Holiday Friendly Gardens?

As the peak holidaying season approaches those with high maintenance gardens will be tearing their hair out trying to come up with (cost friendly) solutions that ensure their garden’s holiday care plans don’t rival the cost of a further couple of days spent in paradise!  Perhaps now is the time to consider putting in place a few low maintenance features which will alleviate some of the stress and strain of going away …

If you are unaffected by the hose-pipe bans coming in, an automated irrigation system is a god-send during the watering season. This makes light work of the endless chore of restoring moisture to baked soil; adding mulches to plant borders will do wonders to not only help retain moisture, but will also fend off unwanted weed growth minimizing the hours spent weeding - and some mulch materials can also serve as a dramatic style feature in their own right. 

Replacing some of the grassed areas with hard landscaping (paving / decking / aggregate finishes) will naturally reduce the man hours spent mowing and if you invest in mowing strips, you can make the weekly mow-a-thon even quicker!  If you are interested in down-sizing in terms of the labour of love required to maintain your outdoor room, why not speak to one of our Garden Designers to find out more about further low maintenance measures to incorporate in your outside space ….

Merging Indoor Living with Outdoor Living

A recent article in The Independent drew attention to the number of hours we can sometimes spend choosing planting schemes and agonizing over paving materials for the garden, which is sometimes in sharp contrast to the lack of effort put into selecting the  furniture which will adorn the outdoor room. 

Given that a sizeable chunk of our well earned ‘garden’ down time is likely to entail eating, drinking or simply chilling, it seems ridiculous that  we are content to compromise on such a significant detail.  However, as the trend for outdoor living spaces continues to gather momentum, there is a growing body of designers who take pride in incorporating bespoke seating into their plans to achieve not only the delivery of a functional practical seating solution but to also provide a striking stylish focal point for the outside room. 

Choice of material, colour and the all important comfort factor are important points to consider when reviewing built in seating options and in our wonderful British climate, it is also advisable to incorporate some easy to access storage options to house any cushions during the less sunny months!  Speak to a member of our design team to find out more on this subject ….

Show Time Again for Lime Orchard!

The 18th BBC Gardener’s World Live event last month proved to be a massive success for Lime Orchard with an endless stream of visitors to our small but perfectly formed Show feature exhibit which was an awarded an RHS Commendation (the highest accolade for this class of exhibit). 


The compact but über chic space combined dramatic planting with cool sleek grey slate tiles and incorporated an innovative outdoor work space complete with a neat under storage solution.