Garden Maintenance

I remain a hands-on gardener, offering maintenance services for clients alongside or independent of my design services.

Pruning – all types of pruning carried out: formative, maintenance and renovation at the right times of year for optimum floral displays or fruit production.

Planting – herbaceous perennials, bare-root and trees/shrubs.

Weeding – maintenance hand weeding of any unwelcome brambles, knot-weed, perennial and annual weeds. I don’t use chemicals, mitigating the environmental damage to both plants and wildlife.

Ground preparation – for raised beds and borders or laying/repairing turf in lawns.

Mulching – source and apply mulches to your beds and borders and containers in mid-late spring and again in autumn or as needed. This will retain moisture, suppress weeds and, if organic, release nutrients into the soil.

Composting – if you like the idea and have the space to store it, I can show you how to make compost on site so that you have your own organic compost to hand for mulches and planting. This is the best compost when made properly, not just because it has the lowest carbon footprint, but because you know exactly what is in it!

Case Studies

Quick Turnover Project

St. Paul’s, Bristol

The brief: A buy-to-sell quick turnover project with a very limited budget. The brief was to clear the weeds and trash and get the garden back to its ‘bones’ in order to make it presentable to prospective buyers. The instruction was to lay new turf to one side, erect fencing, lay a small patio area and plant in some small evergreen shrubs and grasses. There was no scope for creative vision given the timescale and budget (and it's a little too orderly for my liking!) but the final transformation was remarkable and the house sold immediately.

Raised Vegetable Beds

Residential Garden, Bristol

The Brief: To level the site, build two 8’x4’ raised vegetable beds and plant a selection of herbs and vegetables. The client wanted membrane and gravel to surround the beds and requested the upcycling of bricks on site to be used for marking an entrance to the vegetable garden. I planted ferns and hardy geraniums to the shaded area of the garden at the back and lavender, sage and lemonbalm in the brick lined beds, which get full sun every day. 

Wildlife Garden

Residential Garden, Bristol

The Brief: To restore an elderly gentleman's garden post-covid, where he wanted to see more wildlife and pollinators and get more involved in gardening. The garden was overgrown with convolvulus, brambles, invasive honeysuckle and creeping euphorbia, The old flowers had been lost, with the exception of some hot pink peonies and the rose shrubs and climbers needed renovation. The brief was to bring more life, colour and fragrance back to the garden and the owner took charge of clearing and lawn maintenance!