Better Planting

Join our online Plant propagation workshop to elevate your gardening skills and knowledge. A class with a focus on herbaceous plants on the ways you can make your own plants for next to no cost. About our expert : Better Planting has been founded by Ian Burles who is the lead consultant. He has the support of affiliated garden/landscape designers. Ian has a long history in horticulture beginning with a childhood enthusiasm for gardens and the natural world. The school holidays were often spent working in local nurseries. This lead to a year as a short term entrant at the Royal Horticultural Society's garden at Wisley gaining a better understanding of practical gardening. Following this, he took a year out to make a tour of the leading botanical gardens of the world which turned into a five year absence from the UK working in botanical gardens, commercial and amenity horticulture where possible but also in other lines of work to fund the continuation of the journey. During these years, he explored and constructed many gardens in several countries gaining a basic knowledge of the local vegetations and consequently is able to consider design projects in Mediterranean and tropical climates as well as the temperate ones in which he is most familiar. Based in South Oxfordshire and also have a property in Northern France (Normandy) from which to operate. We see our mission as being to create satisfying living pictures that work with their surroundings, with attention to balance of form, texture and colour.  We use our design and plant knowledge to help you make the most attractive possible use of any outdoor space. We have a broad knowledge base and are happy to tackle the most obscure projects even in spheres we may not have worked in before. Our nurseries have previously  specialised in hardy herbaceous perennials and their planting in traditional borders, but especially more recently, in naturalistic relaxed plantings with the use of varieties that stay looking good over as long a season as possible through their structure as well as colour. Please note : This is a online service, soon we will update our skype id. This page is work in progress expect to start the consulting service soon.

Welcome to Better Planting, we offer expert planning services for your garden with our 'We Plan, You Plant' approach. This is a one on one live consultation with us in skype where we can assess what you might do with a new plant or how to improve an an existing one. Local to us ? Site visit occasionally possible. Time permitting Our expert : Better Planting has been founded by Ian Burles who is the lead consultant. He has the support of affiliated garden/landscape designers. Ian has a long history in horticulture beginning with a childhood enthusiasm for gardens and the natural world. The school holidays were often spent working in local nurseries. This lead to a year as a short term entrant at the Royal Horticultural Society's garden at Wisley gaining a better understanding of practical gardening. Following this, he took a year out to make a tour of the leading botanical gardens of the world which turned into a five year absence from the UK working in botanical gardens, commercial and amenity horticulture where possible but also in other lines of work to fund the continuation of the journey. During these years, he explored and constructed many gardens in several countries gaining a basic knowledge of the local vegetations and consequently is able to consider design projects in Mediterranean and tropical climates as well as the temperate ones in which he is most familiar. Based in South Oxfordshire and also have a property in Northern France (Normandy) from which to operate. We see our mission as being to create satisfying living pictures that work with their surroundings, with attention to balance of form, texture and colour.  We use our design and plant knowledge to help you make the most attractive possible use of any outdoor space. We have a broad knowledge base and are happy to tackle the most obscure projects even in spheres we may not have worked in before. Our nurseries have previously  specialised in hardy herbaceous perennials and their planting in traditional borders, but especially more recently, in naturalistic relaxed plantings with the use of varieties that stay looking good over as long a season as possible through their structure as well as colour. Please note : This is a online service we will update our skype id. This page is work in progress expect to start the consulting service soon.

Welcome to Better Planting, where we offer a Double Quick Garden Design Class to help you create the garden of your dreams efficiently. Vibe : Every garden has its own particular atmosphere and sense of place. Where this is positive, we work to harmonise with and emphasize it; where not, we may seek to create a more completely separate world around you with a new vibe. Although what we do involves following rules and principles, there is an important element of it that is intuitive or instinctive. So to enable us to work optimally, we need as much access to the site as possible. We have a studio van to facilitate working nearby with minimal intrusion. We have in house skills to carry out most aspects of garden design and can advise on aspects of hard landscaping such as position of garden buildings, paths, fences, ponds and other structures. However, we are principally a planting consultancy and it is advising on planting projects that is our main work. Why you need us There are tens of thousands of plants available to gardeners. With a very wide knowledge of what exists, we help you to make the right choice of plants for the place bearing in mind your requirements. These may be quite specific; you may for example need something that will grow to eye level to screen out an unwanted view within a year or two but not need pruning very often thereafter. This would tell us we need to find a plant of perhaps semi-mature size to start with and that is relatively slow growing, as well as being happy in your growing conditions. Making the choice without specialist advice can be a false economy. Following the decision about which plant to use, there is then the question of where to find it. We have an increasing database of the stock of nurseries both in the UK and in mainland Europe to help with this where a suitable subject is not locally readily available. About our expert : Ian has a long history in horticulture beginning with a childhood enthusiasm for gardens and the natural world. The school holidays were often spent working in local nurseries. This lead to a year as a short term entrant at the Royal Horticultural Society's garden at Wisley gaining a better understanding of practical gardening. Following this, he took a year out to make a tour of the leading botanical gardens of the world which turned into a five year absence from the UK working in botanical gardens, commercial and amenity horticulture.