A few years ago it would not have been unusual to see 5 or 6 species of butterfly fluttering about your garden on a sunny afternoon. This summer that may well be unlikely as butterfly populations continue to show a steep drop.
Read MoreWhen you start to plan a garden it can be difficult to resist going straight for the plants. However a garden’s success will depend more on the underlying structure, with the flowers being the ‘icing on the cake’.
Read MoreThe idea of the garden being an outside room has been around for many years but has perhaps never been as relevant as it is today. The ever-increasing pace of life and growing house prices are just two reasons for making the most of our outdoor space, while new products have broadened the possibilities.
Read MoreThere is often so much emphasis on flowers that it can be easy to forget that the most important colour in the garden is green. Green is everywhere of course but nonetheless can be overlooked as we delve into the subtleties of different shades of pink or blue. Is the cerise flower of that Geranium too strident, or are the flowers of that Salvia bluey-purple or mauve and will it go with the reddy-pink of the Sedum next to it? Much time is often spent making sure flower colour works, whether in close combinations or in the overall context of a planting scheme, or indeed from one season to the next.
Read MoreLawns are a quintessential part of the English garden and in many ways there is nothing more inviting on a hot summer’s day than a soft verdant carpet of grass. However, is the lawn’s place at the heart of our garden being put under ever-greater scrutiny?
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