http://www.greenhearthort.co.uk/

Green Heart Horticultural Services, Wistaston, Crewe (2026)

12/06/2026

𝗘𝗱𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗠𝗲𝗲𝘁𝘀 𝗢𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗹

Calum and I started our last working day of the week in Hatherton, and it was a pleasure to see this kitchen garden properly getting going.

On a recent visit I had sown orach, komatsuna, lettuce, chard, carrots and beetroot, and all have now germinated. That is always satisfying in itself, but what pleased me most was being reminded that a productive space does not have to be a purely practical one.

The deep purple leaves of the orach and komatsuna already bring real contrast to the bed, and the spotted 'Forellenschluss' lettuce is making a very good case for itself too. It is one of those varieties that blurs the line nicely between edible and ornamental.

That is part of the appeal of a well-planned kitchen garden. It should, of course, earn its keep. But there is no reason it cannot look good while doing it.

11/06/2026

𝗦𝗮𝘄𝗳𝗹𝘆 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗢𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁

Tuesday afternoon in Crewe was meant to be about finishing a planting job for a client, with a Rose, Japanese anemone and Hemerocallis going in.

While I was there, though, I noticed the Polygonatum had been munched almost to destruction by Solomon's seal sawfly. If you grow Solomon's seal, you tend to learn about this one sooner or later.

The adults are a type of sawfly, but it is the larvae that do the damage. They are those pale grey, caterpillar-like grubs with black heads that gather on the underside of the leaves and can strip a plant with surprising speed. Very often the first sign is not the larvae themselves, but that tell-tale chewed foliage and the feeling that the plant has been skeletonised almost overnight.

The good news is that, alarming though it looks, Polygonatum will usually recover and grow away again next year.

If you want to keep numbers down without reaching for poisons or chemicals, the best approach is a simple one. Check plants regularly from late spring onwards, especially in May and June, and remove the larvae by hand as soon as you see them.

It is also worth encouraging the sort of garden life that helps keep things in balance, including birds, ground beetles and predatory wasps.

Not every garden problem needs a bottle. Sometimes it just needs noticing early, and dealing with it calmly.

10/06/2026

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗿𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗨𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗛𝗮𝘃𝗲

I am very lucky to have an excellent team around me, and they are a genuine pleasure to work with.

One of the things that always strikes me is the creativity they bring to different gardens.

Not everything good in a border comes from a grand plan on paper. Sometimes it comes from noticing what nature has offered you and having the eye to make something of it.

There was a very good example of that today at the first job of the day for Simon and me in Church Minshull. The team had made great use of a generous scattering of Feverfew and Verbena, turning what could easily have been treated as 'weeds' into a really striking display at the back of the border.

It works because the two plants do very different things. Feverfew brings that airy drift of small white flowers, while the Verbena rises up through it with a looser, taller framework. Together they give the border movement, lightness and a slightly wild feel, but still look entirely at home in the garden.

That sort of judgement is not accidental. It comes from knowing when to intervene, when to leave well alone, and when to let plants do some of the design work for you.

09/06/2026

𝗔𝗻 𝗔𝗺𝗮𝘇𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗔𝗹𝗹𝗶𝘂𝗺𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮 𝗦𝗽𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝗦𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗺𝘀

I am half tempted to start campaigning for a few proper collective nouns in gardening, because some plants really do seem to deserve them.

At my first job today, the alliums (albeit one's actually Nectaroscordum) in the front garden were looking good enough to justify an 'amazement' all of their own. They have that knack of looking architectural without ever feeling too static.

In the back garden, meanwhile, the sedums were making a very strong case for a 'splendour'. They were doing exactly what good ground cover should do, knitting the space together and proving that low-growing planting does not have to be dull.

I may have to keep working on the gardening dictionary.

08/06/2026

𝗦𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝗢𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗹𝗲𝘆, 𝗦𝘂𝗿𝗽𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗪𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗻

With Karolina away this week, I was working with Simon, and we started the week over in Onneley with regular clients, where the borders are looking very good indeed and the roses were properly scent-sational.

The borders are full, settled and doing exactly what good borders should do at this point in the season, with the roses providing plenty of scent as well as colour.

Then in the afternoon we were with regular clients in Wistaston, and it was one of those visits that reminds you straight away that this is a plant-lover's garden. Tucked in amongst everything else was a hardy Tradescantia, still an unusual sight in many gardens, but doing beautifully here.

The hardy Tradescantia, or spiderwort, is a fantastic plant. It forms neat clumps of strap-like foliage and carries three-petalled flowers that can seem almost too delicate to last, though it flowers over a good stretch if happy. It has an almost collectable quality to it, which is perhaps why it feels so at home in a garden where plants are chosen with real interest rather than just for show.

A good start to the week. Roses with scent in the morning, and a fine reminder in the afternoon that the best gardens usually have something a little unexpected in them.

