Blooming marvellous! Get a jolly super garden with help from Jilly Cooper and a host of the most green-fingered stars in Britain
Delphiniums or dogwood trees? Cowslips or clematis? And what to plant next to tomatoes to ward off the white fly.
We asked our favourite star gardeners to share their top tips for making your garden glow this summer.
Jodie Kidd
Model, racing driver and 2014 Celebrity MasterChef finalist Jodie, 39, lives near Petworth in West Sussex with son Indio, six.
She owns the 15th Century Half Moon pub in nearby Kirdford.
Model, racing driver and 2014 Celebrity MasterChef finalist Jodie, 39, lives near Petworth in West Sussex with son Indio, six
How I got the bug
My mum Wendy has always been a keen gardener, and when she stays with me she’s out early in the morning weeding, with the radio for company.
Get the look! Jodie's garden...
Edible viola seed and recipe pack £4.95
Jodie is a big fan of these dainty flowers.
They have a mild, sweet flavour and look beautiful scattered in salads and decorating cakes.
They’re easy to grow from seed and flower for much of the year. theedibleflowershop.co.uk
Brown treated sleepers £16 for four
To build a raised herb garden like Jodie’s, try these softwood garden sleepers (100mm x 150mm x 1.2m).
Pressure-treated to last longer and resist rot, and stained brown to blend in with the surroundings. wickes.co.uk
When I bought the pub in January 2017, it was earmarked for development, which would have been a loss for the local community.
I’ve always grown my own veg so it was perfect. The first thing I did was design the pub’s garden.
We brought in soil, laid a terrace, I created built-in raised beds, a kitchen garden and herb garden.
Mum and I planted it out in June 2017 – a month before opening. It was my baby – and still is.
I want the kitchen garden to drive the menu and support local producers. Our ethos is that everything should come from within a 25-mile radius.
My garden look is...
Colourful and, above all, edible. I’m super hands-on. Our garden is organic, sustainable, different and fun.
This is a working garden and whether it’s apples in the orchard, artichokes, baby leaf spinach, borlotti beans, runner beans or courgettes, we use them all.
I keep plastic out and I don’t grow stuff that’s more expensive to produce than in the shops, such as potatoes.
Hero plant
Edible pansies and violas – they look so pretty on the plate and add a mild sweetness.
Biggest chore
Weeding.
And getting rid of slugs.
We don’t use chemicals.
Favourite public garden
Mum and I don’t get a day off from the garden but if we do, we love to visit Newbridge Nurseries in Horsham, West Sussex.
Jilly Cooper: 'I write books among my wild borders'
Author and journalist Jilly Cooper, 81, is best known for her racy novels.
Her most recent book Mount! was published in 2016 (Bantam Press) and was another tale featuring lovable rogue Rupert Campbell-Black.
She moved to her 14th Century house in Bisley, Gloucestershire, in 1982.
Author and journalist Jilly Cooper, 81, is best known for her racy novels
How I got the bug
It was my lovely mother who took me on walks and taught me names of wildflowers.
It’s just lovely to be with your mother as she’s gardening and to sit and talk to her.
She would always bring roses in to the house and taught me to flower arrange quite early on.
When we moved here I was rather taken aback by the garden; it was pretty rough with nettles banging on every window.
We planted masses of trees including lots of white cherry trees which have firework fountains of white blossom.
Get the look... Jilly Cooper's garden
Wild flower seeds from £4.50
Achieve Jilly’s natural look with the Wild Flower Instant Sunshine Mini Meadow mix. meadowmania.co.uk
Greyhound Dogs’ Heads £49.99
Jilly pays tribute to the animals in her life with sculptures such as this pair of sandstone greyhounds.
I think of this as Rupert Campbell- Black’s garden. I love wandering around and I type outside in summer.
I also love to sit on the terrace and look at the stars.
The lawn is magnificent and great for garden parties.
We had our ruby wedding, our golden wedding and my daughter Emily’s wedding here.
My garden look is...
Wild and unmanicured. Nature has taken over with cow parsley and old man’s beard.
Most of our 14 acres is a bluebell wood, a big field and a cherry tree orchard, but we’ve got two acres of garden which is a lot to maintain.
I ought to go into a little flat but I can’t leave; I have an animal graveyard of 22 dogs, cats and a hamster.
Biggest chore
Getting the lawn OK. Squirrels and badgers dig it up.
