Beth's Garden Care

10/07/2026

Thank you to all my lovely customers who have been so understanding in this heatwave! I've been starting early and working hard, but of course having to miss a few hours here and there when I've reached my maximum cooking temperature! Thank you for handing me iced drinks and letting me prioritise jobs in the shade! Here are a few pictures from your gardens which are all looking stunning at this time of year!

30/06/2026

Do you have any surplus home grown fruit or veg this week?

A good friend of mine teaches at a St Budeaux primary school where the kids have been carefully growing veg ready to hold a stall at Plymouth market this Friday. As we all know, home grown veg isn't always ready when we want it to be, so although they have grown some lovely produce to sell, they would love a little more! It will give the kids practice at handling money and talking to the public and the funds they raise will go to the local food bank! Let me know if you have a surplus of anything you might not need this week and I'll try to arrange getting it to them!

07/06/2026

A posy collected from the garden of one of my less mobile clients who isn't able to get outside at the moment. I hugely recommend doing the same in your own garden! I find that most flowers last really well in water and if you just cut one or two stems from each plant you won't notice any impact on your garden and will still be left with loads of colour to enjoy outdoors as well as in! Do share a photo if you do make your own posy, I'd love to see!

01/06/2026

I had a lovely chat about Summer gardenening on Plymouth Hospital Radio on Sunday! If you'd like to hear it you can listen back here, I'm on about 20 minutes in just after the adverts: https://www.mixcloud.com/HospitalRadioPlymouth/sunday-morning-with-howard-james-31st-may-2026/

31/05/2026

I'll be on Plymouth Hospital Radio again this morning, chatting all things gardening for the summer months! I'll be on about 10:20am. Tune in here: https://hospitalradioplymouth.org.uk/player/

Hospital Radio Plymouth has been serving the community for over 50 years with unique programmes for those served by Derriford Hospital

30/05/2026

This stunning climbing rose is looking better than ever this year! One of my favourites.

22/05/2026

It's bank holiday and half term and there's a heatwave on the way! Suddenly panicking about whether your pots, greenhouse or veg garden will survive whilst you're away? I have availability for watering in central Plymouth, Plymstock and Plympton over the coming week for both existing customers and new ones. Just give me a shout! Do pass on to friends or anyone you know who might need it.

21/05/2026

What a difference a day makes! Goodbye fleece and waterproofs, hello sunglasses and suncream! 🔆

And yes, that is what seems to be the only healthy box hedge in all of England behind me in the first photo, and no, I don't have a secret - we've done nothing to it! Perhaps box moths just haven't discovered Ivybridge yet!

12/05/2026

Thank you so much for all your messages about helping out in your gardens this spring. I have been inundated! Unfortunately, as many of you will already know, I'm fully booked and am having to turn all new requests down at the moment. My wonderful regular customers are keeping me very busy. There are lots of other brilliant gardeners in Plymouth so hopefully anyone still looking will find someone else out there who can help this spring!

08/05/2026

David Attenborough's 100th birthday seems like a great day to celebrate the wildlife in our gardens. Have you watched the new Secret Garden series? Yes I know we don't all have massive riverside gardens like the first episode, but the second episode is a bit more realistic! Your own little garden may seem insignificant, but together our network of gardens in Devon and across the UK make up an enormous green space! This network is particularly vital in urban or suburban areas. Small decisions can really help to support nature. Here's a reminder of a few to get you started:

•Leave patches of lawn unmown, mow less often or reduce the amount of lawn you have altogether
•Install a small pond
•Leave a cluster of nettles, brambles or ragwort in a back corner
•Grow native and bee-friendly plants
• Resist plastic w**d membranes in favour of thick organic mulch
•Reduce the amount of paving or hard surfaces in your garden
•Leave dead wood in place or pile it up in a corner
•Leave water out for wildlife in dry weather but be sure to regularly clean any bird baths
• Leave hedges or large shrubs to grow during nesting season, even if they're starting to look untidy! The risk of disturbing nesting birds is too great
•Leave gaps under or between fences for hedgehogs to come and go - they have a huge range!
•Resist using slug pellets or rose spray! You're not just killing the bugs but also the birds that eat them. Feed and water plants well instead so that they're strong enough to resist pests. But remember, if your garden isn't being eaten, it's not part of the ecosystem!
•Dont use w**d killers, again you're putting the insects and birds and whole food chain at risk. Time to do some hand w**ding - or ask me to!

David says that the number of insects in Britain has fallen by a HUGE 60% since the year 2000. The best thing you can do to protect the wildlife you love like birds, hedgehogs and bats is to nurture the bugs and insects in your gardens through some of the actions above 🌱