About

Do you have a middle-sized garden? Does it reflect your personal style? Is it a place where you can relax?

Or where you love to spend time with friends and family or grow your own fruit and vegetables?

Perhaps you’re looking for design inspiration or plants that won’t die on you. Maybe you’re worried about garden privacy, shady spaces or pests that munch your plants?

The Middlesized Garden blog can help you

A middle-sized garden is one that feels too big when you’re weeding it.

But it’s definitely too small when you want to add a greenhouse, shed, eating area or even just another enticing plant!

If you’ve just got your own longed-for patch of outside space, you may be wondering what to do with it. Dig it all up or carry on maintaining a garden that was created by someone else? See our guide to the basics of gardening.

But while you’re deciding, a garden grows and grows – especially the weeds.

Fifteen years ago, I moved into a walled English town garden that measures 100ftx80ft (at its widest).

I knew nothing about gardening, but I’d been a journalist all my life. And I’d written for some of the most famous newspapers and magazines in Britain – Good Housekeeping, Harpers & Queen, The Times, the Daily Telegraph and many more.

It was my job to find experts and filter information. And to extract the elements that were important to my reader. I found out what really mattered to them and delivered information which could be used easily.

So I took those skills and applied them to my middle-sized English garden. I talked to top gardeners, read the best gardening books and went on inspiring workshops.

Everything has to pass the middle-sized garden test

How easy is each gardening job to do? And how long does it take? Will it make the garden look good? Is it affordable and realistic? Can you fit this into a family garden or a busy life?

So here you can find out about brilliant easy-care plants, the best small garden trees for privacy, how to revamp your garden and inspiration on colours to paint your shed.

Plus lots more about garden tools, wildlife-friendly town gardens, mini-meadows and beautiful garden pots.

The Middlesized Garden was one of only three gardening channels featured in The Sunday Times’ Guide to Grown Up YouTube. See the Middlesized Garden on YouTube here.

Practical, simple tips from experts – not ‘gardening hacks’

If you’re searching online for information on a gardening topic, the first thing you’ll see at the top of the screen is the AI round-up.

But the trouble is – where has AI rounded up the information from? AI is a very useful tool, but it often has errors when it comes to factual information.

That’s why I talk to experts on plants, gardening and garden design. These are people whose living depends on knowing what works. They have years of hands-on experience.

And funnily enough, they’re often much more relaxed in their approach than the AI round-ups which will tell you that you ‘MUST’ do something at a particular time.

For example, this post on Growing Irises is an interview with Irises of Sissinghurst. They’ve grown irises for 25 years, picking up awards and supplying top designers as well as the RHS  Chelsea Flower Show. AI round-ups will tell you that irises can only be planted in late summer. Iris of Sissinghurst say you can plant pot-grown irises at any time but bare root irises are best planted any time between July and October.

Another example is in this post Rose Garden Ideas – How to Choose Roses for an Obelisk, Arch, Fence or Pergola. Ian Limmer, who has grown roses for Peter Beales for forty years, doesn’t recommend any magic approach for dealing with black spot on rose leaves. He says that all roses will get it, and the best way to minimise it is to make sure your roses are properly fertilised.

Gardening is often much easier than you think. Plants want to survive and thrive!

Everything in the Middlesized Garden blog is either from my own direct experience or comes from experts in different areas of gardening. Nothing beats talking to someone who does something every day for a living! They will know what works and what doesn’t. And when it’s worth making an extra effort and what you can get away with!

Shop my favourite garden tools, books and more…

While I wouldn’t call myself a wholly organic gardener, I aim to garden with nature rather than trying to control it. So I’m delighted to partner with Teespring for the Middlesized Garden t-shirts, hoodies and tote bags, made of natural materials, manufactured with renewable energy and posted in plastic-free packaging.

When I ordered my first samples of the Middlesized Garden hoodies (If at first you don’t succeed, plant, plant & plant again’ and ‘Gardeners learn by trowel and error’), I found myself reaching for them over my usual favourite jumpers. They’re so soft and cosy – really comfortable.

I’ve also pulled together lists of my favourite gardening tools, books and other products on The Middlesized Garden Amazon storefront. It’s a quick and convenient way of finding out my recommendations. I’m an Amazon affiliate, which means I may get a small fee if you buy through it. See disclosure.

The Middlesized Garden has now become a full-time job for me (and more!). It takes time to research, photograph, film and interview a new blog post and video every week. And success means it costs more to run the blog. My hosting package, for example, now has to support over half a million page views a month. So it costs much more than it did when the blog was small. And, although I started editing with free iMovie, I now need to use professional editing tools when editing film or photographs. And there’s more…scheduling tools, a phone with a really good camera and other equipment.

But it’s important to me that you can access information and inspiration without having to pay. Affiliate links, advertising and merchandise make that possible. If you like the products or want to support the blog and YouTube channel, then thank you!

Join us on the Middlesized Garden blog

The Middlesized Garden blog is where you’ll find all that useful information and inspiration.

And above all, I’ve discovered that the gardening world is a community. People share their knowledge generously and delight in discovering new things.

So please join us – whether you’re looking for easy ways of fitting gardening into your life or you want to up your gardening game and take it to the next level.

Subscribe to the Middlesized Garden to get a free weekly email once a week, with tips, ideas and inspiration for your garden.