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Butterflies – our secret heroes

by George Smith / on 7th March 2017 / in Blog, Gardens

Butterflies are often portrayed as the essence of nature or as representing freedom, beauty or peace. For many people, one of the first signs that spring is truly on its way is the fluttering of butterflies in the garden. Butterflies are important for so many reasons: not just aesthetically but also scientifically, for the ecosystem and for our health. We all know how important bees are to the environment but butterflies are the secret heroes, crucial in pollination and a natural form of pest control. So which species should we be looking out for?

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2017 Garden design Trends

by George Smith / on 24th February 2017 / in Blog, Tips

As we move a few steps closer to spring, our gardens start to come to life again and we start to think about spending more time in them. With this in mind, many of you may be in the planning stage of designing your garden and thinking about how to make changes and enhancements so you can enjoy it throughout the summer.

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MyGardenGym

by George Smith / on 7th February 2017 / in Blog, Gardens, Tips

We all know that with the New Year comes the inevitability of New Year’s Resolutions. Most people’s lists feature an element of improving their fitness or taking up a new sport; however juggling the demands of a busy working day and family life can often mean sacrificing keeping fit.

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Preparing your garden for spring wildlife

by George Smith / on 27th January 2017 / in Blog, Tips

Everyone wants to be able to watch the wildlife in their garden in the spring, whether it’s baby birds, hedgehogs or butterflies. However, if you want to enjoy the wildlife in the spring, it’s important to make sure that you get your garden prepared in advance over the winter.

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The makings of a great team

by Jo Smith / on 27th January 2017 / in Blog

As part of our plans to grow GreenArt and make it the best garden design and landscaping outfit in Oxfordshire, we’ve welcomed two new members to the team this month; Luke as a Trainee Landscaper and Suzy as Operations Support Administrator. We’ll let you know how they’re getting on once they’ve had a chance to settle in. In the meantime, we thought we’d introduce John who joined us last year. John shows that you don’t have to have any experience to join our team, just a positive and enthusiastic attitude, willingness to learn and work hard.

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Get ready for the Big Garden Birdwatch

by George Smith / on 24th January 2017 / in Blog, Gardens

It’s that time of year again! Get ready for 2019’s RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch from 26th-28th of January! Why not spend an hour this weekend taking part in the world’s largest wildlife survey and see what you can spot. The Big Garden Birdwatch is the world’s largest wildlife survey that helps to find out what wildlife is in trouble, and what’s thriving. As a result of counting birds in our garden for Birdwatch, since 1979 starlings have declined by 81% and song thrush numbers have declined by around 70%. It started out as just a bird survey, but since 2014 we’ve been asked to look out for other wildlife that visits our gardens. Through this we now know that only one in four of us see hedgehogs in the garden at least once a month. All this information adds up to create a detailed snapshot of how our wildlife is faring around the UK.

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Container gardening – grand designs on a small scale

by Jo Smith / on 10th December 2016 / in Blog, Gardens, Tips

I recently treated myself to a day at the Cotswold Gardening School to refresh my skills in Container Gardening and get some inspiration from Caroline Tatham, the award-winning designer and lecturer. I certainly achieved both goals with the added bonus of rekindling my love of art and the works of the Impressionist painters in particular – more of that later.

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Let’s hear it for the humble hedge

by George Smith / on 10th December 2016 / in Blog, Gardens, Tips

Hedges are the unsung heroes of the garden – a practical solution for security and privacy, a beautiful backdrop for planting and other garden features and, perhaps more importantly, a haven for wildlife. Hedges are the green walls of a garden, a natural boundary which can be used for structure around the edge and within a garden, but also as a key feature in themselves.

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The importance of garden design…

by George Smith / on 29th November 2016 / in Blog, Gardens, Tips

With any project, planning is one of the most important elements to create success and can help you save time and money. Your garden is no different. Although it can be tempting to raid the garden centre for plants that catch your eye, you may end up with too much of one thing and not enough of another. Alternatively rushing out into your garden to dig up the lawn because you fancy a water feature, could end up costing you a lot of money and result in a lack of cohesion in your garden.

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First impressions count – why we shouldn’t neglect our front gardens

by George Smith / on 4th October 2016 / in Blog, Gardens, Tips

Front gardens are an important part of life in Britain today for more reasons than you might think. Not only is your front garden the first thing that greets you and your visitors, it also has to be multifunctional. While a front garden creates the all-important first impression, setting the tone for your home and what you may find within it, it often also has to accommodate space for parking and practical access. As a result of our increasing reliance on our cars, many front gardens have been transformed over the last few decades into monochromatic hard standing areas that do little to enhance or even sustain the environment. Times are changing, however.

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