How 2025 changed our gardens – here are the best gardening tips, ideas and advice from the top experts I’ve interviewed this year. These new ways of gardening will help you garden with less water, less work and less cost – and they’re not quick ‘hacks’ or fleeting fashions – they are the changes many of us are making in our gardens forever.
00:00 How gardening has changed
00:57 Gardening with less water
01:20 Video on saving time and water with RHS expert Janet Manning: https://youtu.be/0Dt-Z0gzpQw
04:12 Drought-resilient planting in gravel, sand and rubble gardens
08:42 The Sand Garden video with Tom Brown: https://youtu.be/dBJgqdq8rDI
09:22 The xerophytic drought resilient garden with Errol Fernandes at the Horniman Museum and Gardens: https://youtu.be/6CvPuaib_XM
12:58 An easy way to mulch from ‘A Beautiful Garden Doesn’t Have to Be Hard Work’ with Anne Wareham: https://youtu.be/o0nvbeAWg44
14:17 Leave the leaves! Another easy way to mulch.
15:09 Why I Don’t Cut Back My Garden in Autumn: https://youtu.be/XXbz-f7wl-M
16:35 Self-seeders, pioneer species and wildflowers as a less work, less cost alternative to annual bedding plants
16:50 Highlights and tips from RHS Chelsea 2025: https://youtu.be/2i_BAJdVoNE
17:25 You don’t need a perfect lawn – Monty Don at RHS Chelsea 2025
18:37 The RHS State of Gardening Report: https://www.rhs.org.uk/about-us/what-we-do/rhs-state-of-gardening
19:22 Highlights from RHS Hampton Court (https://youtu.be/kEeRtiePxFM) and BBC Gardeners World Live (https://youtu.be/uRgoMnLG67g)
19:57 An artistic & wildlife-friendly way of clearing your garden from Errol Fernandes: https://youtu.be/6CvPuaib_XM
24:54 The winter garden at Kew: https://youtu.be/0OxwrKQuai0
25:23 Tony Hall of Kew Gardens’ top 10 scented plants for your garden video:https://youtu.be/aJ8bTH3YULw
25:38 Gardening With Scented Plants book by Tony Hall: https://amzn.to/3YjsuZ3 (affiliate link, see below)
27:17 Garden design details video – advice and tips from Tomoko Kawauchi and Charlotte Rowe of Charlotte Rowe Garden Design: https://youtu.be/lf_JeStOC1o
29:05 Add definition to wilder borders: What is A Blobbery video with Guy Watts of Architectural Plants: https://youtu.be/j5fHdSsMnkE
30:00 Don’t overlook the importance of garden furniture! Garden design tips video with James Alexander Sinclair and Joe Swift of the James & Joe Garden Show: https://youtu.be/f42f3GtJuos
32:45 Beth Chatto head gardener Asa Gregors-Warg on top autumn plants: https://youtu.be/fZpuuNqDxMc
33:36 Jamie Butterworth, author of What Grows Together book: https://amzn.to/4q44ftW
34:30 Putting plants together video with Jamie Butterworth: https://youtu.be/CdGgaKRz0kE
For garden ideas, gardening advice, garden design and landscaping ideas for your garden or backyard, subscribe to the Middlesized Garden YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/c/ThemiddlesizedgardenCoUk
Whether you love English garden style, cottage gardens or contemporary urban gardening, The Middlesized Garden has gardening advice and garden ideas for you.
Weekly videos cover gardening advice and garden design – from small space gardens to middle-sized garden landscaping – plus garden tours and tips for container gardening.
The Middlesized Garden practices sustainability, wildlife gardening and no till methods. If your garden backyard is smaller than an acre, join us and enjoy your garden even more!
The Middlesized Garden Complete Guide to Garden Privacy is available in Kindle or paperback in 13 countries (in English only). If you’d like your garden to feel more private, click here for availability in your country: https://www.themiddlesizedgarden.co.uk/books/the-complete-guide-to-garden-privacy/
#gardening #gardendesign #backyardgarden
For small and middlesized backyards and gardens….
See The Middlesized Garden blog: http://www.themiddlesizedgarden.co.uk/
For Amazon storefront see: https://www.amazon.com/shop/themiddle-sizedgarden
Note: links to Amazon are affiliate which means I get a small fee for qualifying purchases. It doesn’t affect the price you pay and I only recommend things I use myself or really think you’d like!
More garden ideas on Pinterest:https://www.pinterest.co.uk/midsizegarden/boards/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/midsizegarden
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/themiddlesizedgarden/
30 Comments
I've been lucky enough to move to a house with a middle-sized garden this year, and I'm so glad I've found this channel. Thank you for these incredibly clear and helpful videos!
Less mulch and more living ground cover under taller plants and most borders . Some 2000 different types and i now use 30 of this way of stopping weed.Unlike Mulch it flowers and is colour packed loads of bees and i was amazed at result
Thanks đ Love your program †cheers from Chile
I have to say, I always find James Alexander – Sinclair a genuine hoot! đ€Łđđ»
Blobbery! I loved it. Thatâs one of my projects for next yearâŠdoing MORE topiary (Iâve started this on a few specimens) and definitely going for a blobbery effect! Itâs so darn cute! đ„°
Can confirm that new types of brambles look great in the garden and have been well behaved. Food forest approved
What a fabulous video! You must have invested alot of time – thank you â€
Alexandra, thank you from New Zealand for your interesting & informative posts. Happy ChristmasđČ to you.
