One Year Good Gardening Students at Sandhill Farm House
Welcome to The English Gardening School March Newsletter
The darkest weeks of the year are over now, and spring is just around the corner. Just as new life is tentatively beginning in gardens around the country, new skills are also emerging in our students here at The English Gardening School.
March News
Catriona, our Course Leader on the Essential Garden Design Diploma, was kindly invited to attend the SGLD awards by Alitex, and was so pleased to be there to congratulate designers on their nominations and awards in person.
New visiting lecturer Barbara Samitier of Moss Studio won two awards; Planting Design and Medium Residential Garden. Alumnus Adolfo Harrison not only won the Garden Jewel Award for his Westbourne Grove project, but also won the coveted Judges Award for the third time, making his practice the first to achieve this milestone.
Victoria Barbour, who started her garden design career here at the EGS and then went on to undertake further study was also nominated for the student award and we wish her all the best as she moves forward with her career.
Barbara Samitier at the SGLD Awards
End of the First Half Term on the Essential Garden Design Diploma
Students have now completed their first half-term, where learning is concentrated on the spatial design of the garden. This year’s garden was an awkward, long, triangular shape, and there were also a number of briefing items to be accommodated, including dining, a firepit area, a productive area with a greenhouse, an art enclosure, and a chicken coop.
It’s always astounding to see how students’ previous backgrounds and personalities combine to create such individual solutions to the same brief on the same site.
Since this is such a short course, we use hand drawing only, allowing our students to concentrate on learning how to design space, and with plants, rather than being distracted by software. It is heartening to watch our students benefit from our in person learning, where they learn so much from each other as well as our tutors.
They have had a huge amount of new information to learn over these past five weeks, and we believe that the results they achieve are helped by being able to concentrate so deeply, unencumbered by the distractions of IT, smartphones or AI.
Good Gardening at Sandhill Farm House
Alongside our sessions in the gallery at the Chelsea Physic Garden, students on the Good Gardening Diploma spend a couple of days each term putting theory into practice.
The week before half term, we were delighted to be welcomed to Sandhill Farm House by our founder, Rosemary Alexander. It is always so special to spend time in Rosemary’s garden and to see the ideas we discuss in class come to life in a real, working private garden.
We worked with the gardening team, Tina and Laurence, on key winter jobs. The morning was spent pruning roses and wisteria, planting bare-root hedges and roses with Laurence, and cutting back and preparing the borders for spring alongside Tina. These are the steady, seasonal tasks that keep a garden moving forward, and it is good to take the time to do them properly.
In the afternoon, Ben Pope joined us to show how he makes plant supports from hazel. Everyone had a go at making their own. It was a slightly drizzly afternoon, but that did not deter us. Breaks were spent in the cottage by the fire, with homemade treats kindly made by the tutors and one of the students. These practical days are a valued part of the Diploma and an important opportunity for students to build confidence through experience.
Rosemary and the gardening team, Tina and Laurence at Sandhill Farm House
Plant of the Month
Clematis armandii
Useful evergreen and vigorous climber with dark and glossy leaves and fragrant flowers in early Spring.
Rosemary and Tina’s Top Jobs to Do in the Garden in March
- Winter border preparation
Finish cutting back perennials and pruning roses so borders are tidy and ready for top-dressing. Spread a layer of mulch, taking care around emerging shoots and bulbs. Leave a small gap around new growth. Mulch is the most important job to do in your garden in Spring for weed suppression and soil improvement. - Snowdrops
Plant snowdrops in the green this month while still in leaf – they establish far better than when planted dry. - Pots
Top-dress permanent pots later this month. Remove as much old compost as possible and replace it with fresh, adding a slow-release fertiliser. Ideally, repot fully; otherwise, refresh the top layer. - Photograph
Take photos and notes of the garden now while bulbs are visible – invaluable when planning autumn planting. - Move Plants
March is an excellent time to move plants. Relocate anything that is not spring-flowering while soil conditions are favourable. - Feed
March is the month when many plants rush into growth, so spread organic pelleted chicken manure over ornamental borders and feed roses with a specialist rose fertiliser. Feed and treat the box hedging with specialist fertiliser, and start monthly treatment for caterpillars and blight. - Prune
Hydrangea macrophylla – remove the oldest stems at ground level. Do not cut last year’s growth.
