Q&A with garden designer and Chelsea Flower Show medal winner, Dawn Isaac - ANSWERS BACK

[PatrickMumsnet]

Dawn Isaac is a Chelsea Flower Show award winning garden designer and a mother of three young children. She combines her two main passions of gardening and her kids by trying to pass on her love of all things horticultural to Ava (8), Oscar (6) and Archie (3), a quest which is chronicled on her popular blog, which has had well over a quarter of a million visits and is the featured blog on the RHS family website.

Dawn also writes on garden design issues for the Guardian for which she won the New Talent Award from the Garden Media Guild in 2010 and her first book, Garden Crafts for Children, was published in February 2012. She's also teaching a Garden Design course as part of the new Mumsnet Academy.

Dawn has kindly agreed to take questions on everything from garden design to getting the most from your garden. She'll be checking this thread on Friday 25 May at 5pm and responding to your questions over the weekend, so please post your horticultural question to her before then.

Brilliant!

Congratulations. It must have been thrilling to win.

I would love some advice please. I want to grow a tree, but I have a decked courtyard garden so it needs to be in a pot. I would love some suggestions please. I want it to provide shade as well as structure: I'd like a leafy canopy. Flowers/ fruit would be a bonus, but aren't essential. Interest in winter would be good (bark rather than evergreen). Finally, I'd like to but it 7-8ft tall, and would like some help with pot size please! (know I'm asking a lot). Thank you!

Hello Dawn, Many congrats on winning at Chelsea. What an achievement!

I would love some advice. We live in a very exposed rented cottage in flat arable land in drought-blighted Hertfordshire, in the grounds of a deserted farm (sounds lovely doesnt it?! It was all we could find in the 'proper countryside' as I was determined not to live in suburbia!)

Our garden consists of lawn, a leylandii hedge hacked down to shoulder level and a few large conifers etc (as well as weeds and lots of snails which I am working on).

Having found out that lavender was a traditional crop in this area I have decided to plant all borders with loads of it but I wonder if you can suggest any other plants that might do well -particularly fast growing voracious floral climbers - that aren't expensive as we're renting, and look pretty. Having grown up with my mother's wonderful cottage garden in Shropshire I love old fashioned plants and loath anything suburban.

We have three hacked up leylandii trees providing protection from the prevailing wind and I would love them to go but cannot think of anything which could replace them quickly enough (we'll only be here for maximum of 2 years).

Thanks for your help!

Hi Dawn, thanks for answering our questions!

I'd love some help with one of my flower beds. It is an island raised bed, approx. 3m by 2m and 50 cm high. In the centre it has a rose 'buff beauty' which is doing great and expanding to fill most of the bed. Around it, when the rose was still small I planted some of the plants that I could get from cuttings from my garden: rosemary, thyme, sage, pinks, sedum spectablile and madonna lilies. Unfortunately, now that the rose is large and in full bloom for a long season, all those plants clash horribly with the colour of the rose (apart from the madonna lilies which look lovely growing through it)!

Can you suggest some plants which are likely to like the same conditions but which have flowers in colours which will look better with the rose?

Hi there, many congratulations! I have a small question, for many years u have been trying to grow hydrangeas, have tried enriching the soil, even planting them in pots with different kinds of compost, to no avail, they never flourish. Whats the best way to grow these? Any tips? Thanks!

Sorry, that should be I am trying to grow the hydrangeas, not you!

Hello Dawn: v impressed: do you have a particular theme in your gardens? I have a north facing dry shady patch in the garden where I have this year planted some astrantia, hosta, acanthus and a tree lily (which will grow up into the sun) and I would like to know what other plants you think might be good companions ? Also what would you grow under a rampant ivory climbing rose?

Hi Dawn, I didn't expect to see you here!

Hi Dawn! Iwould love your opinion on something I have begun in my garden but being a newcomer to gardening, I'm not sure if it will work!

My children love their trampoline but I hate the way the lawn beneath has turned to nothing but a mud patch...so I recently planted Hostas underneath it as I was told they like shade...they seem fine so far....and it looks quite interesting!

Will they grow large there and what other shade loving plants might like the area? I have a clay soil...

