While the weather is seemingly undecided, things are cracking on garden wise either design, planting or client garden care. Its that time of year when we're working on a variety of horti things thus this week a typically eclectic week around SE London! Surveying the scene in Charlton Getting the measure in Greenwich! A basic plan for part renovation of a redundant area at the back of a SE7 garden. Here we're doing concept work to help identify a possible scheme to then get

Quick vid on a sunny spring garden makeover in SE3!

Just a quick update regarding a blog featuring an SE7 project a few weeks ago. James and the team at London Groundwork have completed their landscaping magic in bringing our design to life. We're aiming to start planting up in April for a summer spectacular! Here in a relatively small space proportions & solid structure help to provide elegance but importantly a functional & safe space. Keep it simple!

Great to see the build start on a Charlton design from last year. The weather has been grim for those outdoors so hopefully the sun will shine with the longer days. A usual James and the London Groundwork team are working their magic! Welcome to the jungle! Getting the structure sorted The aim !

Agapanthus 'Lapis luzuli' & fuzzy friend! As it continues to rain this soggy Feb we thought a good time to post a nice vid from last summer of a fantastic garden plant that does well in SE London gardens. Agapanthus has many common names but originally derives from the Greek ' Agape' = Love + 'anthos' = Flower . There's many reasons to love it: 1) Does well in our varied soils as well as pots. We've planted them in Charlton, Blackheath,Greenwich, Little Heath, Westcombe Park

Bleeding Heart ( Dicentra spectabilis ) Looking for a different valentines gift for a green-fingered loved-one, then why not try these ! 1) Bleeding Heart ( Dicentra spectabilis ) - they look delicate both flower and foliage-wise, but are tough as old boots. You may have seen the white version too ('Alba'), but both in our experience are great garden plants for semi-shade. Being herbaceous perennials (die back in winter) they really are a sight in spring. We plant a lot of th

A quick vid of some design conceptualisation atm Just a snapshot today of some early conceptualisation work atm. Here we're trying out some different ideas pre any design work to get us in the ballpark (actually Greenwich Park)! We use Sketchup for this and its great for getting 3D visualisations really quickly, here in particular screening neighbouring properties & developing privacy.

Etymology or street name meaning of Greenwich borough to investigate its horticultural past...

Whether surveying a garden for future design or attending during a garden care session we do see the same familiar plants. While usually considered weeds due to their abundance and ability to dominate a site, they're essentially thriving in our SE London microclimate and soil. A common definition of a weed is that of a plant in the wrong place. However, thats usually an aesthetic or an inability to control view rather than that of a well-suited, naturalised or native plant,

'Design' (noun) - a plan or drawing produced to show the look and function or workings of a building, garment, or other object before it is made ( Oxford Languages ) While there's some amazing designed gardens on social media and of course the annual telly show gardens at Chelsea etc, many folks don't have £100K+ to spend on their patch nor the associated spend for high-end design packages. Many of our garden designs in and around Blackheath and Greenwich have used a hybri

Ok, not literally (!). BUT while everything seems to go up in price, for a mere £20 you can buy 3 fantastic used design & gardening books from eBay (other 2nd hand dealers are available!). We highly recommend these especially to the student or amateur alike as great learning & reference resources. Garden History by Tom Turner - a clear & concise reference to historic gardening styles with great plans & visuals. A timeline of the philosophy & subsequent design from 2000BC-t

Many a Chelsea garden or trendy gardening book will extoll herbaceous perennials. Indeed stylistically 'forbs' (another name for HP's) are/were key to cottage gardens, the New Perennial movement and now 'Soft Modernism' garden design. For sure forbs are excellent for providing stunning aesthetics at scale as well as many benefits to wildlife. While they're often the glamorous stars of the show, a good foundation of hardy shrubs is key to provide structure, winter interest and

Our part of South London can be tricky for gardeners due to the different types of geology and hence soil in a relatively small geographic area. We've seen super sticky clay soil at Sho Charlton geology ! Sand used for glass, gravels for ballast, clay for bricks & chalk for mortar. oters Hill, gravels in Blackheath village, chalky Westcombe Park & silty riverside Greenwich gardens! Add to that historic human activities such as farming, building and the Luftwaffe (!) which aga

The start of a new year is alway good to reflect upon the the last. Particularly as spring is round the corner and the usual flurry of enquiries and questions. Things seem to change quite quickly these days both climatic and economically thus worth considering these three points in the context of existing or new gardens. Irrigated hedge establishment along the exposed Shooters Hill Rd. Super dry, sunny, gravelly soil & big thirsty tree! 1) Water, water everywhere but not a dr

Here's 3 key pointers for folks considering a new garden. This is based our experiences and how to make sure you get a great garden on-budget and on-time. You can always talk to us too of course! Don't wait 'till April to get a garden for the summer! We've had folks contact us in April and May desiring a new garden for the summer, no doubt the amazing spring gardens on Gardeners World have prompted action here! Get the design foundations right! We liken a new garden to other

Living the dream! A cold but scenic start to the year! This is really the most important season in the garden, and anyone who has 'put the garden to bed' needs to wake up! Spring is round the corner and there's a load of seasonal pruning, shrub planting and perennial dividing to be done. Also design & consultancy-wise we've a number of projects. All of which we'll aim to post on the blog fyi. However, we've taken the weekend to enjoy the heath and the delicious fish & chips a

So our New Years resolution is to embrace tech a bit more to show what we do and perhaps helpful to folks who aren't direct clients (or even from SE London, shock, horror!). We're new to the blog game so bare with us but a common comment is regarding our new logo. It's actually a Hosta halcyon leaf from last autumn. We've a few at home in raised containers (to help prevent slugs & snail damage, moderately successful!). BUT if your looking for a drought/dry tolerant hosta, Hal