The Wise House

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The Wise House

Welcome to The Wise House, an independent British shop selling eco friendly gifts and products to help you reduce plastic waste.

The Wise House is a small, independent shop which hopes to inspire people to spend their pennies wisely on beautiful, useful & ethical gifts and things for everyday life. We champion great design, thoughtful craftsmanship and sustainability. www.thewisehouse.co.uk - For stylish eco geeks.

21/06/2024

Revisited a regular customer’s, the lovely , garden, today for a maintenance session, following a planting revamp last time I was here at the beginning of May.

A month and a half later, and I was delighted to see the plants thriving and showing off their colours in the sunshine! The slugs did their best to slow things down, and the helenium really is hobbling back to full health, but no permanent damage was done thankfully!

Plant list for this sunny bed include Santolina (Cotton Lavender). Silvery leaves, with small yellow flowers. I love this plant! Heuchera, Thalictrum Black Stockings, Erigeron Karvinensis, Salvia Peach Cobbler, Salvia Caradonna, Monarda, Nepeta, Veronicastrum Fascination, Helenium plus a few others!

Before pics 1 and 2, then after planting, and today…

17/05/2024

One of my next garden designs. Elegant, scented and structural planting with something a bit fun thrown in for the grandkids. Hope the customer loves it and we get to make this one!

13/05/2024

One year on since planting up this garden for one of my neighbours on Holly Bush Lane. (See last pic for Before Shot taken end April 2023).
So happy to receive this lovely feedback from Lou!

“The garden is looking amazing. Everything has sprouted in the recent rain. Things that weren’t doing well in the past few years are suddenly growing! Some of the things you planted are huge, its great “.

We gave the beds a lovely thick dose of peat free compost in April and then again in Autumn as a mulch.

We planted hardy perennials and an Amelanchier to fill all of the soil space and tie the whole garden together (Lou already had a good range of shrubs).

Tulips and allium bulbs were also planted in Autumn, and have given so much pleasure throughout this first part of the year!

I pop back to tidy and maintain once in a while, but the weeds are now minimal as the soil space fills out, so it’s always a pleasure, never a chore!

🌱

03/05/2024

Updated pics of this back garden re-design in Weybridge, after final finesse-ing!

It has been so satisfying to turn initial scribbles and ideas into reality (more so now that it is finished and the owner is happy with it 😅).

The planting is pollinator-friendly. In fact it was amazing to see how many bees joined us even whilst we were putting the plants in the ground. The Pulmonaria and cowslip were in flower, and both are loved by bees.

Hardy perennials plants were carefully selected to make sure that they are suitable for the different aspects in the garden. Right plant, right place and all that jazz!

The plants should thrive, and hopefully fill all of the soil space. A mulch at least once a year will also help to keep everything looking healthy.

I will pop back in summer to see how the back area is looking. The grasses, anthriscus and Actea should all have grown to create a meadow feel, with pops of colour from the allium, verbena and Astrantia to name but a few.

Project created working with Landscape Artisan.

26/04/2024

Front and back garden re-design - my biggest planting project to date working with Landscape Artisan.

13/03/2024

The plants that I’m enjoying, and distractedly staring at, in the garden at the moment - lovely plump tulips (can’t wait for them to put on a show), an old inherited rhododendron with gorgeous washed out pinky/ apricot flowers, rosemary (for looking and eating), hellebore (love the dark moody purple), primrose, daffodils, pulmonaria trevi fountain - I love the mix of blue and pink flowers, heavily scented hyacinths, bergenia and euphorbia.

After all this rain, our gardens are going to be a treasure trove once the Spring sunshine arrives!

12/12/2023

I’ve fallen in love with this beautiful garden, owned by a couple in their 80s who have a passion for gardening and needed a helping hand to keep on top of what is a large space full of plants and interest.

There are many established trees and shrubs, and it’s a exciting journey of discovery to uncover plants that have become swamped by other plants.

Today I liberated a couple of climbing roses, and gave them a good prune. I’m gradually clearing and re-shaping the beds, as well as pruning and lifting the skirts of some of the shrubs.

