Designing a small garden requires just as much skill as a project that extends over several acres – and the talented team at Alaster Anderson are delighted to share our Top 10 Tips for small garden design.
Small Garden Secrets: Considerations for Urban Gardening in London
The quieter winter months are the perfect time to set us to work on designs, costing and ordering for your transformed garden. We’re experts at turning gardens into showstopping works of living art, with sculptural forms and astonishing colour palettes.
Valeria assists Joe, Head of Maintenance, to ensure our client’s gardens look beautiful year-round and are maintained to the highest of standards.
The sharp turnaround in the weather during June has seen our roses go from being slow to bloom to full-on flower, flower, flower in just a matter of days.
The first in a blog series on the re-design of my own garden , with sustainability and weather conditions key influences on my design and plant selection.
Floriferous repeat flowering roses that cope with part shade are a perfect solution for the Summer months, especially when trained in this unique way to create rose balls.
Lee assists Florent, the Operations Director, to ensure all jobs are completed on schedule and to a high standard. I'm always on site, making gardens from the ground up.
Too often overlooked, ferns can bring fantastic drama to a garden – from ferns with eye-catching wavy edges to those flushed with tones of silver and burgundy. They bring structure, grow well in areas that other plants can find challenging, and evergreen species provide interest all year round.
Growing your own flowers is hugely rewarding, helps wildlife, is more environmentally friendly, is cost effective… and allows you a justly satisfied smug smile when your friends ask who your florist is.
Nina joined Alaster Anderson full time after completing a two-year advanced technical extended diploma in horticulture at Sparsholt College – but she'd already impressed the company! She had been working with us part time during her studies.
Designing a small garden requires just as much skill as a project that extends over several acres – and the talented team at Alaster Anderson are delighted to share our Top 10 Tips for small garden design.
The quieter winter months are the perfect time to set us to work on designs, costing and ordering for your transformed garden. We’re experts at turning gardens into showstopping works of living art, with sculptural forms and astonishing colour palettes.
Adding a dash of winter dazzle to your garden will pay huge dividends when friends and neighbours marvel at the stunning colours you’ve achieved on the gloomiest of days.
We have been inspired by the astonishing selection at the gardens at the Hauser and Wirth art gallery in Somerset, created by Dutch designer Piet Oudolf.
We are long standing fans of ornamental grasses and use them in many of our designs. As architectural plants they are wonderful at creating a visual statement with many ornamental grasses bearing flowers for months
Scented flowers, purple flowers, blue flowers and particular markings on flowers – of whatever colour – all attract bees’ attention. Here are some of our favourite plants to encourage pollinators:
Creating stunning London gardens is not for the faint-hearted. There can be so many challenges that it’s essential to call in garden design and planting experts with outstanding experience of top-end projects in the capital
Artificial grass was banned at this year's Chelsea Flower Show, but as scorching temperatures parch once-beautiful lawns, is fake turf the answer?
We were pleased to be featured in Chelsea Life and corresponding publications including Mayfair, St Johns Wood and Notting Hill titles. The full article can be read in this blog.
My experience means we can create not only an exceptional garden for clients, but guide them as to how best invest their money in their space so that when we have finished they have something truly exciting.
After the long haul of winter it can be tempting to look forward to a riot of spring colour but a different approach is to opt instead for the sophistication of glorious whites, with stunning displays of flowering plants, trees and shrubs.
Bare winter gardens are crying out for the structure, colour and even scent that evergreens can provide. As well as giving your garden plenty of rich winter interest, they can also be a dramatic backdrop to summer flowers.
Whether you’re seeking some inspiration for your own garden, want to revel in glorious vistas, investigate unusual planting or see landscapes adorned with sculpture, sculpted topiary or cosmology … we’ve put together a guide to seven sensational gardens that will entertain and amuse you.
Gardens in London may often be shaded by trees and buildings, and far from being a problem, shady spots can present plenty of opportunities for imaginative planting.
Think “winter white” and your thoughts probably turn to frosty mornings, a blanket of snow and shimmering ice particles. But how about white flowers and shrubs to give your garden some show-stopping seasonal sparkle?
For those who have previously chosen bulbs from a seed catalogue or nipped along to the local garden centre to pick up some plants, It can be astonishing to discover all the time and effort that the team at Alaster Anderson put into selecting the very best specimens for our stunning gardens.
Autumn can spring a surprise in a showstopping garden if you opt for dazzling whites instead of the expected colours of ochres, oranges, golds and rusts.
Watering is always a challenge, but time-consuming summer watering can be minimised by carefully choosing plants that are drought resistant.
White gardens are a fantastic opportunity to bring elegant sophistication as well as romance to a garden project, proving that drama and interest can be created without a riot of colour.
Proper scheduling is vital when you are ordering and planting specimens. Our guide below will prevent the disappointment and wasted money that comes from failing to plan ahead.
Planning for unexpected events can make or break how successful a particular day or even a whole project is. Critical to overcoming logistical challenges is working with trusted, reputable companies who have a track record of delivering on time.
Plant Passports are a hot topic in the horticultural world - the good news is we are prepared and can continue to source the best specimens from Europe’s top nurseries.
When called in to rescue newly planted gardens blighted by plant failure and poor plant health, one culprit is surprisingly common.
The vital ingredient for a successful garden is healthy soil with natural soil organisms and good drainage. High-quality soil that includes helpful worms and no pollutants will help plants flourish and will be less at the mercy of pests and disease.
Poor drainage can be a devastating problem in London gardens, leading to compacted, airless soil that chokes plants and destroys your garden vision. Here are five common problems and more importantly solutions,
It’s a seasonal joy to go out collecting holly to decorate your home, but never chop down a whole tree. In 1861, the Duke of Argyle even diverted a road to avoid cutting down a holly tree.
In case you have ever wondered, the word yule comes from the Old Norse word jol meaning to have a good time. People have long known that the best way of getting through the dreary month December is to party, and to have a jolly time.
There is one garden tradition, however, that will be missed by many this year: bringing in the mistletoe for a Christmas kiss with friends and neighbours. Nevertheless, we can’t resist sharing the legends surrounding this sacred plant.
If they are well conceived, hedges with an expert choice of plants and with quality clipping from a skilled maintenance service, they are things of beauty. The equivalent of any garden sculpture, unique to each client and setting a home apart from other properties to the delight of friends and family.
In a London garden where space is paramount everything we use must do a precise job. Planting in a pot is a great technique for increasing height when access for a taller plant would cause problems
Selecting plants by hand means we can choose specimens with a unique form, creating a special piece that feels exclusive to the owner and their property, rather than something seen all over London. Instead of the ubiquitous clipped bay or box we love to source different plants.
Pots do not need big specimens to impress, and keeping it simple can be highly effective. Read the second in our series of blogs about planting in pots to see which specimens work particularly well.
As well as a horticulturalist, I am a passionate garden and planting designer and thoroughly enjoy working with other designers. Collaborating to develop a designer’s vision and develop high quality schemes that look great is immensely rewarding.
Prompted by a conversation with the Senior Arboricultural Officer for Westminster Council who felt too many Amelanchier lamarkii have been planted in Westminster in recent years and that they would like to see a broader range.