Before any successful garden design begins, it starts with a professional garden survey. Discover what a survey involves, why it's essential, and how understanding your garden's soil, sunlight, drainage, and the way you live leads to a more beautiful, practical, and enduring garden.

Good garden lighting does something extraordinary: it gives you a completely different garden after dark. It isn’t really about fittings, it’s about how you want to experience the garden once the daylight disappears. A space that’s pleasant by day can become dramatic, atmospheric and magical at night, if the lighting is designed thoughtfully. Done badly, it looks garish, cheap and amateur. The best schemes are designed around what you don’t light as much as what you do.

Trees aren't just beautiful. They're actively cooling the air around you through a process called transpiration - and there's one for every size of garden

Most people put a patio right outside the back door, but this instinctive choice often limits light, views, and relaxation. Ian Green, garden designer, explains why smart patio placement transforms how you feel in your outdoor space, and what to consider instead.

Garden designer Ian Green explains how to choose the right plant for the right place - covering light levels, soil conditions, pH, and mature plant size. Practical advice for a garden that truly thrives.

Your garden isn’t the problem. The design is. Ian Green explains how to make it a space you’ll actually use.

"Isn't it just a garden?" You'd be surprised how often I hear this. But a garden isn't just a garden, not when it's done properly. It's the view from your kitchen window, the place you go when the house feels full. It doesn't need to be big, or grand, or complicated. But it does need thought.

You’ve got a space that doesn’t work. Or maybe it does… sort of. But not in the way you want it to. The house is finished, the builders are gone, and the outside feels like a leftover. Or you’ve just moved in, full of ideas, but unsure what’s realistic. Maybe you've had a few quotes, and none of them made much sense.

There’s something quietly magnetic about water in a garden. It doesn’t shout for attention — it simply invites you in. A ripple. A soft splash. A shimmer in the light. Whether the space is for reflection, family life, or encouraging biodiversity, water can become the calm anchor that helps everything make sense. It softens the edges. It draws people in. And often, it’s the feature that gives a garden its true feeling of life.