The fact that humans have such a strong desire to create gardens is illustrative of our innate connection to the natural world. As a species, humans have only lived outside of natutral environments for a fraction of their existence, so it is no surprise that we have this burning drive to be nestled in nature, and it is inevitable that the planting schemes that touch us most deeply will also be ones where wildlife is happy.

When creating a planting scheme for biodiversity, there are a number of key things to keep in mind. Firstly, ensure you have a long overall flowering period in your garden; you won’t achieve this with purely native planting, so you will need to use various non-native species to ensure flowers especially later in the year.

Biodiversity net gain (BNG) is an approach to land management and new developments that ensures the natural environment is left in a measurably better state than it was beforehand. Biodiversity refers to the variety of all wildlife - this includes the animals, insects, plants, bacteria and fungi.

Gardeners can understandably be hesitant about pruning their beloved apple trees, but carried out carefully and methodically it is a reasonably straightforward job. Here are instructions about when and how to prune an established apple tree.

Many gardeners struggle with knowing when and how to prune shrub roses. Here is a clear description of how to go about pruning shrub roses. Pruning should be carried out between the middle of February and end of March - in Scotland, we do this job in March. Garden designers, gardeners and landscape gardeners…