In the picture above I am standing in Gertrude Jekyll’s garden at her Lutyens’ house Munstead Wood.
Your garden will look better when I leave than when I turned up. That’s the fulfilling nature of working in other people’s gardens.
It will not only look different it will feel different. Too often garden owners see their garden as a set of problems, sometimes too difficult to tackle. That’s where I come in. I can usually see six things that need addressing in a garden before I have even said a word.
Any garden left to its own devices will just set off in all directions and the thug plants and weeds will push the decent guys out the way.
Gardening is about control and restoring and maintaining order. You can still have soft, naturalistic planting, meadow areas and drooping pollinators.
But ultimately your garden should be a haven not a total headache.
what kind of gardener do you want?
Gardens, garden owners and gardeners come in all shapes and sizes. I focus on the individual plants but also the whole context.
I am not a landscaper and not someone with machinery who makes it all nice but can’t tell you the name of what they’re cutting. They do what they do, I do what I do. And we need each other.
Do you want someone who uses secateurs? That’s the simple dividing line.
“We love everything you have done, all the planting....You’ve made a really positive impact on our garden....Our garden is already looking so much better”
What i will do
Review what’s in your garden with you, discuss ideas and a way forward.
Look for and identify plants and problems you may not have noticed. This could be a full survey if needed.
Get rid of the weeds. Identify any pests or diseases and treat them accordingly.
Cut back and prune anything that needs it at the correct time of the season.
Research any plants I don’t know and treat them accordingly. (No gardener knows every plant on the planet.)
Revive neglected shrubs and hedges.
Nourish what needs to be fed with a commercially developed fertiliser.
Improve soil structure and/or add a mulch.
Source and supply plants from commercial nurseries then plant them. following discussion with you. I will always agree a budget beforehand.
Create a full planting scheme drawn to scale with botanical names, if needs be. Or produce a small concept sketch.