Blog Posts
Decking
4th Oct:
Decking and what are your options.
There are three main types of decking one can have in your garden. We frequently get asked which is the best choice to go for and especially which one requires the least maintenance.
Below are some brief explanations for each of the three main types of decking and hopefully if you are thinking of getting some decking done in the near future this will help with your decision.
Firstly you have softwood and hardwood decking. Basically softwood comes from faster growing trees and is therefore easier to farm, whereas hardwood comes from slower growing trees which are common in rainforests. These are also now ‘farmed’, which means that when a tree is cut down they are replaced by a newly planted one. The terms hard and soft have nothing to do with physical hardness of the wood, but hardwood does include some natural properties that softwood doesn’t have such as high fire rating, natural oils, and a natural resistance to insects, fungus, acids and alkalis, which ultimately will mean less maintenance needed for a hardwood deck. In theory both softwood and hardwood decking should be cleaned and oiled once a year.
The other option is composite decking. This is a relatively new product and is a combination of wood, plastic and PVC. It is good for anyone looking for a very low maintenance deck but will not look as good as the real thing. Also it has a longer guarantee and can last for up to 25 years.
Then there are the different widths of the boards (approx 4 inch or 6 inch) and the option of having smooth boards, small grooves and large grooves.
If anyone would like to know more about the options available and approximate costings of the three different types available please don’t hesitate to contact us here at Harrington Porter. Also have a look on our website as we have recently added some photos of some gardens we have recently done and some of them include decking.
Garden furniture sale
27th Sep:
All our garden furniture is currently on sale and must go as we are waiting for our new seasons stock to arrive.
If you have always wanted garden furniture now is the time to get it. Please call us or come into the showroom for more information.
Bulb List- Autumn 2011
26th Sep:
At Harrington Porter we stock a fantastic range of bulbs, and now is the time to get busy. Cheap, plentiful and rewarding…
Planting now for 2012
23rd Sep:
It’s official. It’s true. Despite the occasional sunny and warm day that teases with the promise of a forlorn, late Summer: Autumn is here. But that’s great news! Autumn is, with the exception of Spring, my favourite time of year. And, as a gardener, it is one of the most exciting and promising times of year.
Despite the fact that the leaves are beginning to turn, and will soon shed their canopies’ load in myriad hues of colour, there is promise and hope in the air… For Autumn is the time when nurseries take a full re-stock of all their plants, and when some of the most fundamental plants and forms are available.
Most plants are bought in containers. They stay in these containers for a few months, or many years, depending on the type of plant, and its eventual use. Containers – or pots – are great, and thoroughly useful. But, better yet – better by far – is a bare-rooted plant, field-grown. This means that it has been gown in the soil, in the ground. It is lifted in early Autumn, which basically involves it being dug up, and shoved rather unceremoniously into some kind of cloth-wrap, into which it is quickly knotted in unfussy fashion, and then it is all set to go and get planted. These plants are fresh, healthy, vigorous and strong.
Bare-rooted stock includes hedging material, specimen plants – mainly trees – and Roses. Most other plants are also available as bare-rooted, such as popular shrubs. But the main staple basics are Roses, hedges, and trees.
The main advantage of buying any of these plants right now is, basically – they’re cheap. Super cheap. Hedging material can be bought at half the price, Roses at a third of the price, and trees about 20% cheaper. Price is not the only consideration – far from it. The most important factor to consider is timing. These plants are at their peak, and will have been grown in open ground for long enough to ensure vigour and reliability, and when planted at this favourable time of year – they are almost 100% guaranteed to ‘take’ readily and happily.
This is most important with specimen stock. Big, mature plants that are expensive and important – ‘feature plants’, if you will. Planting them now will give them the very best chances of taking, and then thriving. They have a month or two to put out fresh roots while the weather is still mild. Then they have a few months to chill out and go ‘dormant’. And then, when the best part of the year has arrived with Spring, they can burst into life, and awaken in their new environments.
Watering is a huge factor with newly-planted hedges and trees, as well as all other types of plants. Planting right now requires an initial soaking, and a few follow-up waterings over the next couple of months if we are blessed with warm and dry, sunny conditions. Other than that, they are totally undemanding.
