We look forward to resuming our new year work programmes very shortly, Our office is open for enquiries 8am-4pm weekdays and we are now taking bookings for garden design and landscaping projects into the spring and summer.
For more photos, advice & stories about gardening please visit our website email timbrayfordlandscapes@gmail.com phone 07890 869918
Our office is now closed for the winter holiday and will be open again early in the New Year to accept bookings for garden design and landscaping projects into the spring and summer.
Frosty seed pods of Lunaria annua at Christmas time
For more photos, advice & stories about gardening please visit our website email timbrayfordlandscapes@gmail.com phone 07890 869918
A successful garden will contribute significantly to our well-being and quality of life. It may play host to a broad range of flora and fauna enhancing local biodiversity and collectively benefiting the wider world environment by absorbing CO2. Here are just a few examples from gardens on the Isle of Wight and elsewhere.
Dogwood leaves
A winding brick path
Wildflower Meadow
An Award Winning Garden
Tim Brayford Landscapes were established in 1980 and we are British Association of Landscape Industries National Award Winners for Garden Design & Construction. For more photos, advice & stories about gardening please visit our website email timbrayfordlandscapes@gmail.com phone 07890 869918
An Isle of Wight Wildlife Garden
Well before wildlife friendly gardens became fashionable Tim Brayford Landscapes was in the forefront of their design and installation on the Isle of Wight.
Here a grateful client recounts her experience:-
She had bought a pair of run down country cottages in a rural setting complete with badly overgrown neglected gardens.
She said that “I simply could not visualise what to do with the garden and although I am keen gardener I am not very knowledgeable” so she turned to us for help and said “Tim picks up on what I want and makes it better, we work together and he makes suggestions as to what might work”
Tim Brayford Landscapes – Wildflowers attract wildlife
The cottages are built into a slope so it was necessary to integrate level grassy areas into steeper banks, our client was concerned that her grandchildren might slide down these banks when the grass was wet. She wanted to create a natural break and barrier.
We suggested edging the area with Box hedging planting inside with ground hugging plants including Geraniums, Campanulas and Pulmonaria.
Our client was pleased that we had” translated her ideas into reality and wanted an easy care garden that also put something back to the countryside, but had to be practical regarding maintenance”
Tim Brayford Landscapes – Crab Apples
It was important to her that wildlife should be encouraged with habitat for visiting birds and butterflies. We suggested putting in a small wood as with careful management this could be established in a confined space. We planted Silver Birch, Rowan, Crab Apples, Sweet Chestnut and Hazels together with indigenous Cowslips, Bluebells and Snowdrops, whilst Common Orchids naturalised in the surrounding grass.
Tim Brayford Landscapes – Toad & Ivy
Fragrant climbing Roses and Honeysuckles attract insect life to some trelliswork and overall our client is delighted with the rich variety of wildlife visiting her garden, these include many different birds and butterflies and Dormice may even be feasting on the Hazel nuts.
She commented ” I still cannot believe I wake up in the morning and see all this. It is my idea of heaven”
A visiting partridge gives his approval
Tim Brayford Landscapes were established in 1980 and we are British Association of Landscape Industries National Award Winners for Garden Design & Construction. For more photos, advice & stories about gardening please visit our website email timbrayfordlandscapes@gmail.com phone 07890 869918
A snowy Garden
“O thou,
Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed
The winged seeds, where they lie cold and low,
Each like a corpse within its grave, until
Thine azure sister of the spring shall blow
Her clarion o’er the dreaming earth.”
– John Davies, 1570-1626, Ode to the West Wind
The garden in winter can seem to be a bit of a quiet place with not much appearing to be going on, but with a little forethought and careful planning it can become quite busy.
Winter flowering Snowdrops
Winter flowering shrubs such as Winter Jasmine and Mahonia Japonica provide seasonal blooms, Daphne mezereum Rubrum is particularly fragrant. The evergreen leaves of Viburnum Tinus and Ilex aquifolium Golden van Tol provide some structure along with the vivid orange red berries found on Pyracantha hybrida Mohave or even the bright turquoise blue berries found on Viburnum Davidii. Colourful stems may be found on Dogwoods such as Cornus Alba Sibirica Westonbirt and Willows such as Salix Alba vitellina, both of which may be cut back to create fresh shoots in the spring.
Vivid Dogwoods
Hardy Cyclamen are early bloomers and Snowdrops will soon be making their presence known. In milder areas early Daffodils such as February Gold are harbingers of the approaching spring , whilst in the herbaceous border the Christmas Rose Helleborus Niger is an early flowerer.
A good starting point is to observe your garden on a reasonably bright winter’s day, walk around it and see if the general structure or any vistas may be improved, don’t forget to take into account what may be seen from indoors as well.
