Inspiration & Tips for your Garden Design
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How to add interest to a wide border
Are you wondering how to add interest to a wide planting border? One option is to install a new pathway… Read more.
Plant Focus: Salvia ‘Royal Bumble’
Some people love bright red. But many gardeners shy away from using red flowered plants in their gardens for fear… Read more.
A day out at RHS Garden Wisley
A family visit in late December to RHS Garden Wisley provided my first glimpse of snowdrops and brightened up a… Read more.
First Glimpses of Spring
As I sit here writing my January blog, the sky outside is grey and overcast. It seemed to take forever… Read more.
Season’s Greetings from all at ALDA!
SEASON'S GREETINGS from the hard landscaping team at ALDA (& everyone else too... but sadly they didn't quite make the… Read more.
A year in the life of a new small garden
It’s amazing how quickly a new garden can bed in and come to life! One of our clients kindly sent… Read more.
A garden swing seat proves to be just the thing…
... at ALDA Landscapes' latest design project in Finchampstead. Our client had already purchased the wooden lattice swing seat online… Read more.
Plants To Lift The Winter Gloom
Is it just me, or does it seem very grey and dark all of a sudden? As I sit here… Read more.
A Stand-Out Black Indian Sandstone Paving Area Brings a Fresh New Look…
Where: Farley Hill, Reading When: October 2017 What: ALDA Landscapes installed a black tumbled Sandstone paving known as ‘Sagar’. It… Read more.
Small Garden Transformation In Lower Earley
Prospective clients often ask us if there is a minimum size of garden that we will work on. Our answer… Read more.
A new landscaping design
What a transformation and it’s all down to a new landscaping design!…. This was the case at a converted old… Read more.
ALDA Landscapes Welcomes a New Garden Designer!
We are delighted to welcome a very talented new garden designer to the ALDA team. Katie Thomas (Living Art Designs)… Read more.
Veggies For Small Gardens – A Few New Ones To Try
As our clients will know, my veggie coffins (beds) have been in use for two years now, and I have… Read more.
Converting a large driveway back to a garden
Over the last few weeks, the ALDA Landscaping team have been busy transforming a driveway in Hamstead Marshall. Fed up… Read more.
Personal Matters
A different – and somewhat more personal - blog post from me this month. Read on for news of an… Read more.
And a concrete jungle no more…
Following on from last month’s blog, things have definitely improved from those first steps of clearing our client’s garden of… Read more.
Mediterranean Planting
This is the second in a series of blogs looking at using plants for creating different effects, and considers Mediterranean… Read more.
It’s a concrete jungle out there…
... or so the ALDA team thought as we tackled the job of uplifting concrete paving and pathways during some… Read more.
Finishing Touches
When designing gardens, I always have a picture in my mind of what the final garden will look like more… Read more.
Chelsea 2017
As usual my visit to Chelsea this year didn’t disappoint – around every corner there were creative gems to inspire… Read more.
Glade Planting
For me, one of the most interesting aspects of planting design is how plants can be used to build and… Read more.
A covered storage area proves to be a good idea…
This month in a garden in Lower Earley, we built a bespoke timber storage area as part of a wider… Read more.
Time saving tips for Spring
May has to be my favourite month of the year. Everything in the countryside has that lovely lush fresh green… Read more.
Transform your garden with a new patio
It is easy to underestimate the impact a new patio can have on your garden. It can instantly update and… Read more.
Plant Focus: Photinia x fraseri ‘Red Robin’ – A Garden Designer’s View
As a garden designer, I have very mixed emotions when it comes to Photinia x fraseri ‘Red Robin’. Am I… Read more.
Bespoke garden structures in a garden with a slope
At our recent landscaping project in a garden in Caversham, the landscaping team at ALDA constructed two bespoke builds –… Read more.
Making space for all the things you want to grow
Modern new build houses seem to be allocated ever smaller gardens; we find that even large dwellings nowadays are often… Read more.
How We Source Plants
One of the joys of my work is seeing a garden being transformed – from the design, through the landscaping,… Read more.