Also, bulbs are readily available in abundance. Now is the time to get busy! So cheap, so plentiful, and so rewarding. Invest heavily, and be carefree – 20 of this, and 40 of that is for shrubs and herbaceous… with bulbs – think 100s… seriously. 100 Allium ‘purple Sensation will set you back about £75.00…. that’s less that £1.00 per plant… when a small Lavender bush will cost about £6.00…. and don’t even get me started on Daffodils, Snowdrops and the like… Spend £200.00, and you will have a boisterous display of such spectacular glory and proportions that you will want to go bulb-crazy the following year! If you would like to order any bulbs or are interested in any alternative bulbs give us a call.
So, Roses are fresh, trees and ‘big things’ can be planted without worry, hedges are fresh and strong and cheap, bulbs are plentiful and there-to-be-feasted-on, and lawns are ready for the re-laying.
Get busy. For now is the time to be bold and daring… fill your garden with bulbs, refresh those tired, old Roses, plant up that hedge, get that specimen tree into the ground that you have always wanted, or lay the perfect lawn, and then – sit back, and wait for the ensuing pleasure and reward.
Or – better yet – let us get busy, and get your garden ready for next year’s glory and enjoyment!
Autumn maintenance
23rd Sep:
Now is a very important time in the garden, a small amount of hard work now can really make all the difference to your garden next spring/summer. Here at Harrington Porter we are now starting to get the gardens ready for the winter months which will soon be upon us. Below are a few helpful tips for what to do in the garden over the next few months, in order to get everything ready.
- Tidy up your garden. Especially after our fairly wet summer, it is very important to make sure that garden hygiene is top of your list.
- At some time in October if you have an irrigation system, it will be time to take in your timer and put it away for the winter.
- Remove any plant debris and diseased leaves form flower beds. Dig up any annuals, cut back any perennials and give the whole garden a really good weed.
- Lawn care. If you want a great lawn next spring, then over the next couple of months is when you will need to put in the preparation. Start to cut the grass less and don’t cut it as low as you do in the summer. Scarify your lawn, which means raking out the dead grass and moss that has built up over the summer. This will mean that your lawn will not look its best for a while, but trust us it will look a lot better next year. Also give your lawn a good feed with a potassium rich autumn feed.
- Now there is no longer a need for the outdoor furniture, start to think about storing it away for the winter. If you don’t have a shed to store it in, it is a good idea to cover it with a waterproof sheet. Always allow air to circulate around the furniture otherwise it will become damp and then stay damp for the whole winter, which won’t be good when you uncover it in spring!
- If you have a compost heap turn it before winter, so it has time to break down and rot before next spring.
- Now is a good time of year to plant spring bulbs and any new perennials for next year. There is still time for new plants to establish themselves and late autumn / winter is a good time of year to move any shrubs or small trees.
- If you have a pond or water feature, cover with a net to stop debris / leaves falling into the water.
Spring/Summer summary
23rd Sep:
We built several of our now speciality outdoor rooms as well as a couple of larger family gardens in Clapham and Balham. We have several interesting gardens at the design stage process and so far it looks good for Autumn what this space. Please see below three gardens recently completed with fire pits, built in seating and contemporary trellis which is high on our clients wish list. See our new case study section on our website to find out more details about these three properties.
Project 1: Before 
Design
After A
Project 2: You may remember us showing you the design for this project in an earlier news letter.
Before
Design
After
Project 3: Before
Design
After
Post holiday blues
23rd Aug:
Post holiday blues.
We are now at that time of year when most of us have returned from our long awaited summer holidays, the weather is awful (its’ raining as I write) and not only does it not feel like we have been on holiday, but sometimes it feels like we need another one.
The garden is probably overgrown and if the irrigation system has been working as it should, it is all looking very lush and the grass is about six inches long. I know you are all desperate to get out there and sort it all out but below are a couple of hints for you.
1. Even if the grass is very long don’t put your mower on a low setting and cut it right back. For the first cut having returned from holiday give the grass a small trim first and then a couple of days later reduce the height a bit more and cut again. This will stop the grass from going into shock and allowing weeds to get established.
2. After a long hot summer (we wish!) The ground will be quite hard and now would be a good idea to spike the ground (aerate) to allow water to penetrate further down to the deeper roots. Also give the grass a feed.
3. The latter part of the summer is also the best time to prune many midsummer-flowering shrubs to keep them vigorous and flowering well.
A lot of you may have been having problems with your Busy Lizzies (Impatiens) this year and are finding them either dying or struggling to survive. This is due to a disfiguring disease that has hit the whole of the UK. The disease is called Impatiens downy mildew and they reckon has been encouraged by our damp cool summer. At the moment there is not a lot we can do as the usual fungicides aren’t working.