We’ve planted lots of bulbs in cleared spaces, along with Hellebore, Nandina, Berberis and H**e.

It feels like being in a secret garden, particularly as their neighbour’s garden is equally charming and unusually they have a really low mesh fence between them which makes the gardens feel connected.

I’m gardening in a way that I hope is sympathetic to the spirit of this space and to wildlife, whilst bringing back a bit of structure and manageability.

I tidy but I leave bits ‘untidy’ near the back of the bed, whether that be ‘weeds’ or leaves. There are so many birds and I’m always joined by a Robin who gobbles up the worms!

It’s a garden that’s good for the soul ❤️.

16/11/2023

Rain did not stop play for the fabulous gardening gang (who do not seem to feel the cold or wet in the same way as a middle aged women).

Today we continued to mulch our veggie beds with some beautiful leaves that I had collected from a gardening job earlier in the week. We also uncovered our leaves from the year before which had broken down into the most wonderful composted leaf mulch (had to get the kids to smell it, so good!).

Last week we added back the veg plants that we’d grown this season, having dug them out and chopped them into small pieces so that they break down more quickly.

We also added cardboard, woodchip and compost to create a no-dig bed full of organisms like worms, wood louse and funghi that will break down all of this matter to create a rich, fertile bed for growing next year.

We talked about terms like mulching, no-dig and closed loop systems. In a garden environment there is no need to waste a single thing.

Collect and store your leaves people, you can always pile them up and mow them into small pieces first. Store them out of site, out of mind, until you reveal and use the following year to enrich your plant beds.

We also had a surprise large delivery of native trees and hedging. Which sounds great and is lovely, but really there is enough there to plant an entire woodland copse (so please let me know if you want any tree or hedge whips).

Whilst we decide where we are to grow our forest 😳 we have created a tree nursery, coordinated by one of the kids who is the most incredible project manager! I found myself completely following her lead by the end of the session, and darkness certainly was not going to stop work 👏. As she said ‘you can work and socialise at the same time’ 🤣.

Arrived home wet and covered in mud, as per usual this time of year! Immediately needed a glass of red to warm up of course. Happy days.

04/09/2023

A last minute tidy session in the school garden before the kids are back in tomorrow. It’s all looking pretty, productive and a bit wild around the edges, just how I like it!
We’ve got loads of tomatoes (the head teacher enjoyed tasted a few on her way past), cucumber, courgette, beans, raspberries and many types of herb.
The planters are looking lush! An unplanned accident combining a rescued banana plant which nearly broke my back and caused me to swear profusely trying to move, split and plant, and leftover herbs. I have to say she was worth it, and she is already giving quite a show and the leaves should get massive which will look cool.
Can’t wait for the kids to pick and eat the produce and admire the world tiniest sunflowers 🌻 😅 that we planted in my old wellies.

31/08/2023

Popped in to see a garden that I planted up for a customer back in early June. As with many of my customers they live on the same road so have to cope with my intermittent nosiness (aways with secateurs in my pocket 😅).
The garden is due a tidy session in a few weeks but everything is looking healthy and has filled out to cover most of the empty soil space.
The customer wanted bee-friendly plants, with some strong structural plants and bold colours mixed in with a softer cottage garden palate.
The Heuchera Spellbound has been amazing, dark purple leaves with a more delicate pink flower. The Rudbeckia give a strong hit of yellow at this time of year, which looks so lovely with the sun that bit lower and gentler.
The Erigeron (white daisy like flower) and Verbena have been stalwarts as ever, flowering from early Summer and still going strong.
Nepeta, two types, and Echinops have attracted so many bees.
The next phase is an Autumn mulch, the planting of Allium and Tulip bulbs, and the possibility of squeezing a few more Winter| Spring plants in like Hellibore and Pulmonaria.
I do love this garden lark 🪴.

05/07/2023

Me and my bro at the flower show 🪴 ❤️

Address

London

Telephone

07939374377

Website

http://www.thewisehouse.co.uk/

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