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Tim Matcham Garden Design

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Entries Tagged as 'sustainable'

Two cakes, a biscuit and a royal garden.

September 2nd, 2010 No Comments

Twitter has a lot to answer for. How else would you get 25 people from around the country to visit a garden on a glorious sunny , early September afternoon.

Meeting before going to the garden it was clear that all was not quite as it might have been! In order that the 25 recognise each other we were invited to wear a button hole in the true spirit of a blind date. All was going swimmingly with assorted flora being sported until one of our number arrived wearing a half eaten digestive biscuit secured with a badly mis-shapen paperclip!

Perhaps I should explain that this gathering was no ordinary outing but a meeting of gardening enthusiasts of various persuasions found loitering with intent on Twitter and the garden we were to visit was Highgrove, the garden of HRH Prince Charles. The biscuit arrived courtesy of James Alexander-Sinclair which somehow saw the topic of conversation move on to cakes.

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Gardening | Sustainable food!

March 13th, 2010 No Comments

Wouldn’t it be great though if instead of having to sow fresh seeds each year you just waited for the plant to come up and produce food for you? You are probably getting interested now – particularly if you have limited space and time. You heard right plant once and crop for ever!

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Gardening | The Garden Press event 2010 – take two!

February 11th, 2010 2 Comments

Following on from my previous blog on the Garden Press event – it was good to see a number of nurseries and plant suppliers present, many of whom were showing new plants and seeds. This was great from an attendees perspective as I have come home laden with goodies to try out! Again sorry if [...]

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Gardening | Sowing Sweet Peas

February 9th, 2010 2 Comments

Sweet peas are a great addition to any garden and are very straightforward to grow – however there are a couple of tips you can follow to get better plants and a longer season of scented flowers which you can bring in to the house. The first thing I do is to soak the seeds [...]

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Gardening | The Garden Press event 2010 – first review

February 5th, 2010 1 Comment

My first visit to this event this year and was surrounded by well known journalists and media people all keen to see what was new in the world of gardening. I went with my Garden Network hat on – not really knowing what to expect! Here is my first take on the event – there [...]

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Gardening | Garden Design | great plants – Mahonia

November 10th, 2009 No Comments

Some plants get a reputation that is not fully deserved and perhaps Mahonia is one such plant. A member of the berberis family it has a number of redeeming features that make it welcome in the garden. It is of course popular in municipal planting schemes which may detract from its value a little, but lets look at why you should consider using this wonderful plant.

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Gardening | Garden Design | Improving your soil

November 1st, 2009 2 Comments

Autumn heralds a round of free harvests bought on by nature’s abundance. The colourful leaves that once adorned the trees in our garden are falling and with it creating a fabulous opportunity to create gardener’s black gold! In a sustainable woodland culture the leaves from the trees fall to the ground where they break down [...]

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Gardening | Garden Design | Plant spotlight Sorbus aucuparia

August 16th, 2009 1 Comment

Choosing trees for a small garden is quite a challenge. Most trees become far too large to even contemplate putting them in. Their season can also affect how valuable an addition it is to the garden. Space is often at a premium so you need something that will give you great value and not just [...]

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