Hero plant
I love delphiniums. Unfortunately slugs love them too!
Favourite public garden
Highgrove. The Prince of Wales is such a lovely man and the garden is genius.
That’s where I got the idea for the Love In The Mist in my garden.
When I first went it was everywhere – it’s so soft, blue and pretty.
Potty about my penthouse plot: Dame Zandra Rhodes
Fashion designer Dame Zandra Rhodes, 77, has been at the forefront of style for more than 50 years and founded The Fashion and Textile Museum in Bermondsey.
Zandra divides her time between California and the museum penthouse where she has created a roof garden.
Fashion designer Dame Zandra Rhodes, 77, has been at the forefront of style for more than 50 years and founded The Fashion and Textile Museum in Bermondsey
Get the look... Zandra's garden
Cuprinol Garden Shades, Barleywood 2.5L, £28.13
Sister brand of Dulux for outdoor paint, Cuprinol’s Garden Shades paints are suitable for wood, terracotta, brick and stone.
Barleywood is a vivid blue and Sweet Sundae a hot pink – perfect to get the Zandra Rhodes look.
Blossoming Camellia Gift, The Present Tree £59
Thrives in garden, balcony or cool conservatory.
How I got the bug
I bought a house in Notting Hill Gate in 1973 that had a real rubble garden so I spent all my time reading about plants, then started with camellias.
When I moved to this penthouse my plants had to be hoisted on to the roof.
Flying back and forth to America, while other people were reading magazines I would read an old illustrated pocket encyclopedia on plants.
I still look things up in it now.
My garden look is...
Flamboyant, big and bold, with plenty of bright pink – just like my hair.
Hero plant
I got my camellias
in 1969. They’re twice my size, they’re the best value and flower for three months of the year.
Biggest chore
I’ve got pots with white hydrangeas, dogwood trees, giant yuccas and sago palm, bay trees, roses, aloe vera, mint and rosemary and they need watering twice a day in summer with rainwater collected in our trough.
Thankfully, I’ve got students who live here with me for free in return for working on the garden one day a week.
Favourite public garden
The Isabella Plantation in Richmond Park, West London.
36 fountains, 9 pools... that's a water feature! Lord and Lady Hesltine
Michael Heseltine, 85, is a Conservative politician and founder of Haymarket publishing.
The former Deputy Prime Minister lives with wife Anne in Thenford, Northamptonshire.
They bought Thenford House in 1976 and have been restoring the gardens ever since.
The 70-acre arboretum is home to more than 3,000 species of tree and shrub.
Michael Heseltine, 85, pictured with his wife Anne, is a Conservative politician and founder of Haymarket publishing
How we got the bug
Get the look! The Heseltines' garden
Three Tier Boca Hexagon Fountain £1,399.99
This stone fountain offers the tranquillity of the Heseltines’ rill on a rather smaller scale. primrose.co.uk
White Tulip Magnolia Tree £39.99
Plant in late summer and watch it grow and bloom for years to come. ornamental-trees.co.uk
I’ve loved gardening from the earliest age. I inherited it from my parents, who were keen gardeners.
When I went away to prep school at the age of nine, the headmaster gave new boys a square yard of mud and a packet of seeds, and a month later I had a square yard of beautiful Virginia stock.
We did our current garden bit by bit and I’m most proud of the rill where we have 36 fountains and nine pools.
I don’t do much digging nowadays but the physical process of moving around the garden is good. Gardens are hugely therapeutic.
Our garden look is...
Plant it and see. Every autumn the head gardener and I go around and locate a position for what’s in the nursery – that’s how it works.
Hero plant
It changes from season to season. It starts in January, when we have a collection of more than 600 different snowdrops, then in spring the garden is full of wonderful bulbs – daffodils, scilla – and magnolia.
We have thousands of trees and shrubs, extensive herbaceous borders, an alpine trough garden, a rose garden, so it would be an invidious choice.
Biggest chore
Clearing debris. Woodland around the house had been untouched for 60 to 70 years – trees had fallen and were simply lying where they fell.
The medieval fish pond had long been silted up so had to be dredged and the water flow restored.
The two-acre lake had to be cleared of 10ft of silt.Then we found that an internal wall of the lake had collapsed, so we had to rebuild that.
Favourite public garden
Hidcote in Gloucestershire. I love its variety and pace, which changes ‘room by room’.
Five summer houses...