Hydrangea arborescens ‘Annabelle’ – wait until April.
Coloured dogwoods (Cornus) – once established, cut stems back hard in early March.
Buddleja davidii – remove all old flowering shoots.
Late-flowering clematis (Group 3) – cut back hard to a pair of strong buds about 30cm from the ground.
Upcoming Courses and Visits
SketchUp for Garden Design, Beginners Course
15th & 16th April at The Army Museum, London SW3 4HT
2 in person days with John Brooks, of SketchUp for Garden Design
Day 1: Introduction to SketchUp and what can be achieved using the software, template setup, interface & navigation; drawing basics; 3D modelling, groups/components/tags, 3D Warehouse
Day 2: Working with surveys, extensions and plugins, planting plans, including an introduction to PLANT25, presentations using Layout.
Study Day with Troy Scott Smith – ‘The Making of a Garden’
18th June 2026
For: English Gardening School Alumni only
Join us for an inspiring day on site at a new 5-acre garden near Bath, currently being designed and developed by renowned head gardener and plantsman Troy Scott Smith. This exclusive alumni event offers a rare opportunity to see a garden in its formative stages and to understand how a masterplan is developed for both the garden and wider estate.
Throughout the day, Troy will guide us through the creative, practical, and human sides of making a garden: from initial conversations with the client to putting spades in the ground, appointing gardeners, and establishing the long-term infrastructure that will support the garden as it grows.
Where possible, we will also hear directly from the owner and on-site gardeners, gaining multiple perspectives on how a new garden is envisioned, funded, built and maintained.
Gardening for Beginners
30th September & 1st, 7th, 8th October 2026
As the spring Gardening for Beginners is sold out, we have added autumn dates for this popular four day course, led by Master of Horticulture Ben Pope.
The course, which takes place at The Chelsea Physic Garden, covers all you need to know to care for your garden – understanding your soil, choosing and selecting new plants, growing new plants from seed and taking cuttings, common pests and diseases, lawn care, pruning trees, shrubs and climbers, vegetable and fruit growing, control of weeds, mulching and composting. The final day spent in 2 private gardens brings everything into context and gives time for questions and personal involvement.
Planting Design with Nick Bailey – Chelsea Physic Garden
21st to 22nd October 2026, 18th to 19th November 2026
Join us for an intensive 4-day planting design course with Nick Bailey, one of the UK’s leading plantsmen and garden designers. Nick is known for his interactive teaching style, dynamic design approach, and innovative ideas in the art, craft, and science of planting design.
This course is designed for keen gardeners and garden designers seeking to refine their approach to planting in their own gardens or for clients. Nick covers a range of approaches to planting design, and students will be introduced to numerous plants they may never have considered growing. Nick will also share his wealth of experience in creating tailored plantings for a wide range of environments and styles, along with recommendations for top nurseries and inspiring gardens to visit.
Nick will share the techniques, plants and approaches behind his beautiful planting style. Discover a wide range of unusual and useful annuals, bulbs and exotics to enhance planting schemes. Explore the nature of genius loci and how to plant in tune with the wider landscape.
The final day of this four-day course explores case studies from Nick’s and other award-winning designers’ work. Using real garden examples, Nick will show students how the ideas, techniques and plant combinations discussed throughout the course are applied in practice. Nick will discuss his rationale for each scheme, revealing how planting choices respond to place, scale, and atmosphere, and how designs evolve over time.
This concluding day offers inspiration, clarity and confidence to help students apply these approaches to their own gardens and planting projects.
This is a 4 day course held at the Chelsea Physic Garden.
Spring Garden Tour, Oxfordshire
24th April 2026 10am-4.30pm
Our Spring Garden Tour is sold out, but if you would like to join the waiting list, please contact us at info@englishgardeningschool.co.uk.