Well done on your winning design!

hi dawn. we have a typical low maintenance garden-patio, decking, small lawn surrounded by pebbles and a couple of flower beds in a brick wall-and very few perennial plants. i would like to plant some things in the pebbles to 'soften' the garden but dont know what to use. i have put a couple of things in-a clematis to grow up the shed etc but they have all died-not enough water? i dont mind what-grasses, flowers i just dont know where to start. can you help?

hi - i have a huge garden with fencing issues that i can't afford to resolve at the minute. there is a stretch of about 8m on one side that is chain link fenced leaving me very overlooked by my neighbour before the hedges kick in. i've planted a buddelia (excuse spelling) at the furthest end that has taken off well over the last couple of years and now provides a sort of screen for the bottom of the garden from the neighbours view. beside this a lovely red broom has sprung up (from nowhere) and that's going to add a lovely bit of height and interest there too eventually.

at the end by my window i have a heebe (again sorry) and a bushy thing that is doing great (i don't know what it is called my mum says it has pocket hankerchief flowers or some such if that gives a clue) and is now about 3ft tall and has surrounded the poor heebe which none the less is doing ok. hoping these will grow a bit taller gradually but can't have too much height that end due to the windows.

there is a gap of about 5-6 meters that is still bare though. my question is what to plant there that would grow density and height quickly. i was offered some established laurel but i'm really not keen on those kind of waxy leaves. something green, low maintenance and with flower at some point of the year would be ideal. i'm a very hands off gardener and most of what is in my garden has just emerged after i cleared the rubbish back or has self seeded since - i've only planted bush type things and trees.

please help - sorry for epic message.

Hello Dawn - I'd love some advice on planting for foliage/winter interest.

I am very much a spring flower lover so my garden looks great about now but pretty dull in winter. I have planted a few shrubby plants so it isn't all just flowers, like fuschia & hydrangea, but even these die back in winter so there is nothing to look at!

Need some advice for foliage that will look good all year round. Have avoided hostas as I hear slugs love them...

Hi Dawn, can I ask not a gardening question as such but a gardening-business question?

I'm thinking of career changing one day into the gardening, home improvements, energy/water efficiency sort of area. How did you start up your business and build your profile? Do you design gardens for clients and if so, how much time does that need spend away from home? Would you recommend blogging and getting 'known' for some cheap work first, then doing things like RHS diplomas? Or doing the qualifications early then taking commissions at a higher rate?

thanks!

I work in a day nursery and want to make a willow tunnel to add height and interest to a dull grass patch.
What is the best time of year to buy withies, how much (ballpark) would enough for a 2m long, 1.5m high tunnel cost?
I can weave it and maintain it once it's in, but gardeners will strim grass nearby. How much buffer do I need between the tunnel and the grass to prevent gardeners killing the willow?
Sorry, lots of questions.

Hello Dawn, can I ask for advice on a tricky area? I have four large trees growing on some raised ground right at the bottom of my garden. The snowdrops and bluebells were gorgeous, but all gone now!
What can I plant under them which will look nice the rest of the year, and cope with dryish shade? I'm thinking ferns, vinca, epimediums and and maybe bamboo, and it would be great to have the names of some specific varieties you've found to be effective in these conditions. And if you have any tips for including some colour, that would be amazing !

What happened?

Whoops! just seen it wasn't a live chat! I will check back over the weekend.

ooh sarimille great question - i have similar with a horse chestnut and very old bramley apple tree at the end of the garden and a huge, lovely bed of bluebells annually spreading between and in front of them. would love to know how to have other stuff there for the rest of the year. some lilac is springing up strong in the centre (i had it dug out and cut back when i first moved in here but the root system obviously was still going strong and i'm going to let it grow back but keep it a bit more under control than the forest it was) but ferns and such around there would be lovely if they can survive in shade like that. will look for an answer to your Q with interest.

(especially as that will be the backdrop for where i am intending to build a wildlife pond)

Is Dawn coming MNHQ?

[not impatient honest]

Probably out enjoying her garden - I don't blame her!

Hmmm......the weekend is nearly over. Something must have happened.

The Q&A is now closed. We've sent all your questions over to Dawn and we'll be linking to her answer from this thread later this week.

i hope she comes up with some fast growing plants for screening - my neighbour has just asked me to move my son's place house because it reflects the light into her living room window and it 'effects the voices in my head'! i'm surrounded by loons here god bless 'em.

Ahem. Heloo MNHQ? Any news on this? I was really looking forward to reading all the answers.

The Q&A is now archived and you can see the answers here:

Dawn Isaacs Q&A