Journal
Short, dated, and useful. This is the tips library — not a magazine.
12 October 2026
Cut the things that collapse into a wet mat: hosta, peony foliage, anything diseased. Leave the seedheads that still have architecture — fennel, allium, verbena — until they actually fall apart. Last hedge cut is a light skim, not a reshape. Box does not want a hard cut now.
Materials
Bark stays wet, hides the crown, and makes a rose look planted in a playground. A 10mm gravel in a local colour lets the base breathe, shows blackspot leaves you should pick up, and does not have to be topped up every spring. Keep it off the stem. Mulch with compost in March, then draw the gravel back.
December
Knock snow off upright yew. Check tree ties. Do not dig a sodden bed to feel useful. Order bare-root plants while nurseries still have the good ones. Walk the garden once after a gale and write down what moved. That note is the January pruning list.
Studio practice
We list the hedges, the roses, the pots, and the one job the owner cares about. Then we put those jobs on months, not on a vague “regular visits”. If a task does not fit the fee, it is named as extra — winter pruning of a big fruit tree, for example — instead of being quietly skipped.
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