Gardening can be considered both an art and a science, arranging plants in their surroundings for the best impact or harmony and cultivating and ongoing care to ensure the best bloom or growth. Gardens have been created through vigorous control including weeding, pest control, as well as feeding, watering, pruning; and conditioning the soil keeping in mind the unique climate, temperature, wind, rainfall, sunlight, and shade found within the garden to ensure maximum success.
A garden is a living thing, abundant with flora trying to outdo its neighbours for sunlight and water; growing, flourishing, flowering with each season bringing its own challenges and opportunity to plants as well as the gardener. Without regular maintenance and care a garden can soon turn into an uncontrollable jungle.
Gardens are not made by singing ‘Oh, how beautiful,’ and sitting in the shade.
Rudyard Kipling
New and Historic Garden Maintenance
The UK and in particular the southern counties of Hampshire, Sussex, Wiltshire, Dorset and Surrey have a rich heritage of private, public gardens and stately homes and designed landscapes from the flourishing garden design of the 18th and 19th centuries. These designs and layouts reflected the aesthetic, cultural and social aspirations of their owners and users at the time.
A.S. Gardens are specialists in the field of garden maintenance of magnificent gardens, including private grounds, country estates, cottage gardens, woodland and meadow gardens to name just a few.
We are sympathetic and understanding about the history and motivation of these established as well as new creations and through our skilled and highly experienced staff are dedicated to the maintenance of these stunning gardens throughout each season of the year.
Our teams have maintained Walled Gardens, Courtyard Gardens, Parklands, Demesnes, Wildflower Meadows to entire stately gardens for many years.
Topiary and Living Sculpture
Topiary has been used historically in many different european gardening styles, from early Roman gardens through to modern day. Many large and substantial gardens at stately homes and country retreats over the years have a legacy of topiary designs including
Parterres, inspired by Italian renaissance style gardens with beautifully ornate, clipped box hedges swirling around them in mirrored patterns or geometric designs with statues or even a water feature.
Knot gardens became very popular in UK during the reign of the Tudors and Stuarts. During this period knot gardens and clipped ornate shapes were introduced to gardens up and down the country. Today we see knot gardens in stately homes, country houses, farmhouse gardens and public parks.
Cutting topiary and hedging can commence when all danger of frost has receded avoiding strong sunlight, as this will scorch the edge of the leaves. It is best to cut your topiary on a dull or wet day which in the UK we have plenty.
Herbaceous Borders
Hybridization and new imported plant species revolutionized the form of British gardens in the 18th and 19th centuries. Herbaceous borders were first popularly used in gardens in the Victorian era. Gertrude Jekyll, a British 20th-century garden designer popularized the use of the herbaceous border through a revival of the British cottage garden.
A herbaceous border is a collection of perennial herbaceous plants arranged closely together, usually to create a dramatic effect through colour, shape or large scale.
Herbaceous plants are full of colour and style by mixing and matching with shrubs and climbers, they create the perfect border with colour and structure.
Maintaining the herbaceous border is work-intensive, as the perennials have to be dug up every 3–4 years and divided to prevent overgrowth of the plants.
Wildflower Meadows
Meadows have been a feature of the English landscape for centuries and hugely important part of Britain's ecosystem. These diverse wildflower meadows can contain upto 40 species in one square metre, including: bees and beetles, butterflies and moths, spiders, reptiles, amphibians, bats and birds.
Since the 1930s, over 97 per cent of our wildflower meadows have been lost. The habitat now makes up just 1 per cent of the UK with larger garden owners now looking to introduce wild flower meadows once again.
Wildflower meadows require an annual maintenance programme to allow the more desirable species to flourish and to reduce the vigour of the more rampant species. Meadow management requires skill and experience, to ensure the best time for hay to be cut so as to ensure that the majority of wildflower seeds have ripened and will be left in the meadow.
Rose Gardens
Roses are evocative of a British summer and it is easy to see why they remain the nation’s favourite flower with beauty and a gorgeous scent, and every year returning to make a spectacular display. The pleasure of smelling the sweet fragrance and absorbing the pastel colours rose gardens produce each summer.
Today, there are well over 30,000 varieties of roses. They have been used in medicines, as an ingredient in food, a source of perfume, and just purely for decoration. They’ve even become one of the greatest symbols of romance, referenced countless times by poets and writers
A rose garden is used to present and grow various types of garden roses, and sometimes rose species. Most often it is a section of a larger garden an area to sit, relax and enjoy the colours and aromas..
To maintain healthy roses requires a program of maintenance including pruning, feeding, mulching, and watering to ensure that the rose garden returns to its full glory each year.