RHS Wisley is the flagship garden of the RHS and one of the most important gardens in the UK. After being hidden behind three years of roadworks, the garden is back and better than before:— and it’s full of ideas you can actually use at home.
In this video, I share 11 clever ideas from RHS Wisley and explain why they’ll work in your garden, whether you have a small, middle-sized or larger space.
With over 25 different garden areas, there’s inspiration for every style — from cottage garden planting to contemporary naturalistic design. It’s also where the Royal Horticultural Society carries out plant trials, so many of the plants you see here have been tested to perform well in real gardens.
Now that access has improved after the roadworks, it’s a brilliant time to visit — but you don’t have to go there to benefit. These are practical, achievable ideas you can adapt at home.
00:00 Welcome
00:27 What the RHS Recommended AGM means
01:07 Why Wisley is so inspiring for real gardens
01:30 Why lilac deserves a comeback
02:19 How pruning shrubs makes all the difference
03:35 Shrubs for clipping – the best alternatives to box
04:29 Does your garden need a blobbery – video on good clipped shrubs: https://youtu.be/j5fHdSsMnkE
04:35 Bold colour combinations that work
05:09 Fix worn lawns with more-than-a-path paving
06:33 How to grow wisteria without problems
07: 22 Using logs as garden features in the Hilltop Wildlife Garden
07:42 Don’t want a messy corner of the garden? Try this wildlife-friendly art
08:14 Small-space dead hedge idea
08:40 Add a green roof to a garden shed
09:12 Inspiring plant combinations
10:50 5 planting lessons from the Oudolf Landscape video: https://youtu.be/QCIdNlJgVYo
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/
25 Comments
1. I have deep envy for the thyme walk at Highgrove, and that bit of path you showed in Wisley for heavy traffic is similar. 2. All the ideas for what to do with your bits of pruning and logs that stop them from having to be carted away. 3. Your habit of patiently pointing out how a variety of plant may be fine in one area but invasive in another, is appreciated because it is jolly important. I cannot pick one for the best. Edit to include that the box plant substitutes were shown in a very attractive manner.
I had to look up Podocarpus as I thought it was a Yellowood tree, whose original home was here in the Cape (South Africa). Never had I thought it could be a hedge tree, as it is very slow (beautiful hardwood). It is the same but I suppose there are many varieties.
This video was so wonderful to watch, with all of the green and other beautiful colours! We are currently buried in more snow here in Alberta. It’s a little depressing to see white again instead of green grass and buds on the trees. I have my fingers crossed that next month will be more like spring than winter!
I love the mini wooden hedge – I might have a go at this and love the lilacs
The white flowering branches with the rich jewel toned tulips was my favorite 😊😊
To prune a lilac in this way needs real space 🌱
A gorgeous video! 😍Such a pleasure to watch. 🥰 💐🌳🌱🌼🌿🌹🌲🌷🌸Thank you for sharing! 🤗 I wish I could give this 100 x 👍!
oops… proposing evergreen honeysuckle isnt the most ideal. In Switzerland it's alread a neophyte… So iI can't advise others to plant it.
wow, she even she even mentions lawn as envir. good…??? Are you kidding. It's a green concrete mostly. Just for some worms and microorg.? Much butter to plant small shrubs, some perennial or have a flowering lawn with native plants (where lawn and walking) isnt necessary.
Thank You
I really quite like those small deadhedges
Great tip on the lilacs. They do tend to get really gangly, but I love the idea of using their tendencies as a positive rather than a negative.
I think one thing we can easily forget about as gardeners is that many of the plants will outlive us, and it's something we should consider when incorporating brutish, fast growing/spreading, and controllable invasives. We may be able to clip, cut, and chop the plants to our will while we are young and spry, but the plants will have vigor for many more years than we will!
Great video thank you.
Loved this. Many thanks.
In case anyone wants to try it – you can make cordial from lilac flowers 🙂
I've also heard lilacs pair well with clematis that will gently climb them
Thank you for keeping the invasive potential of plants in mind for your international audience, it drives me nuts when people don't.
Thank you for an awesome tour of Wisley Garden I’m looking forward to visit the garden in Autumn
Always so inspiring. I have a stick pile now since I saw you feature one and it was fun to put together. I love lilacs and I’m definitely getting another, maybe a dark pink with ballerina tulips underneath 😊
The sculptures containing bug habitats are wonderful. They're something I'm going to create with my own twist.
I’m dying to know what those green plants you’re sitting next to are! They’re beautiful 😍
Duck Duck Goose – not a children's game but a mistake I made at 09:07 – thank you for everyone who pointed out that the 'duck' I mentioned – without really thinking about it – is actually a greylag goose – and a very gorgeous fellow he is.
What a lovely Garden 🪴
Like it
My friend thank you for good sharing
Have a great day
FYI: for some reason, the orange rocket, unlike other Berberi is eaten to the ground by US rabbits!!
a garden that has never met a black tailed deer.