Jo da Silva Garden Care

11/08/2026

Wildflower seeds collected from the patches in my garden ✌️
All ready to create next summer's wildflowers.
Just need some rain now! 🌦

06/08/2026

Fruits of the season! Plums, figs, elderberries, autumn raspberries, tomatoes and many more are starting to be ready. It seems incredible to me that even after such a difficult summer plants are providing humans and animals with delicious, nourishing food 🫶

04/08/2026

J•U•L•Y
OK so I haven't taken many photos of my gardening work this month.
It's been very hot and very dry and it hasn't been the most fun month.

Yes there have been joys.. native flowers thriving, wisteria going absolutely wild, established shrubs and trees surviving despite all the odds.

But there have been lots of bad moments too. So many plants are struggling and unless you're regularly watering gardens are not looking great. It's depressing turning up to gardens and seeing such stressed plants.

There are lessons we can learn here and I will be working hard to prepare my gardens for this sort of weather in the future. That will mean:
- mulching beds and borders so we don't have any bare soil. That will reduce the soil temperature, reduce evaporation and hold in moisture.
- adding more ponds to gardens to provide water for wildlife and a cool, calm environment for humans.
- planting more trees to create shade in the future
- more Wildflower patches
- adding white clover to lawns to make them more beneficial to wildlife and slow going brown
- utilising better water management such as collecting rainwater and reducing hard surfaces like paving so we are saving and utilising rainwater and not sending it straight down drains.

I believe gardens can provide cool, safe havens for wildlife and humans to enjoy future summers, and autumn and winter are the perfect time to put these plans into action 💪 so our gardens can be enjoyable places to spend time in a summer heatwave.

20/07/2026

It's time to cut the wildflower patches!
Following the cycle of a traditional hay meadow we cut wildflower meadows and patches towards the end of the summer to give them an opportunity to put on new growth in the autumn.
The trick is to cut them short and take away any clippings to avoid nutrients building in the soil.
This is the first season this patch was left wild and it was mainly grass. But once we have a bit of rain I'll sow some flower seeds including yellow rattle, so hopefully next year we get a better flower to grass mix.

14/07/2026

Ponds of all shapes and sizes were everywhere in the show gardens at RHS Badminton. Not only are the gorgeous and help us feel cooler on a hot day, they are also hugely beneficial for wildlife. They provide vital breeding grounds for amphibians, fresh drinking and bathing water for birds and mammals, and critical hunting or resting habitats for insects like dragonflies, bats, and local pollinators.

In the UK, half of all ponds (approximately 400,000) have been lost since 1900. However there are approximately 25.8 million private gardens, which collectively cover around 959,800 hectares (about 4.6% of the UK's land mass), so if we all install even a small pond in our garden we can make a huge difference.

12/07/2026

There was some gorgeous planting at RHS Badminton today 🌸

There were some beautiful, diverse, wildlife friendly gardens which I loved to see.

I've come away feeling inspired that you can make beautiful gardens that are valuable homes for nature. And it's great to see the tide turning in some of the more innovative show gardens at the big shows. There's still a way to go to make wildlife gardening mainstream but today was hopeful 🌼

09/07/2026

05/07/2026

J•U•N•E
Well June was a month of crazy weather! At the start of the month I was sheltering from downpours and then it was working around heatwaves.

June is a month of mowing lawns, clipping topiary, a bit of weeding, and clearing beds for their summer show.

I've tried where possible to keep wild patches in lawns, dried leaves under bushes, and not cut back and clear beds unless I've had to. This is to give our wildlife a place to shelter from heat and storms in this turbulent month.

Flowers are really coming on now and we've got a huge range of gorgeous blooms on display.

Raspberries, blackcurrants, gooseberries and strawberries have all been in season this month and I've been frantically making jam in the evenings.

I hope all my customers get to enjoy their gorgeous gardens for these warm months 🌼

28/06/2026

WIMBORNE OPEN GARDENS 2026!

Wow wow wow there were some seriously inspiring gardens on show today in Wimborne!
There were wildflower meadows, ponds, dead wood piles, and loads and loads of wildlife which is so amazing to see. And some lovely people who work incredibly hard on their gardens to make them a home for their local wildlife, and were generous enough to open them to the public today 🙌