and consequently we have small gardens. These present a number of particular problems which are considered here, together with some imaginative solutions. They show how successful and creative you can be with even a tiny awkward-shaped yard. At this stage we should perhaps look at small town gardens Read more [...]