Garden Care and Maintenance

Home Grown Gardeners like gardens! Sweeping up leaves, weeding, pruning, mowing, planting are all jobs we love, but which you may not. We bring our own equipment and use no chemicals. We offer a Planting Plan service through to complete Garden Design, using trusted and reputable local contractors.

Contact us by email using info@ then HomeGrownGardens.co.uk

Or text 07900 567 904 to arrange a site visit, but only within the Harrogate area at the moment.

• Previous and current projects (gardens are never finished!):

• Our front garden has a huge Sycamore tree, under which nothing much has grown. The ground has been cleared, so could you plant it up to look beautiful, as we drive past it everyday and look out onto it from the house.

• Our new cottage has a small bed outside the front door on to the pavement. Could you make it look fantastic so that everyone admires it?

• There are nine planters outside the church which are not attractive. Can we have some colour all year round?

• The house has recently been bought after having been let for many years. There are no flowers in the garden, just lawn and big shrubs. Where do we start?

• A modern renovated house has some tired shrubs in planters, and tired lawns that do not make for a nice welcome as you drive in. Let's start to make the entrance look lovely and welcoming.

• The courtyard is looked out onto by many people at the hospital, but the old tiles are ugly and slipery. It's hot and windy so any plants seem to die. How can the space be made better for patients, visitors and staff to enjoy?

• My front garden is a bit of a mess. I'd like to keep the family heirloom of a variegated holly, and a beautiful Hydrnagea, but otherwise, it needs a revamp.

• We've had a lot of hard landscaping done in the garden over the winter, and an artificial lawn put down. Can you help with some planting ideas for this sunny child friendly garden?

• Our front garden is very sunny and we've always put out lots of summer bedding, but now we'd like some more permanent planting that is easy to maintain.

• I like to sit in our front garden, as it's sunny and has a nice patio. But the shrubs have died, and next door is about to have some building work done, so I'd like some privacy and some pretty please!

• We've finished the extension to our house, but now the garden looks tired and shabby, and no fun for us or own two sons to enjoy. Can you suggest some lanscaping and planting ideas?

• My cottage in a small village has been totally refurbished over the last year. But the large garden is in a sorry state. Can you let me know how to make it easy to look after and nice to be in?

• We hope to move in to our newly refurbished basement flat soon. There is an outside patio area front and back so we'd like some help with pots, plants and seating.

• Our house is on the market but after the wet winter the garden looks such a mess. Can you tidy it up and make it look welcoming?

• We live in a bungalow on a farm, and would like to make the country garden child, teenager, grandparent, dog and parent friendly! It’s a sunny spot with wide ranging views, but the wind whips across the garden making sitting out very bracing. I’d also like some colour in my garden.

• I’ve done lots of work on the Interior of my house, which is now bright and modern, but the front entrance looks dark and depressing. Can we modernise it to match the interior?
• Our garden seems a bit tired and overgrown and not very colourful. Can you suggest what we can do to make it bright and beautiful once again?
• Support and advice for a local garden that is maintained but needs some re-planting so it's not so 'green' in colour
• The gardeners I have had for the past year have cleared my borders but left stumps and bare soil. Please can you make them beautiful?
• Hospital Courtyards are a place for staff, patients and visitors to get outside, and recharge. Some flowers cheer everyone up, and with over 7 courtyards there is always something that needs tending.
• A local secondary school now has a wildlife friendly garden outside the Sixth Form entrance. The new plants have had a hard time with wind, frost, sun, drought and deluge. Donated plants are added to the garden which has been 'free' to create, and the students and staff can walk through it.
• The school's allotment club runs on a Friday lunchtime and needs help!
• Maintenance of a small town centre property's garden
• Maintenance of a steep garden that is let to tenants
• Patio planting ideas, and garden planting schemes
• General maintenance of a well established large town-outskirts garden
• Maintenance of an established town centre garden

• Our new office building has a patch of weeds outside. Could you lay a lawn, or something to make it look better?
• Our back garden needs a new look, and we are starting with removal of the rotten Wendy house. But the fences are broken, the patio dated so we’d like to completely redesign it. It’s a nearly blank canvas for your ideas!
• We are going away for a year, and wondered if you could care for our garden whislt we are away, so we don't return to scenes of devastation!
• We moved in to our new house a year ago, and now we'd like to change the garden. Can we have a greenhouse, veg beds and a nice seating area please. We like our lawn!
• We've just moved into our new home, and the outside area is all paved. Please can you help us with some pots and plants in them that look pretty and only need the occasional watering?
• Maintainance of a communal garden
• Over the last 8 years we have spent a lot of time and money and effort on the interior of our house, and now have a modern design. But now we'd like to improve the garden. There are a lot of herbaceous plants that we'd prefer to remove and have simple shrubs instead, so that the garden looks good, but simple all year round.
• The transformation of my 70's bungalow is complete, and it is light, airey and very modern. The garden has been landscaped (not quite finished) but I need help with maintaining it, and developing it over time.
• I’ve been given a lovely “Heavenly Scent” Magnolia as a birthday present and we would like advice and help on deciding where to plant it in our garden, so that it is happy, and so we can see it from the house. Also, please could you tidy our garden the same way you'd treat your own?
• We’ve lived here for four years, but have just bought the house and would like to transform the garden, witch is just lawn, with a view of a house at the end. Can we have trees, flowers, veg, a lawn, patio and the view changed!
• The landscapers have laid the patio and lawn, built a parking area, and left the raised beds full of soil, so now please can you plant it up to look lovely all year, with minimal maintenance?
• How big a pond can I have, and how do I go about getting it?
• The work you did in getting rid of the weeds, and ideas for making the garden more welcoming have been implemented. So now we need to actually do the planting!
• I rent out a lovely house but now a large tree has been removed at the back the garden view is horrible. Can you plant it up to be interesting and hide the 4-storey block of flats behind?
• The gardener at a property that I let is very good with the hedges and the grass, but doesn't have time to do anything else. Could you come once a month to keep the flower beds and borders looking good?

