Garden Advice from Marcus Bergin

If there's one thing I've learnt after working in Gloucestershire for many years, it's that clay soil gets an unfair reputation. Mention heavy clay and many gardeners immediately start apologising for it. They tell me nothing grows, that it becomes rock hard during summer, waterlogged through winter and impossible to dig for much of the year. I've heard people describe it as the worst possible soil to garden on. I understand why. Clay certainly has its challenges. But I've al

One of the questions I ask almost every new client is a surprisingly simple one. "How much sun does this border get?" The answer is often immediate. "It's a sunny border." Or perhaps, "It's mostly shade." The interesting thing is that, after spending a little time in the garden, those descriptions often turn out to be only partly true. Very few gardens fit neatly into the categories we tend to use. Most contain a fascinating mixture of light and shade that changes not only th

If I had to choose one piece of gardening advice that has stood the test of time, it would be this: Right plant, right place. It's a phrase that's been repeated by gardeners for generations, yet I still think it's one of the most overlooked principles in modern gardening. We live in a world where it's easy to fall in love with a photograph on a plant label or a beautiful display at the garden centre. We buy with our eyes, imagining how that plant will look in our own garden,

One of the biggest mistakes I see isn't choosing the wrong plant. It's choosing a plant before taking the time to understand the garden it's going into. It's completely understandable. Garden centres are full of beautiful plants, each one promising colourful flowers, attractive foliage or months of interest. We naturally buy what catches our eye, then look for somewhere to squeeze it in when we get home. Sometimes we're lucky and the plant settles in beautifully. Other times

We've all experienced it. You visit a garden centre, find a plant that catches your eye, take it home full of optimism, give it a good watering, perhaps even add some compost, and for a few weeks everything seems promising. Then it begins to lose its colour. The leaves start to yellow, growth slows, and before long you're wondering what you've done wrong. Most gardeners have had that experience at some point, and it's easy to assume the fault lies with us. In reality, that's

If you live in Cheltenham, Bishops Cleeve or many of the surrounding Gloucestershire villages, there's a good chance your lawn grows on clay soil. While clay has a reputation for being difficult to work with, it also has one enormous advantage. It's naturally rich in nutrients and, when managed correctly, can produce an exceptionally healthy lawn. The challenge isn't the clay itself. It's understanding how it behaves throughout the year. Clay changes dramatically with the sea