Your videos are always a pleasure. The lack of/inconsistent water seem like the major issues facing gardeners today.
Last Spring I made a huge time and energy commitment to remulch a few areas with pine bark mulch, particularly pathways and a cleared area around our pool. I was just tired and frustrated trying to keep on top of the weeds in these areas. I put down a heavy paper (like used in construction), then a thick layer of mulch. It was sooooo worth it! Not only did the pine bark mulch smell and look better, I only had the occasional weed which was super easy to pull. Pine bark is a bit more expensive but because it is chunky, I think it will last longer than the cheaper mulch I used before.
This is really interesting and has ignited my excitement for the gardening year to come. My biggest takeaway is don't cut back and mulch, mulch, mulch!
Seems to me the issue is unpredictable and inconsistent rain, not drought. A spring month with no rain followed by a month of deluge. And equally inconsistent temperatures. Itâs mid-December and my Norfolk garden thinks itâs spring. Who knows what will happen when we get the inevitable hard frosts. Iâm sure sand and gravel gardens are very stylish but they surely are not the solution to gardening in the UK in the chaotic weather conditions we are experiencing.
As always, you ask wonderful questions, and the editing on this recap of your best videos is terrific! It's important to 'sink into' the philosophy of gardening, and not just follow trends, though it's fun to try something that speaks to you. I adore the 'witches broom' idea! I'm in Southern California, where we are having a dry, dry winter so far after a week and a half of rain in November. We normally receive our yearly rain between now and April, when it can get quite warm. With damp nights and dry, sunny days, fungal blight is common, so we have to remove dead material and leaves strategically. Everything from the roses has to go; I strip off all the leaves when I prune, and clear the ground underneath. This year is so weird, though…I have freesias and Pink Lady lilies coming up, my tomato plants and peppers are producing well, and I even have tiny strawberries forming. Not sure what this will mean in the spring/summer. It all comes down to adapting to change!
I do contestâglobal warming is a lie.
Don't like full on blobbery gardens they make a garden look fake. I have a few Wisterias and Grevillias here in Australia that are rounded mixed with yellow buttons etc
Really valuable perspective on sustainable gardening becoming the new normal, not a trend
I think the changes in gardens due to changes in climate are just fascinating! I'm in the mid-Atlantic area of the U.S. We've had 4 years of drought and my "perfect" garden plants mostly died. I'm learning about native plants and really enjoying less work and lots more bees, butterflies and birds.
The prettiest plant in my garden throughout the Fall has been Amsonia hubrichtii which turns a beautiful gold color. Do you grow Amsonias in the U.K.?
I've just discovered your channel Alexandra and it's wonderful! I'm a volunteer gardener at Parham House near Storrington in West Sussex. We'd love to see you soon! Andrew Humphris is our HG.
The lesson Iâve learnt is drought. Living in London and being 80 where I canât use a hose pipe. Years of putting on garden compost the plants survive.
Thank you for this wonderful and very informative vdeo
Thank you for this charming, inspiring, and informative review of 2025. I had the pleasure this past year of further developing our food forest row (FFR), adding more colorful natives and medicinals.
But the most fun was connecting a rose trellis bed with the east end of the FFR with a Vista Garden between them. This approx 12 x 12 ft section has a path running through the middle, surrounded by low growing perennials, evergreens, and annual yellow lantana on either side. The color palatte is simple, focusing mostly on leaf shape and texture. I now can look out from our back porch to the Vista Garden at the far corner of our 1/3 acre yard and see only the water of the pond in the distance. The bare ground around the HOA's pond is largely hidden by the plants. I pretend in my mind that, instead of a retention pond, I am looking out onto a lake like the one in my childhood trips to my grandparents' home in Michigan. Looking forward to the Vista Garden filling in as we hit our next growing season here in NE Indiana. God is so good.
As still a novice gardener, whoâs however read and watched so much info on all things related, I thoroughly enjoy your channel – for both the quality of content and well curated (and encouraging!) presentation. Well done and bless you đ
Its all been fabulous, I really look forward to your garden films, so informative and inspirational. Wishing you a wonderful Yule festival and all the best gardening for 2026 to you and all us gardeners x
Thank you for taking time to summarize . All the best. J B.C. Canada
A great program Alexandra. Here in Canada we follow the same ideas for benefitting wildlife, chop and drop as you. I just wish more people would give up "keeping up with the Jones'" and get more involved in their gardens.
đ€đȘŽ
I like the contrast of a neat lawn and messy border. Although I let the lawn get quite long and only mow when it gets real uneven looking.
If someone wanted the rattan look outside, wouldn't it have to be plastic so as not to rot?
The only change in 2025 I can think of was planting bulbs in the fall of 2024 for early Spring blooms and more milkweed for the Monarch butterflies.