On a more cheerful note, I hope you all have had a good summer and if there is anything we can help with, even if it is just some advice please feel free to give us a call.
A Working-day in the Life of an HP Landscaper.
4th Aug:
Summer time sees our landscaping teams working to capacity across gardens in our area of London. The last couple of days have been typical of this time of year, seeing the appearance of both the Factor 20 and the company issue water-proofs. Our Great British Summer. The job ahead in this particular two days is to be mainly heavy ground working with a little skilled and precise installation work. A prior ground or soil survey has revealed the presence of clay. A lot of clay.
As part of a five-strong team I arrive on site before 8 am where the client offers us the great British motivator, a round of teas, relieved to find out they are all white-with-ones.
We glove up and set out the days tools, dust sheets, barrows and boards. Already hot, sleeves are rolled up, sun cream slapped on faces and deep breaths taken as today’s task is the excavation of a metre deep hole and the erection of 12 posts within to install a fabulous trampoline as part of a children’s play area. Did I mention that the hole is to be made through clay? Luckily we are able to call on two extra members of our team to come and do some leg work lugging hundreds of bags of clay and rubble out the front to the skip, returning to the garden with over 300 20kg bags of sand from the five ton drop made that morning. That’s when the teas really come into their own. Some of the boys progress to white-with-twos.
10 am arrives fast, and the 15 minute break results in a rapid stiffening of muscles so it’s back to the digging and the carrying. This makes room for the first of the 12 posts on which the trampoline will be set. It feels good to see the idea coming to life, for both us and the client whose delightful children are taking full advantage of the weather and the holiday to splash about excitedly in the paddling pool and offer us bites of their half eaten dripping lollies, one dressed as a mermaid and the other as a cowboy.
By the end of the day, the sand is shifted and levelled in the play area, the hole is completed and eight posts are erected.
The next day arrives and the British summer gifts us another warm day; with a side of heavy and constant rain. You’ll see from the pictures that the hole is doing it’s job of draining away rainwater – just wish the raincoats were doing as good a job – and the lads remain committed to meeting the deadline.
As soon as the shed is erected we have somewhere to huddle together and eat our soggie sarnies, sup our restorative brews and discuss the best way to lay the artificial turf on a bed of layered safety-foam which we are using to cover the entire children’s play area. I’ve never seen a shed go up in such record time! It turns out that the conditions do not lend themselves to laying the grass and foam as it doesn’t give the product (nomow artificial turf) the best chance of a long and maintenance free life.
That being said, I’d have loved to show you pictures of the completed job, but this being Our Great British Summer, sometimes we just have to do the very best that mother nature allows us to.
Gardens to visit in London
21st Jul:
When you think of going to visit a garden you probably imagine driving out of London to some stately home with its huge grounds and it being a ‘day trip’, this need not be the case.
There are many gardens to see in London and here are a few that we think are worth a visit:
One that has caught my eye is the Roof Top garden at Queen Elizabeth Hall on the Southbank, this has been done in partnership with the Eden Project from Cornwall and is being grown and maintained by the Grounded Ecotherapy group at the housing charity Providence Row together with other community groups. It opened in April and will be there for visits until the 4th September. You can visit it between 10am and 11pm so it could be the perfect place to go after work to wind down.
This garden has stunning views over the river and is the perfect place to escape to during the summer. The Roof Garden has lush lawns, fruit trees, a wild flower area (to attract insects and provide nectar for the bee hives on the Royal Festival Halls roof), patchwork of vegetable plots, pergolas, sweet scented climbers to list a few aspects of it.
This summer there is so much going on at the Southbank, beaches, food festivals, huts and so much more, it’s well worth a visit.
Some smaller gardens to visit in London are:
Chelsea Physic Garden
The Kyoto Japanese garden in Holland Park
Charlton House Peace Garden
Fulham Palace
Chiswick House Gardens
Some bigger and possibly more well known gardens to visit are:
Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew
Kensington Palace Gardens
Hampton Court Palace
Eltham Palace
Syon House and Gardens
The Urban Fox
7th Jul:
A few people have recently been asking us about Foxes and what can be done about stopping them coming into your gardens. The link below is to a useful website that offers advice and tips. Each council has slightly different policies when it comes to Foxes so have a look at the link first.