Wintery weather brings wild birds like these Pheasants into the garden
Do not be afraid to replace ailing plants or those that have become too vigorous and any that have otherwise disappointed you. Look out for carelessly discarded litter and items such as garden furniture that have decayed past the point of usefulness and now just look plain ugly. It is all too easy to overlook these sort of things and spoil the appearance of an otherwise beautiful garden.
Frosty Fern
Make an action plan for what you are seeking to achieve in your garden, it can be very useful to record you observations in a notebook for future reference, especially if you intend to spread your improvements over several seasons. When this is done you will be best placed to proceed to putting your plans into action.
Tim Brayford Landscapes were established in 1980 and we are British Association of Landscape Industries National Award Winners for Garden Design & Construction. For more photos, advice & stories about gardening please visit our website email timbrayfordlandscapes@gmail.com phone 07890 869918
A successful garden will contribute significantly to our well-being and quality of life. It may play host to a broad range of flora and fauna enhancing local biodiversity and collectively benefiting the wider world environment by absorbing CO2. Here are just a few examples from gardens on the Isle of Wight and elsewhere.
Barbara Austin rose
Arum berries
Rose arch
Bird Table
Tim Brayford Landscapes were established in 1980 and we are British Association of Landscape Industries National Award Winners for Garden Design & Construction. For more photos, advice & stories about gardening please visit our website email timbrayfordlandscapes@gmail.com phone 07890 869918
A successful garden will contribute significantly to our well-being and quality of life. It may play host to a broad range of flora and fauna enhancing local biodiversity and collectively benefiting the wider world environment by absorbing CO2. Here are just a few examples from gardens on the Isle of Wight and elsewhere.
Garden Geese
Aquilegia
Bumblebees are a garden favourite
Golden Wings Shrub Rose
Tim Brayford Landscapes were established in 1980 and we are British Association of Landscape Industries National Award Winners for Garden Design & Construction. For more photos, advice & stories about gardening please visit our website email timbrayfordlandscapes@gmail.com phone 07890 869918
A successful garden will contribute significantly to our well-being and quality of life. It may play host to a broad range of flora and fauna enhancing local biodiversity and collectively benefiting the wider world environment by absorbing CO2. Here are just a few examples from gardens on the Isle of Wight and elsewhere.
Tree guards
Tree guards
The function of the tree guard is to help to protect the newly planted tree from damage by the grazing action of herbivorous animals and also by the careless use of strimmers. However after a few years when the trees have become well established these guards are superfluous and if not removed can damage the tree causing stunted growth.
This tree spiral is serving no useful purpose and should be removed
All too frequently the guards have long been forgotten about. The manufacturers may have reassured you that over time their guards will flake into small inert particles but even this can be problematic. Unfortunately these small pieces of plastic may blow around in the wind and some might land in watercourses, eventually ending up in the sea contributing to world-wide oceanic plastic pollution.
Plastic Pollution
There are alternatives to conventional plastic guards, of the more established products galvanised welded wire mesh has stood the test of time, however they are comparatively expensive and still need to be removed after the tree is established.
Amongst the latest products are those based around biodegradable natural resins and polymers, and those based on recycled paper such as the “Eco Ezee”. Until the use of these becomes more widespread it is not possible to see which of these will prove to be a better alternative to the older more conventional tree guards.
Environmentally friendly Eco Ezee Tree Guard
Tim Brayford Landscapes were established in 1980 and are British Association of Landscape Industries National Award Winners for Garden Design & Construction. For more photos, advice & stories about gardening please visit our website email timbrayfordlandscapes@gmail.com phone 07890 869918
A successful garden will contribute significantly to our well-being and quality of life. It may play host to a broad range of flora and fauna enhancing local biodiversity and collectively benefiting the wider world environment by absorbing CO2. Here are just a few examples from gardens on the Isle of Wight and elsewhere.
Autumn flowers
Native Bog Bean
Chicken & bird table
Spring bulbs
Tim Brayford Landscapes were established in 1980 and we are British Association of Landscape Industries National Award Winners for Garden Design & Construction. For more photos, advice & stories about gardening please visit our website email timbrayfordlandscapes@gmail.com phone 07890 869918
A successful garden will contribute significantly to our well-being and quality of life. It may play host to a broad range of flora and fauna enhancing local biodiversity and collectively benefiting the wider world environment by absorbing CO2. Here are just a few examples from gardens on the Isle of Wight and elsewhere.
Iris & bee
Shrub rose Bonica
Canada goose family
The Potato Plot
Tim Brayford Landscapes were established in 1980 and we are British Association of Landscape Industries National Award Winners for Garden Design & Construction. For more photos, advice & stories about gardening please visit our website email timbrayfordlandscapes@gmail.com phone 07890 869918
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