Blossom Garden Designs

02/12/2024

Really excited to post some before and after photos of this Hitchin garden that I designed. The client wanted a complete revamp with a sleek modern design that would complement their new extension.
The landscaping was carried out by House Gardens Limited and the planting completed by me. A final set of photos will be taken in Spring when the raised beds have been painted and planting has been completed.

Porcelain: Global Stone - Exquisite Porcelain paving in Coral
Fencing: Lawsons - Double slatted panels.
Lighting: Evolution Electrical and Property Development LTD

07/07/2023

I visited Tom Stuart-Smith’s garden at Serge Hill near Abbots Langley this week with some old pals from my garden design course. We visited his private gardens as well as a living plant library. My favourite area was the courtyard garden but apart from some familiar columnar topiary, which is one of his design signatures, I don’t think it felt like a Tom Stuart-Smith garden regardless of the fact that it is actually his garden!

26/06/2023

You might have noticed that its been a little dry lately so I thought I would post some advice on plant watering:
- Water thirsty plants and ones that require moist conditions every 1 to 2 days. Mature trees and drought resistant plants will need much less watering.
- When planning plants for the garden think about using drought resistant varieties. Here’s a link to some different varieties: www.gardenersworld.com/plants/drought-tolerant-plants-to-grow/
- Water first thing in the morning or later in the evening. Water will evaporate away quickly if you water during the day.
- Water the base of the plant rather than the leaves as plants take water in through their roots and not their leaves.
- Watering lawns uses lots of water so let your lawn go brown if you can bare it, it will bounce back when it rains.
- Containers dry out much more quickly than the ground so will need watering more frequently.
- Make the most of the rain when it comes by installing water saving devices such as water butts that you can fill your watering can from. Here’s a link to info on water butts: www.gardenfocused.co.uk/techniques/water-butts.php

08/06/2023

You might have noticed that some of your plants that you would consider hardy didn’t make it through the last winter very well or not at all. There are a few schools of thought about why this happened but its likely that the very hot, dry summer put a lot of plants in to shock and stunted their growth. The mild autumn that followed encouraged plants in to new growth but this was cruelly damaged by the long and very cold spell that we had in December. The combination of these events proved too much for a lot of plants!

Here is a bit of information about hardiness which refers to a plant’s ability to cope with cold temperatures. The RHS has developed a hardiness rating system classifying plants on the minimum temperature they can tolerate (www.rhs.org.uk/plants/trials-awards/award-of-garden-merit/rhs-hardiness-rating) but broadly speaking a tender plant won’t tolerate temperatures below 0 degrees C. Half-hardy plants can tolerate temperatures down to -5 degrees C and may need some protection over winter. Fully-hardy plants can tolerate temperatures down to -10 degrees C and beyond but check the plant details for specific information.

23/05/2023

Lovely treat spending the day at the Chelsea Flower Show. Feet are sore but lots of garden design inspiration! Purple still seems to be the colour of choice with it popping up in pretty much every display.

15/05/2023

One of the things I’ve encountered when talking to clients is the range of knowledge of gardening and understanding of garden terms. Indeed, when I started my garden design diploma there were a few terms that I didn’t really understand, so I thought it might be useful to write a quick post on the meaning of some common garden terms (swipe up if I’m ‘teaching you to suck eggs’).

Perennials – a perennial is a plant that grows every year. Technically speaking trees and shrubs are perennials too but the term generally refers to plants that live for more than 2 years. Deciduous perennials die back each autumn and then grow again in spring. Evergreen perennials keep their leaves all year round.

Annuals – these are plants that germinate, flower, set seed, and die all in one season. They can provide instant interest in a garden and are good for filling gaps. However, in terms of sustainability, they can use more resources and will require replacing every year which means spending money every year if you’re buying rather than growing from seed.

More posts to come covering hardiness, biennials, deciduous and evergreen plants, successional planting. Are there any other terms you would like explained?

12/05/2023

When you chose plants for your garden the best way to increase your or your plant’s chances of success is by following the rule ‘Right plant, right place’. What does ‘right place’ mean? Well, it is a combination of things: soil pH, soil type, amount of sun, temperature, amount of space, climate, aspect etc. Seems like there’s a lot to understand about ‘place’ so let’s start with soil pH.

When planting in the soil in your garden you need to know is the soil acid or alkaline. You can measure how acid or alkaline your soil is with a pH tester. Soil with a pH of up to 7.0 is acidic and a pH above 7.0 indicates alkaline soil. The RHS website has more information about soil pH and how to measure it: www.rhs.org.uk/soil-composts-mulches/ph-and-testing-soil.

Plants that like more acidic soils are things like rhododendrons, azaleas, camellia, heather and magnolia. Whilst plants that like more alkaline soils include things like ceanothus, syringa/lilac, forsythia and lavender. (Neither of these lists are definitive, there are 1000s more!).

If you don’t want to rush out and buy a pH test kit just yet then have look at your soil type. Chalky soil will be more alkaline whilst clay soil will be more acidic. And I’ll talk about soil types in another post🌱.

When designing and planting your garden, you need to know whether the soil is acid or alkaline, as different plants thrive in different soils. The soil pH is a number that describes how acid or alkaline your soil is. A pH of 7.0 is considered neutral. An acid soil has a pH value below 7.0 and above....

09/05/2023

Welcome to Blossom Garden Designs page. I'm planning to use this page to post about garden projects I've worked on along with some topical garden related discussions e.g. sustainability in gardening, the garden design process, artificial grass, garden renovation costs etc. I might also bore your with a few pretty plant photos and photos from garden visits 😂

Are there any garden related subject you would like to see posts about?