• My house has been revamped, with a lovely new kitchen/diner, and so now I would like to look out onto a nice garden at the back, and have a drive I can park two cars on, at the front. I love herbs and Mediterranean planting, and I really want all the patchy hedging to go!

• The new Artificial grass lawn is laid, but the borders around it are bare soil. What can be done to make it look attractive, whilst surviving football and other ball games?
  

• The area where we park our cars has a raised bed that is not very appealing. Could you help with planting it up so that it looks pretty when we come and go?

• The new chef at school would like lots of herbs for the kitchen. With six raised beds in a large allotment area the student gardeners hope they can oblige.
• My shady garden needs some colour as we look onto it from the kitchen, but white is my colour of choice. There is a lot of green, so what can you suggest I plant?
  
• Please come and make our patio pots pretty for winter and spring like you did last year!

• Pruning, weeding and mulching a steep Dales garden

• The gardener I used to have has retired and I need someone to cut my Mum’s grass, and help her with ideas for the garden that she loves to be out in. Trees are her passion. But my uncle’s garden needs looking after as well, now that he is in a home, and the property is up for sale.

• When we moved here there was a vine and a greenhouse, but now it's just a lawn, a concrete slab and lots of weeds. How can we make it look nice?
• A beautifully converted and extended barn in a rural village had an overgrown garden. The tree surgeon has been in and removed lots of old trees and shrubs, but now the garden needs colour and easy maintenance planting for the tenants

• Our house extension is complete, so now we have a lovely ‘Granny Flat’ for my mother-in-law, and a bike room and utility area for us. But the garden she looks out onto is more Brimham Rocks than Newby Hall, so we need some help with ideas for how to make it easier for her to enjoy and manage.
  

• I have a Coach House next to my house that I would like to rent out for Holiday Lets and Business Trip Lets. Could you come up with some ideas for separating the garden so that we can still have one for the family (and dog) to enjoy, but also an area for the Coach House that is private?

• Three large conifers have been taken down from my back garden. Now I have a lovely view of the church, but also my neighbours can see into my kitchen! I would like a vibrant and colourful border by the fence that I look out on to.

• My new house has a boring paved yard, with a fence and the Cricket Ground beyond. I look out onto it from the kitchen table, where I work from home, and from the first floor lounge. Can you make it look nicer for me?

• I have had builders in to renovate a property that I intend to rent, and they have used the garden as a building supplies store, so it ’s been totally trodden on and trashed. Can you suggest a garden scheme that complements the house and setting, but that tenants would be able to maintain?

• The Community Centre asked for planting advice for the bed under a huge Sycamore that they had trimmed. The old hedge is also now gone, but what can we plant to look nice, especially in Winter?

• A large town-outskirts garden, with beck, flower beds, and woodland is proving too much for the residents to manage on their own. Some maintenance, and ideas for planting to make full use of the site, plus help in thinning out established planting is needed.

• My front garden (and the back to be honest) is a disgrace. Please can you have a look at it and make it look wonderful with low maintenance? I love pink and white, and a cottage garden feel. I’ve looked at my neighbours’ front gardens, and they aren’t very exciting either!

• The border we planted last year lacks oomph; can you have a look at it and make some suggestions? It’s sunny, damp, and it has lots of reds, yellows and orange flowers that we like.

• The clients have moved from a well planned and stocked town centre garden to a village house with 2 acres of beautifully tended gardens. The existing planting is formal, but flowers are wanted.

• Pruning and planting advice for an established town edge garden

• The grounds of a local Health Club are mature, and very wildlife friendly. But some planting and maintenance plans are needed to spruce it up. By implementing a more wildlife friendly mowing regime there will be lots more time for weeding, and creating more pleasing planting schemes.
• A large, green, and formally laid out town edge garden is being completely replanted. To keep maintenance to a minimum, but have a perennial flowerbed, and allow its owner more time on the Golf course. The trees are in, and the perennial sun dial beds planted, but now the rabbits are eating it!
• A Woodland planting scheme is needed for a garden that's had some trees removed, and also a planting scheme is needed for the streamside that is prone to flooding

• A lovely Harrogate town house, built in early 1900 needs a revamped front garden. The privet hedge will go in time to be replaced with bright new railings. There is a smart existing curved path to the front door, shade loving plants have been moved and grouped by the hedge, and the small lawn removed. Now the perennial planting is in to start to create a colourful cottage garden, that the family with four boys can all admire.

