A collection of explainers, ideas, observations, silly videos I've made and occasional strong opinions about making
better gardens.
IDEAS
A collection of explainers, ideas, observations, silly videos I've made and occasional strong opinions about making
better gardens.
IDEAS
Garden design and landscaping get used like they're the same thing, and they're not. One's the thinking, the other's the digging — and confusing the two is how you end up paying for a beautifully built garden that solves the wrong problem. Here's the actual difference, and why it matters before you hire anyone.
A hosepipe ban is annoying. It's also the best free audit your garden will ever get — instantly showing you every decision that's ever gone into it, good and bad. Here's why drought doesn't create problems, it just reveals the ones that were already there.
I used to think shrubs were the plant equivalent of giving up. I was wrong, and slightly ashamed of how wrong. Here's a formal apology to the most underrated plants in the garden centre, and why they're doing more work than you think.
Most garden design mistakes have nothing to do with taste. They're about doing things in the wrong order — buying plants before knowing the soil, designing for a photograph instead of a Tuesday morning. Here's the shortlist of what actually goes wrong, and how to catch it before it gets expensive.
The best view in my garden isn't technically in my garden — it's next door's silver birches, and I've basically stolen it for free. Here's the case for 'borrowed landscape,' and why the most expensive-looking feature in your garden might already exist over the fence.
A single reed is nothing. A thousand of them is a landscape — and the same trick works in a border. Here's why repeating fewer plants, rather than buying one of everything, is what actually makes a garden feel calm.
Most planting mistakes aren't about picking ugly plants — they're about picking plants for the day you bought them, not the border they're going into for the next ten years. From ignoring mature size to too much variety and not enough repetition, here's what quietly goes wrong. And how to actually plan a border that still looks like something in November.
HOW MUCH DOES
A GARDEN DESIGNER
COST IN NORFOLK?
How much does a garden designer actually cost in Norfolk? Depends who you ask — and half the confusion online comes from articles mixing up the design fee with the cost of the whole build. Here's a straight answer, with real numbers, and what actually changes the price.
Sometimes, honestly, no — you can do this yourself. Here's an honest look at when DIY genuinely works, when it gets expensive fast, and the middle-ground option most people don't know exists.
WHATS ACTUALLY IN A GARDEN DESIGN DRAWING AND WHY IT MATTERS BEFORE YOU DIG
A garden design drawing isn't a nice picture — it's the instructions for how to actually build your garden. Skip it, and a landscaper's guessing at half the details that matter. Here's what a proper set of drawings should actually include, and why it saves you money before a single spade goes in
Not every garden problem needs a full redesign — sometimes it's one bad decision doing all the damage. Here's how to work out whether you're looking at a quick fix or a full rethink, with 5 of the usual suspects that trip people up. Fix the right thing and the rest of the garden often falls into place around it.
Coastal and exposed Norfolk gardens fight wind and salt more than they fight cold — which changes everything about what's worth planting, and where. Here's what actually works on an exposed site, starting with shelter and layout before a single plant gets chosen. And why the standard 'coastal planting' advice often misses the point