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I blame TV gardening shows, they have no relation to real gardening and growing. Instant effect, not keen on garden designers personally.

Personally I prick all seedlings out into those cell trays, the ones I don't are things like onions which I sow three or four seeds to each cell and plant out the whole cell when it comes to that time.I don't think you will find any hard and fast rules how you do things, people often find...

Done. Thank you.

They are far too low, especially when offset against the costs. People rant and rave about tube drivers being on £65k a year, which is a decent wage to be fair.. but conveniently, folks forget that a 65k salary means that the take home of that is roughly £40k-£45k depending on pension...

They should be removed at the potting up stage IMO, after they have grown lots of roots through them its not easy, but the propagators dont care if the plant lives or dies in a couple of years.

I can understand why you need a path now @Dan1981, clay based lawns are a challenge. I'd try to locate the path on the shady side of your garden, if there is one, allowing the lawn and plants in the borders to get as much sun as possible.

The variegated Pittosporum Elizabeth could work well - one of my neighbours has a very attractive hedge of this. I liked @Plantminded's suggestion of a flowering climber for the arch itself, too.

That one’s a good vibrant blue @Clare G, now on my list .

Thank you @On the Levels, those small irises really do have one of the best blues in the garden, shame they don’t last long .

First bloom of 2026, Hibiscus Red Pagoda ...There s a Standrad Red and an April Yellow to open soon.

Landrace Gardening by Joseph Lofthouse is an interesting book about this kind of thing.

I think I poked them vertically into the compost. If I remember rightly they're quite big and easy to handle individually. If you have lots of seed you could try different ways and see what works for you.

I would go for smoother curves rather than the wobbly amoeba shapes, and some deeper areas of border. Maybe an oval or pear-shaped lawn, or two interlocking circles. The path doesn't have to be the same width all the way, for example in the attached sketch there are some wider areas where you...