A visit to Carol Klein’s garden taught us these 4 brilliant gardening lessons

We visited BBC Gardeners' World presenter Carol Klein's garden at Glebe Cottage in Devon – a garden she has been shaping for almost five decades. Here, every corner is packed with plants, productivity and personality. During a stroll through the garden, Carol shared some of the ideas and habits that shape how she gardens. Here are four things we learnt from our visit.

1. Summer gardening means staying on top of the jobs

We visited Carol’s garden in summer, and it was bursting with flowers, which means there’s always something to do to keep it looking its best.

“Everything’s in full flower at the moment, so there’s lots and lots of deadheading to do,” she says. Alongside that, she’s planting up gaps, taking cuttings and tackling a bit of pruning. Sometimes the garden grows so exuberantly that she jokes she might need “a machete in some parts of my garden” just to keep up.

2. Sweet peas are the true scent of summer

For Carol, one of the loveliest daily rituals in the garden is harvesting sweet peas. Their colour and perfume capture everything she loves about the season.

Runner beans and sweet peas scramble up supports in her garden, and Carol takes pleasure in picking them regularly. As she puts it: “It’s a daily privilege to go out there with a pair of scissors and cut those sweet peas and bring them into the house.”

3. Mix flowers and vegetables for a beautiful, productive garden

Carol’s veg beds show that edible gardening doesn’t have to be purely practical. She happily combines vegetables and ornamental plants in the same space.

Her main vegetable area is packed with parsley, peas and tomatoes alongside flowers, squashes and sweetcorn. “Why not mix the two of them together?” she says, proving that productive beds can also be colourful and full of interest.

4. Inspiration can come from everywhere

Some areas of Carol’s garden have a personal story behind them. Two terraces are inspired by her daughters and planted with their favourite colours.

“One is Alice’s garden,” Carol explains, where the planting reflects Alice’s taste for “lots of white, lots of pink, crimson.” Just beyond it is Annie’s garden, which has a more dramatic palette of magenta, purples and blues, filled with roses.

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