• Creation and maintenance of a 20mx20m vegetable and fruit plot

• We rent out the flats at this property and would like the tired 'maintenance free' front garden to have a new look.

• The new garage has been built, and the fence is up, but what can we plant to soften the scheme?

• A Yorkshire Garden Designer needs a clients' pots replanting for summer. The daffodils and crocuses planted in the lawn in a wet autumn looked lovely under the tree in spring.

• A large semi-detached house had a big front garden, mainly laid to lawn, but with a shady border by the road. The owner had planted it up with shrubs, but now all the teenagers at home are driving they need more parking space. So, the lawn is gone, the gravel drive has been extended, and railway sleeper raised beds installed. It's been planted up with tolerant plants, plus a wet area flower meadow under the willow tree.
• This garden in Ripon has slowly had 20 large conifers removed, but many others remain. There is a steep bank to the house which now needs replanting as an old and beautiful Ceanothus died, as did a large Hebe. Height of planting is tricky, as the owner would like privacy and sunshine!
• The old cherry tree has gone, so now the road side bed can be planted up with flowers
• A large open garden, with lots of dogs and beautiful views needs a plan so that the rights plants are put in to give a lovely country garden, all year round
• The 20m x 7m enlcosed Home Grown Garden for a local secondary school was constructed using donated plants and an annual meadow. It looked beautiful but the space is needed for a Sixth Form Relaxation Area, so the garden is being moved to the front of the school at Easter 2012.
• Weeding, pruning, and general planting advice for a well stocked town centre garden
• Weeding, pruning and design help with a well stocked and recently replanted garden
• Weeding, pruning and tidying up a large family-friendly town-centre garden
• Mum and Dad are now sadly departed, but some help is needed to get their banked garden back to the way it was once lovingly tended
• A large sunny, windy family garden that was laid 6 years ago, just needs a bit more flower power that can be seen from the house
• A planted bed needs rejigging to repeat successes and remove failures, plus a stylish white-rendered new garage extension needs the bed next to it planting up
• What can I do about this boggy bit of the garden? Build a small pond of course, with border plants, and a beautiful water lily
• What can be done about a sad hedge that suffered when planted just before the bad winter weather?
• The tenants are moving out and would like a one-off garden tidy up to impress the landlord
• A 25m long very shady border opposite a large house with new lawn and block paving needs some colour injecting into it that won't get battered by the boys footballs. And a shady rockery needs a facelift
• School has six new 2mx2m raised beds, filled with perfect soil, but what veg and fruit shall we grow?
• Now the new patio is down a planting scheme is needed to complement it, and a front driveway bed needs a new look to impress visitors
• Sadly the person who looked after a school garden for 30 years has died, and so the school would like a small area to be planted up in his memory. Peter's garden spot is shady, but near to the workshop, so lots of scented plants are planned
• Plant up the replanting plan done for a south-west facing raised bed that had huge leylandii trees removed prior to building works starting.
• Planting, and advice for a shady 9-year old new house garden
• Veg-plot advice by email and site visits
• Garden Design for a back garden that has had a new patio, and the old garden levelled by builders; a tidy up and revamp of the front garden to match the new look now the builders have gone
• Weeding and pruning of a well designed but untended town centre garden; design to make front garden fun for young children
• Planting plan for a newly built courtyard garden, and bi-annual front garden maintenance
• The Community Centre's new railings and patio are completed, but the bare earth beds around need a planting scheme to please users of the centre
• A tree has been removed from a 20m West facing bed, backed by a 3m Beech Hedge, what shall we plant?
• Courtyard and Cloister design and implementation for the new Sixth Form building at a local school
• Planting ideas to keep neighbouring cats at bay, and replace old shrubs
• Planting ideas for a 6-year old new house garden
• Tidy up of a rambling family garden with teenagers, dog and trampoline!
• The old hedge is gone, so planting ideas to fill a 9m x 3m roadside bed
• Planting plan for a large family garden in a countryside border location
• Planting (and survival) plan for a small and sunny back garden shared with two dogs
• Plant identification, planting ideas and planting for a 50m well planned and planted garden that needs refreshing
• Garden design for established county town garden now the builders have left
• Weeding, pruning, and general planting advice for a well stocked town centre garden
• Hedge replacement advice and new tree planting ideas
• Planting plan for a town centre garden with an existing Japanese theme
• Planting plan for a small sunny border  
• Planting plan and driveway revamp advice for a town centre garden
• General maintenance of a lawn dominated garden with two ponds!
• Tidy up and weeding of a town centre garden
• Planting plan for a town centre garden with two dogs!
• Planning, weeding and trimming of a Leeds-based Osteopathy practice's garden
• Garden tidy-up of a rented property to keep the Landlord happy
• Weeding of beds and planting of a bedding scheme for a home up for sale

Forthcoming projects:

.. Your garden?

A proverb for you: Gardening is easier said than done!