The Plotting Shed

How can you create a beautiful garden design if you haven't got a clue about gardening?
Welcome back to the first of this season's podcasts. This week Rachel talks about prepping your garden thought p…

The buzzword for many gardeners is low maintenance - but we have the wrong concept of what low maintenance should mean. The best low-maintenance garden is one where the plants look after themselves.
…

Gardens don't exist in a photograph or a moment in time. 
Picture-perfect gardens are not real, all gardens create work. Large gardens create a lot of work, so how do you ensure the design itself does…

Large Garden Design Tips
This week Rachel details those useful questions and design tips you need to ask before you embark on any large-scale garden redesign.  What questions should you ask and what a…

Gardens are not outdoor rooms, you cannot apply interior design principles to a garden. Nature does not exclude certain colours or shapes or plants, the landscape is merely a reflection of the plants…

I discovered a new word this week - Xeriscape, which means to grow plants whilst reducing the need for irrigation.  And ornamental grasses are very good plants that don't require much water, which ma…

Have you ever stared out into the garden and wished you knew a bit more about garden design?
You know that garden border that's looking a bit dull, but how do you work out what to change and how to re…

We all want to learn from the garden design pros's - after all they should kow what they are doing! But not every desing tips is worth adding to your garden.

In this weeks episode Rachel lets you know…

I was very fortunate to be able to attend all the 3 main RHS garden shows this year. So, Chelsea in May, Hampton Court and Tatton Park in July. All three shows have very different flavours, but there…

Welcome to the new series of the Plotting Shed.  Have you missed me?

SO, did the experiment work? If you remember last season Rachel started a garden experiment to see whether it really works for the …

Well this is the last episode in the current series. Rachel will be back at the end of September- just as you are ready to get back into the garden and make it ready for winter.

This week - weeds, and…

Unless you are incredibly wealthy and live in a large home surrounded by countryside - you own; most of us share our gardens with the neighbours.
We have road noise, pollution ugly views and privacy i…

Garden design used to be easier when gardens were more orderer shapes. You could copy what the neighbours had done, or look in books or magazines for ideas on design. But modern gardens can be all so…

You might think shade is just a place the sun doesn't shine on - but in terms of gardening know-how, shade is a little more nuanced!

This weeks episode is about how shade affects the plants in the gar…

Did you know there are 3 types of slopes:

1. Up Slopes
2. Down Slopes
3.  and Side Slopes

Each presents a different challenge in a garden. Should you terrace,  and how would you plant a garden that isn't flat?
 
Li…

This week what are the problems associated with narrow gardens. These can be narrow alley type spaces in city environments or the traditional long gardens often found in  older terrace housing.

There…

This week Rachel starts tackling the designg issues many gardens have. So what and how can you design your garden easily if its wider than it is deep and the only view you see is the end fence.

Simple…

Not every plant can grow on a balcony well, why oh why then do all the images on the interenet give the impression anything will grow beautifully in that tiny little space.
Balcony gardens are effecti…

Garden privacy is important, but there is a trade off. 100% private means 100% enclosed -nothing gets in and you can't see out.

So is there a better way to make gardens feel more private without retra…

We all experience this at some point in our lives - we move to a place where for the very first time there is an outside space - that's all yours to play with! 

So you want to make a garden..... but …