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 process.  Understanding what you need your garden to do. It's all part of the 5P's.... proper planning prevents poor performance. The problem is what do you plan for?

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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.
This week, Rachel looks at the wood-wide web and how it can help you create a low-maintenance, well-balanced healthy garden - for free.

This week is the last in this series of the Plotting Shed. We will be back in Spring 2023. Thank you for all your donations this year, they have been appreciated. 

Dr Elaine Ingham - soil food web
Charles Dowding - No dig gardening
How bedding plants are bad for the gardens. 

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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 doesn't create unnecessary maintenance or build in additional costs to look after it?

Can a large garden really be low maintenance?

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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 are the simple tips to start the process off?

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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 that thrive in the conditions that prevail. So if you try to micro-manage the garden style and planting colour themes, the overall effect begins to look too sanitised.

The best approach is with a few guidelines - read the article

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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 makes them an ideal choice in many gardens, 

But often growing these ornamental grasses in the garden can lead to disappointing results; so this week Rachel discusses how you can grow them better.  

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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 replant it.

Well here are 5 easy tips that will help you make your garden borders better
read the article at PlantPlots

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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 which ones you should be following, and which to leave in at the RHS Garden Shows

Read the article at PlantPlots.com

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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 are themes that are common to all.

Now, not all the elements in these garden shows are worth copying, these are shows after all. But some are; so what are they?

Read the article at PlantPlots.com

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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 average gardener.

Does not mowing the lawn help reduce the maintenance and still make the garden feel like a garden.  And what about the weeds; how did that go?

Tune in and you can find out - or you can pop along a see the video evidence
Let me know what you think - good or bad....  on our facebook page or email rachel@plantplots.com

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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 why we all need to think again. Is it a Pain, Prolific or cause you a Problem., if none of the above, then why not adopt a new approach and allow Nature to underplant your garden.

PlantPlots.com - making gardening easier

P.s send youe pictures on your lawn art to rachel@plantplots.com or upload to our facebook page.

Enjoy the summer and enjoy your garden

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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 issues.

So how can you create a garden that feels like your escape fro mthe outside world. A space that allows you to lose the noise and focus on just the greenery around you. 

It's not impossible with a little thought, as Rachel will explain.

How to  design a Front Garden

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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 sorts of shapes and sizes, which makes it harde to design.

There are a few simple tips to follow for internal corners (Fill) and external corners (Wrap) - if you want ot know more - just tune in an listen.

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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 garden, and what you can do to make sure the dull bits in your garden shine and thrive.

Oh and you'll find out what Cholophyll A's favourite 2 colours are!

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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?
 
Listen in  it could save you time money and a lot of un-needed effort.

PlantPlots.com : Simple Practical and Affordable Garden Deisgn advice for every garden - even wonky ones!
Dealing with sloping gardens : Simple Design for a small sloping garden : Planning Tips for Sloping Gardens

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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 are a few design tricks you can use to make either space feel like a bigger wider and more interesting space

Narrow side alleys
Long thin garden design and narrow spaces
Garden Design Gallery

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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 practical and affordable design solutions for every type of garden ( & even if you don't like gardening much!)

PlantPlots Design Gallery
Cool Stuff we just like

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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 effectively 1 of 3 types of garden - a sauna, a shady cave or a mountain top. If you want plants that will thrive and look gorgeous - then you need to think like a plant!

Vertical Gardening - tips for growing plants anywhere except in the ground!

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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 retrating behind big greeen hedges and walls... well obviously otherwise it would be a very short podcast! 

Better Garden Design by PlantPlots.

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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 where to start, how do you begin, what style should you choose... 

Once again Rachel takes you through the thought process, because if you know what could go wrong before you begin to create your garden... it won't.

7 best garden design tips
Garden Design for Beginners
Possibly the best little garden design book ever! 

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