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Sometimes Gardening

21 articles · inspiration / planning

Gardening Ideas

Ideas are only useful if they survive contact with your actual garden, its light, its size, its soil and the amount of time you genuinely have. So these are ideas with constraints attached: how much sun it needs, how much space it eats, how much upkeep it costs you in July.

Start with the space you have rather than the garden you saw online. A four-foot balcony done well beats an acre done half-heartedly, and it is a lot more fun to look after.

Articles in Gardening Ideas

Large drifts of native grasses and perennials with a crisply mown strip along the front edge
Step-by-step guide5 min read

Native Plant Garden

A native plant garden without the purism. Why native means local rather than national, how to find your own list, and where non-natives still earn a place.

Updated

Garden with herbs at the door, mulched beds beyond, a fruit tree with underplanting and a water butt
Step-by-step guide6 min read

Permaculture Garden

A permaculture garden without the ideology. Zones, stacking and catching water are genuinely useful; some of the rest is untested. What to take and what to leave.

Updated

Waist height raised bed, wide level paving, a bench among lavender and tools on a rail
Explainer5 min read

Gardening for Wellbeing

Horticultural therapy explained: what it is, what the evidence supports, and how to set up a garden that helps rather than becomes another thing you owe.

Updated

Divided herb bed of silver mugwort, wormwood, sage, lavender and thyme with gravel paths
Step-by-step guide5 min read

Witches Garden

A witches garden is a historical herb garden. What was actually grown and why, which plants are genuinely dangerous, and a safe planting plan that still looks the part.

Updated

Small still pond with waterlily cover, marginal planting and a sloping pebble beach edge
Step-by-step guide5 min read

Water Garden Ideas

Water garden ideas from a washing up bowl upwards. What size actually works, why most small ponds go green, and the one feature that matters most for wildlife.

Updated

Seating area made private by a single slatted screen inside the boundary with a tree overhead
Step-by-step guide5 min read

Garden Privacy Screens

Garden privacy screens that work: why raising the whole boundary is the wrong move, how to block one sightline cheaply, and what to plant for fast cover.

Updated

Timber bench set into dense lavender and grasses with a small tree behind and a flat stone
Step-by-step guide5 min read

Memorial Garden Ideas

Memorial garden ideas that hold up over decades: choosing a spot, planting with meaning and low upkeep, and what to know before scattering ashes.

Updated

White cosmos and nicotiana glowing against silver foliage in low blue light after sunset
Step-by-step guide5 min read

Moon Garden

A moon garden is planted in white and silver for dusk, when most people are actually in the garden. What to plant, what smells at night, and where to put it.

Updated

Grouped large containers on a patio with a staked tomato, courgette, herbs and strawberries
Step-by-step guide6 min read

Container Gardening

Container gardening done properly. Why pot volume matters more than compost or feed, what to plant in what size, and how to water so nothing stalls in July.

Updated

Close spaced rows of potatoes, onions, cabbage and kale with narrow trodden earth paths
Step-by-step guide5 min read

Victory Garden Ideas

A victory garden was a wartime plan to feed a household from a small plot. What they grew, what actually worked, and how the same approach holds up now.

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Mixed border of ruby chard, kale and artichoke among geraniums with beans on an obelisk
Step-by-step guide5 min read

Food Garden Ideas

Food garden ideas for people who want a garden, not an allotment. Edible plants that hold their own in a border, and where to put them so they get used.

Updated

Two low timber beds of salad, chard and climbing beans beside a kitchen door
Step-by-step guide6 min read

Kitchen & Productive Gardens

Kitchen gardening works when you plant what you cook with and put it near the door. Here is how I lay one out, and how to avoid the August glut.

Updated

Miniature garden in a shallow pan with thyme, a pebble path, a twig fence and a bark door
Step-by-step guide5 min read

Fairy Garden Ideas

Fairy garden ideas built on real plants rather than plastic: what to plant at that scale, which container to use, and how to make one with a child in an hour.

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Small front garden with one wide stone path, deep beds of clipped evergreens, lavender and grasses
Step-by-step guide5 min read

Front Yard Garden Ideas

Front yard garden ideas for a space you barely visit: planting that looks intentional all year, keeps the bins out of sight and does not need watering.

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Small back garden with a deliberate rectangle of lawn, deep borders both sides and a bench
Step-by-step guide6 min read

Garden Design Basics

Garden design without a designer: work out how you will use the space, get the proportions right, then plant. The order matters more than the plant list.

Updated

Paved courtyard with containers of tomatoes, chard and wall-mounted salad troughs
Step-by-step guide9 min read

Small Space & Urban Gardening

Urban gardening comes down to light, pot size and wind. Get those three right and a courtyard or balcony feeds you. Here is how I work out what will grow.

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Pale angular grit raked in straight lines with rings circling three set rocks by a plain wall
Step-by-step guide6 min read

Zen Garden

A zen garden is karesansui: gravel, rock and almost nothing else. What depth of gravel to use, how to set the stones, how to rake it, and what it costs.

Updated

Raked gravel, three set rocks, clipped azalea mounds and one maple behind a slatted screen
Step-by-step guide5 min read

Japanese Garden Ideas

Japanese garden ideas built on the actual principles: asymmetry, borrowed scenery and restraint. What to plant, what to leave out, and a plan for a small corner.

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Deep border of hardy geranium, grasses, sedum and lavender with no bare soil showing
Ideas6 min read

Low-Maintenance Garden Ideas

How to cut garden work by two-thirds without paving it over, the design decisions, planting choices and three jobs that actually save you time.

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Four timber raised beds in two rows with grass paths and a wheelbarrow on the central path
Ideas6 min read

Raised Bed Layout Ideas

Raised bed layouts with real dimensions, bed widths, path widths, depths and orientation, plus five planting plans for beds of different sizes.

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Narrow balcony with railing troughs, pots of tomato and chard and a plant stand
Ideas7 min read

Small Balcony Garden Ideas

Balcony garden ideas built around the three things that actually limit you, light, wind and weight, with pot sizes, planting plans and what to grow where.

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