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Tim Matcham Garden Design

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Entries Tagged as 'enjoy'

Garden Design | Nothing happening in the winter garden?

January 21st, 2012 No Comments

The winter garden often looks drab, unloved and uncared for – the blaze of summer and autumn plants has dried and withered leaving a sorry tale of what came before. Most of us abandon the garden in the winter months in favour of the warmth of the fire inside reading books and endless reality TV programmes! Take a look around you – I think you will find that there is plenty going on in the garden, so don’t just sit and wait for the daffodils to appear take a look at what is already brightening up your garden this winter.

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Garden Design | The winter months

November 14th, 2011 No Comments

Making the most of your garden in winter calls for the expertise of a garden designer. Many gardens seem to lose their appeal as the leaves drop and the perennials fade from their autumnal glory. What can be done to enliven and enrich your outdoor space as the evenings draw in?

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Garden Design | Making more of your borders

July 28th, 2011 No Comments

Do you sometimes look out at the garden and wish for something a bit different but aren’t quite sure what? You are not alone. The garden can become a bit like wallpaper that’s been around for a few years and it is suitably inoffensive and ‘does the job’.
Take a look at your garden – would it cheer you up to see some changes for the better? Feedback from my customers strongly suggests that you would – so don’t leave it any longer – we can start straight away!

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Gardening | Garden Design | great plants – Campanula sarastro

June 8th, 2011 No Comments

Campanula ‘Sarastro’ – one of many wonderful Campanulas but somehow this is the daddy of all the bells! Large dark purple-blue flowers with a slightly unreal waxy appearance that start to appear from May onwards.

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Gardening | Garden Design | Inspirational Gardens | North Court

April 29th, 2011 No Comments

My family are all keen gardeners which made the decision to earn a living from my gardening knowledge fairly straightforward. Setting up as a Garden Designer on the outskirts of Bath brings back memories of past generations who shared my love of the garden. Last weekend I was lucky enough to return to a garden that probably is the greatest influence on that passion.

The gardens are at North Court in Shorwell on the Isle of Wight.

I hope that I have captured some of the spirit of these wonderful gardens and that it helps explain my passion for gardens and gardening – I feel very lucky and am delighted that they are in such safe hands now. I am already planning a return in the Autumn!

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Garden Design | An evening with Dan Hinkley – rocking with laughter!

March 17th, 2011 No Comments

It is perhaps appropriate that tomorrow is Red Nose Day 2011. What better way to get you in the mood than to listen to an American, with a passion for gardening and an almost British sense of humour – his dry wit had clearly missed most of his American audiences but was most definitely not lost on his very english audience tonight.

Though organised by Derry Watkins of Special Plants fame (who was keen to point out that her gardens were now open on Tuesdays) – who is of course american herself, Dan Hinkley drew a large audience to the Bath University Gardening Club to illustrate a talk on two Pacific North West gardens. The climate there seemed pretty similar to Britain with some oddities bought about by its coastal location.

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Gardening | Garden Design | great plants – Viburnum bodnantense ‘Dawn’

February 28th, 2011 No Comments

As we wait with latent expectation for those wonderful heralds of the spring garden to finally break cover and shower us with golden cheerfulness there are some plants that have been keeping a quiet watch over the winter months.

The Viburnum group is a remarkable collection of varied plants and I often wonder whether it would be possible to design a garden that only featured Viburnum in all of its assorted guises. Viburnum tinus ‘Eve Price’ is a popular choice of many schemes but is rather prone to Viburnum beetle which quickly reduce the leaves to a rather scrappy looking lace skeleton – a problem that is duplicated in others such as the V.opulus.

Viburnum bodnantense ‘Dawn’ isn’t affected but since it flowers before the leaves are present this somehow seems less of an issue!

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Gardening | Garden Design | Bee Crazy for Sunflowers!

July 7th, 2010 5 Comments

Hampton Court Palace Flower Show is a huge event but one area particularly caught my eye! …allow me to introduce the Sunflowers…

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Gardening | Gardens | Tulips at Hidcote Manor with Head Gardener Glyn Jones

May 12th, 2010 3 Comments

Every year the gardeners at Hidcote plant around 14,000 Tulips and as soon as they finish flowering they dig them all (well nearly all) of them out to make way for the summer planting. Why do they dig them out?

Everywhere you turn you can see how this Arts and Crafts garden of ‘rooms’ has been influencing gardens and garden designers ever since.

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Gardening | Garden design | Ramblings from the Malvern Spring Show 2010

May 11th, 2010 No Comments

One of my main reasons for visiting as a Garden Designer is to look at the Show Gardens. Malvern isn’t known as a hotbed for innovation particularly but it can provide some neat glimpses at how other designers approach a garden or planting and I particularly enjoyed chatting with Deb Bird about her garden The Nature of Nurture which particularly struck a chord as I learned much of my gardening from my parents and grandparents. Perhaps one of the most interesting ideas though came in the Schools Section, where two gardens featured greenhouses made from recycled plastic bottles.

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