Summerhouses add glamour to gardens and can make them into far more ‘usable’ spaces. Here are five of the best – in very different styles.
It’s recommended summerhouses are sited on pre-laid, level, solid and dry ground, with a foundation of either a wooden shed base, concrete or paving. Self-assembly requires two people.
1. Lumley £478
Lumley £478
This one you can paint yourself – a forest-friendly timber shiplap cladding classic summerhouse which comes with base included.
diy.com
2. Beach Hut Summerhouse £969.99
Beach Hut Summerhouse £969.99
Funky alternative to traditional summerhouse – this looks like a beach hut on stilts with a large veranda. Made in the UK from shiplap cladding.
wayfair.co.uk
3. Chatsworth Summerhouse £1,140
Chatsworth Summerhouse £1,140
With bi-fold lockable double doors, there’s enough room for a sofa and table in this traditional pavilion-style summer house.
homebase.co.uk
4. Adley Chelsea Corner Summerhouse, £779
Adley Chelsea Corner Summerhouse, £779
Perfect for those gardens that have plain or awkward corners, this has large windows and doors allowing you to enjoy the garden view. sheds.co.uk
5. Rowlinson Carmen Pavilion, £1,199.99
Rowlinson Carmen Pavilion, £1,199.99
An airy entertaining space with heavy-duty framing, slatted panels on all sides, tongue-and-groove floor and felt roof. Untreated natural finish. robertdyas.co.uk
I love my country garden in the city: Emilia Fox
Emilia Fox's mother is actress Joanna David and her father actor Edward Fox. Emilia lives with her seven-year-old daughter Rose in West London
The results are so satisfying: gardening is therapeutic: because it is physical and outside it’s mentally calming
The 43-year-old actress is best known for her role as Dr Nikki Alexander in BBC’s Silent Witness.
Her mother is actress Joanna David and her father actor Edward Fox. Emilia lives with her seven-year-old daughter Rose in West London.
She is the face of AXA PPP healthcare’s Own Your Fears campaign.
How I got the bug
Get the look! Emilia Fox's garden
Natasha Richardson Rose £14.45 Emilia has a passion for roses – and this is her favourite. roses.co.uk
Cotton gingham bunting £14.99 Nothing says English country garden like a string of bunting.
Give your garden a party feel like Emilia’s. littlecherry.co.uk
My parents are great sources of inspiration. My mum is incredibly green-fingered.
In the family house in London they had no outside space but she made a garden out of pot plants on the roof, the little balcony and window sills at the front.
So even though I grew up in London I had a love of gardening from an early age.
Their Dorset garden is full of primroses and cowslips in spring and in summer it’s like walking into a painting of wild flowers.
When my little girl grows her own sunflowers and daisies and poppies, the joy she gets gives me a lot of joy too.
My garden look is...
An English country cottage garden in London. I’m a trial-and-error gardener but roses survive in my garden because it gets lots of sun.
The results are so satisfying: gardening is therapeutic: because it is physical and outside it’s mentally calming.
Hero plant
The Natasha Richardson rose is an old-fashioned, beautiful light pink rose and it just blooms and blooms.
Roses are my great passion. I wanted the sort of garden where you walk out and it smells delicious, whether it’s roses, lavender or herbs.
Biggest chore
Taking dandelion roots out of the grass.
Favourite public garden
Chelsea Physic Garden.
Grandad taught me the value of our gardens: Life lessons, by Alan Titchmarsh
Alan has homes in Hampshire where he lives with his wife Alison
The TV gardener and novelist, 69, has homes in Hampshire where he lives with his wife Alison.
My one unfulfilled ambition is to make people realise the true value of gardeners and gardens.
My grandfather, Herbert Hardisty, introduced me to it.
My earliest memory is of walking between the rows of sweet peas on his allotment by the River Wharfe in Ilkley.
He was a ‘ganger’ – a kind of foreman in the council highways department – and his allotment was his hobby as well as a means of growing flowers and vegetables to help with the household economy.
There is too little respect for our surroundings.
My blood boils at the sight of litter on the roadside.
As someone whose life is devoted to beautifying the landscape, it breaks my heart. I would introduce punitive fines for dropping litter.
Heroes come in all shapes and sizes.
When I was a child it was Percy Thrower – for obvious reasons. Later in life, Alan Bennett for his wit, wisdom and friendship; Jilly Cooper for her encouragement when it came to novel-writing; and the Duke of Edinburgh for daring to be himself.
