Julian Cassell's DIY Blog

Planting a hedge is a great way of creating a boundary, whether it be around the edge of your land, or, between you and your neighbour, or even as a decorative division between different parts of your garden. Box hedges, as shown below, are very easy to plant and maintain, and can be trimmed to stay small for a more a decorative option, or allowed to grow much higher in order to create a larger boundary feature. read more »

Planting hanging baskets does require a bit of ‘technique’ as producing a great display will not only be reliant on choosing the right plants, but also how you arrange them in the basket. Hanging baskets come in many different sizes, and even the smaller options are surprisingly heavy. Therefore, be aware that after the planting has been done, they must be hung from a very well fixed bracket. The sequence below, shows a straightforward, and very effective technique for planting hanging baskets. read more »

Raised garden beds are excellent options for creating almost instant planting areas, whilst adding further features to your garden. They can be used to grow pretty much anything in, commonly vegetables, but you really don’t need to stop there. You just need to check that you will have sufficient depth of soil for what you are intending to grow. One particular advantage is that you can be very prescriptive on the soil that goes into your beds, read more »

When planting in pots, tubs, baskets and even window boxes, be aware that in all these situations the plants will have an increased need for nutrients as they are grown very close together. Therefore, you must use a slow-release fertiliser when you plant, to feed them throughout the season and keep them healthy. The following sequence shows the key principles when planting pots with a variety of plants including small shrubs, along with the best technique for planting up pots with bulbs. read more »

How to plant plants, shrubs, or even trees is a topic which can be simplified to a basic technique that can be applied to most planting situations in your garden. Fundamentally, you follow the same procedure whether you are dealing with a small bedding plant, or a much larger tree. If you are worried about the ground conditions, don’t be, as soil doesn’t need to be incredibly rich for the majority of plants to thrive, but it does need to be well drained, contain enough organic matter to stop it from drying out, and to encourage natural organisms. Below are my main considerations when deciding how to plant up a garden. read more »