07/06/2026

𝗙𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗰 𝗙𝗼𝘅𝗴𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗥𝗮𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗥𝗼𝘀𝗲𝘀

There are some plants that earn their place in the garden without faol, and foxgloves and roses are definitely amongst them.

On Tuesday, Simon and Karolina were in Batherton, where the foxgloves were in full flow and the roses were looking spectacular.

The vertical spires of the foxgloves bring lift and rhythm, while the roses do what roses do best at this time of year and steal plenty of attention of their own.

Foxgloves, or Digitalis, somehow manage to feel both wild and elegant. They are invaluable for early summer height, brilliant for softening a border, and especially good at weaving through a garden in a way that feels natural rather than forced.

They are also a good reminder that plants are more than just aesthetic. Foxgloves are poisonous if ingested, but Digitalis species are also the source of compounds that led to the heart medication digoxin.

That mix of beauty, usefulness and character that makes them so worthwhile in a garden.

06/06/2026

𝗦𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗝𝗲𝗻𝗻𝘆

Box moth caterpillar has been especially relentless this year. In plenty of gardens, it is no longer a question of treating with nematodes and hoping for recovery. What is left is little more than the skeletal remains of box that is well past saving.

Jess and Calum were in Middlewich on Wednesday afternoon dealing with exactly that problem. Seven dead box balls came out, and in their place went Ilex crenata 'Jenny'.

When box has had it, there are a few directions you can go in. Yew (Taxus baccata) is one. Box-leaved honeysuckle (Lonicera nitida) is another. In this case we went with Box-leaved Holly (Ilex crenata), and specifically 'Jenny', because its naturally rounded, dome-forming habit makes it a very good fit where individual clipped balls are wanted without having to fight the plant into shape.

That matters more than people sometimes realise. Replacements work best when they suit the job from the outset. If the finished form is right for the space, the whole thing settles in more convincingly and needs less wrestling later.

So, seven dead box balls out. Seven Jennys in. A fair improvement for one Wednesday afternoon in Middlewich.

05/06/2026

𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗚𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗻

As anyone who knows our work will already know, we do not use toxic chemical herbicides or pesticides.

One of the benefits of that is that we get to enjoy gardens as they ought to be enjoyed - as places shared with other life.

I noticed these two on Tuesday while we were gardening for a new client in Hookgate.

The first is a bumblebee working an ornamental Allium. Alliums are excellent for pollinators, and bumblebees are some of the most important garden visitors we have. They move pollen as they feed, and in doing so help keep a great deal of the garden going.

The second looks to be a garden chafer, one of the small chafer beetles you may come across in summer. They are not as welcome as a bumblebee, admittedly, but gardens are living systems, not stage sets. A bit of nibbling comes with the territory and on a bramble it really doesn't cause any harm at all.

That is one of the things we value about gardening without toxic chemicals.

You notice more. You tolerate more. And you are reminded that a healthy garden is not one that's full of life.

04/06/2026

𝗔 𝗦𝗶𝗹𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗪𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴

With weather swinging from baking sun to something much closer to April showers, it is not surprising that a few plants are looking a little confused.

Earlier this week Jess spotted this Caryopteris with leaves that could easily be mistaken for variegation at first glance. But in this case, we think it is far more likely to be a response to stress from the recent conditions, with the foliage showing signs of bleaching or scorch rather than a true change in character.

Caryopteris is usually grown for its soft grey-green foliage and its late-season blue flowers, and it generally enjoys a sunny spot with free-draining soil. But even sun-loving plants can react when conditions swing quickly from heat and brightness to cooler, wetter weather and back again. Sometimes that shows up as paling, whitening or a washed-out look on the leaves.

Not every odd patch of colour is a feature, and not every problem is a pest or disease. Quite often, plants are simply responding to the conditions they face.

03/06/2026

𝗔 𝗚𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗔𝗹𝗹 𝗙𝗼𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁𝘀

The best gardens are not always the biggest. They are not always the showiest either. And, at least in my view, they are rarely the ones with the most hard landscaping. Space that could have gone to planting is hard to beat.

The best gardens are the ones that still feel beautiful whatever the weather is doing.

I spent this afternoon in one just like that in Sandbach, where the light kept changing from bright sunshine to absolutely bucketing down, and the garden took it all in its stride.

It is not the largest garden we look after, but it is beautifully planted and a genuine pleasure to work in.

There is colour, structure and softness in all the right places, and the planting does what good planting should do - it holds the whole space together.

That matters. A well-planted garden does not rely on size or spectacle. It works in sun, in rain, and in that in-between sort of weather we seem to specialise in in the UK.

It has enough interest, enough balance and enough life in it to carry the day regardless.

This one did exactly that.

Green Heart Horticultural Services

12/06/2026

11/06/2026

10/06/2026

09/06/2026

08/06/2026

07/06/2026

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03/06/2026

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