Each of them, in their own way, lived up to my expectations when I met them.
We should all start work at an early age.
I got a milk round when I was 13 and then had a paper round for a couple of years – one of my shoulders is still lower than the other as a result.
Then, at 15, I became a gardener. I left school and never looked back.
I was thought of as a bit odd as a child.
I was a bit of a loner who had strange interests: gardening, classical music and old things – to call them antiques would be to exaggerate their value.
Small talk is the overture before the opera of life.
Everyone should have the skill of small talk. I have little patience with those who have no time for it – it indicates they are self-absorbed.
Create the perfect outdoor space, by Martyn Cox
In the garden
When summer arrives there’s nothing better than spending time outside. Yet not all spaces are easy on the eye or a pleasure to spend time in during the day or the evening.
The good news is there are some simple ways to turn any plot into the ultimate outdoor room.
A few quick tricks and you’ll soon have the perfect place for eating, relaxing or spending time with the family.
The good news is there are some simple ways to turn any plot into the ultimate outdoor room
Choose your style
There are no hard-and-fast rules about choosing a garden design style, simply go for something that suits your tastes and lifestyle.
A flower-filled cottage garden, urban oasis with leafy beauties or a sub-tropical style garden with an array of brightly coloured exotica are perfect for those with green fingers, but remember that maintaining so many plants leaves little time for relaxation.
If you want an attractive garden that is easier to look after, consider a minimalist chill-out zone with a few key architectural shrubs or a formal, geometric space with topiary, pleached trees and clipped hedges.
Mediterranean style gardens are vibrant paradises that come alive on sunny days thanks to an array of colourful pots, water features and drought-tolerant plants
Mediterranean style gardens are vibrant paradises that come alive on sunny days thanks to an array of colourful pots, water features and drought-tolerant plants.
Define your space
It’s a good idea to create separate areas for relaxing, dining and cooking. An easy way to define a space is to use different flooring materials to form a visual and textural division.
For example, slate paving for seating, a lawn for a play area and wooden decking for dining.
- Plants can be used to divide a space. A row of clipped topiary shapes in sleek ceramic pots would provide some classical elegance, while bamboos displayed in rectangular planters would add a modern, architectural touch. For a harmonious display, use identical plants.
- If you require a little more privacy, consider enclosing the area with trellis or contemporary slatted screens. There are many panels available, including some that can be opened and closed, like Venetian blinds. Avoid solid walls or fences as the feeling of being enclosed is claustrophobic.
Work with proportions
When designing an outdoor room, think carefully about the proportions of the different areas and how they relate to each other, ensuring there’s a sense of balance across the entire space.
- Keep the layout of small gardens as simple as possible using bold, geometric shapes instead of curves. A series of diamond shapes in a linear space is a great visual trick, helping to make the garden seem longer and wider.
- When equipping areas with furniture, make sure it’s in scale. A bistro-style set is perfect on a small patio but would be lost on a large terrace. Similarly, some rattan sofas around a coffee table are perfect on a large terrace, but would dominate when space is tight.
Lighting
There’s no need to retreat indoors once the sun goes down. You can extend the use of the garden long into the evening and enhance your space at the same time, with some carefully positioned outdoor lights.
- Low-level LEDs provide a cool, contemporary look and can be recessed into stone, timber and other surfaces, helping to define a patio, deck, terrace or other seating area. Remember that any electrical work will need to be carried out by a qualified electrician.
- Modern solar lights are extremely powerful, providing bright, long lasting light that will add a magical effect. Set spotlights to draw attention to an architectural plant or use post lights to mark the edges of a path or bed.
- Garden lighting doesn’t have to be high-tech. Simple glass or ceramic tea light holders will provide a romantic effect, setting the perfect mood for outdoor dining. Place on an outdoor dining table or attach to the branches of a tree.
Focal points
A carefully placed piece of crisp box topiary, specimen tree or architectural plant, such as palms, yuccas and bamboos, have the ability to draw you into the garden and will act as a focal point, leading the eye into the distance or to a specific point.
Focal points help to add a sense of drama, give vertical interest and can even distract attention from something unsightly.
It is best to choose plants that are in scale with your space. A large tree would take up too much valuable space in small garden, while a compact Japanese maple in a lovely container would be perfect.
Tall, narrow plants naturally make good focal points but lower- growing plants with a strong, structural shape are ideal if grown in tall, tapering containers.
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