Here you will find posts detailing progress and developments from my garden in Surrey, UK. I will share an update each month covering new projects, planting, and general improvements. As well as working on my own garden, I also offer horticultural services, focusing on design and maintenance. I successfully completed the RHS Level 2 Certificate in Practical Horticulture in 2020.
We planted a bare root ornamental cherry tree (prunus serrula) in December; it’s a multi-stem specimen and we positioned it at the foot of the mound that we created in June. Situating it near the foot of the slope means that it’s slightly raised (when viewing from the path) and this gives impact. It’s also near the walkway to
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In November our order of crab apple trees ‘Evereste‘ arrived. They came bare root via the post so we had to soak them prior to planting. We ordered 12 so we could plant 3 around each quarter of the wall – the picture below gives you an impression. We chose this variety since they are disease resistant and the blossom
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In September I began studying a RHS horticultural qualification at Merrist Wood college – here’s a link to my programme. We visited Wisley and particularly enjoyed the tropical garden; I really liked the contrasting foliage textures and colour combinations. I was particularly pleased with Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen‘ which we planted into the back of the mixed border in spring- the
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In August we built three interconnected ponds. As you can see in the photo, we situated them in the ‘L’ shape of garden sandwiched between the raised beds and the pergola walk way. We started by removing the turf and used these to mark out the overall shape. As we have a high water table and wanted to create water
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July saw some exciting developments in the garden. We first finished digging out the paths and also dug over the four planting beds which surround the wall. We turned the soil in the beds so that we wouldn’t need to disturb it too much after laying the steel edging. We laid 10 cm’s worth of hardcore over all the paths
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Despite only finally completing the dry stone wall in April, we launched straight in to our next structural project during June. When we visited Loseley Park last year we loved the secluded seating areas and thought we would try and recreate this in our own garden. Being semi-detached means that our patio area is only a stones throw from our
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May must be one of my favourite months in the garden. I’m sad before it’s even over knowing I have to wait another year to see the garden adopt its fresh green foliage. As I discussed in last months post, we finally finished the dry stone wall and in May we launched in to digging the paths and central
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On the 20th of April we finally finished the wall which we started back in August 2017. Luckily for us the weather was fine over the Easter break which meant we were able to crack on and finish the beast! It feels great to look out on the garden and know that we never have to make another dry stone
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It was exciting this March to see some of the early flowering plants that we positioned last year burst into flower; these included the euphorbia, clematis, and some of the bulbs like the daffodil ‘Thalia‘; this multi-headed classic variety are pure white and really stand out against the bark mulch. We will definitely be planting more of these bulbs in
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The weather has been bizarre this month – both cold and hot. February started off with a light dusting of snow and culminated with heat waves which broke meteorological records for winter temperatures in the UK. I was working from home on the 14th and so thought I might venture out at lunch time. I was taken by surprise by some
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