Gardening Services Close to You in Crystal Palace

Spring arrives noticeably later at the top of the ridge than it does in the gardens at the foot of the hill, and it leaves earlier in autumn. The high ground around SE19 stands well above the surrounding districts, exposed on several sides, and that elevation shortens the growing season at both ends while adding wind that the sheltered plots below never experience. Planting schemes copied from a garden a mile away and several dozen metres lower routinely disappoint here, and the reason is almost always the climate rather than the soil.

A later start changes every date in the calendar

Sowing, planting out and the first cut all shift back compared with lower ground, and tender material put out on the same weekend as it would be in a valley garden gets caught. Waiting an extra fortnight costs nothing and saves the whole planting. The same applies at the other end: the last mow comes earlier, and half-hardy plants are lifted or protected sooner than the calendar in a gardening book suggests. Observation of a particular plot beats any published date.

Cold air runs downhill and pools

The coldest place on a slope is not the top. Cold air is dense, it flows downwards overnight and collects behind anything that stops it, so a solid wall, a close-boarded fence or a dense hedge across the bottom of a sloping garden creates a frost pocket that will catch blossom on fruit trees planted in it. Opening a gap at the low point, or moving early-flowering material further up the slope, avoids years of lost fruit for no cost at all.

Wind rock and the damage that appears in March

Exposed gardens lose plants over winter in a way sheltered ones do not, and the mechanism is mechanical rather than thermal. Tall shrubs and roses catch the wind, the stem levers in the soil, a socket opens around the base and fills with water, and the roots sit in it. Shortening top growth by about a third in late autumn, purely to reduce wind resistance, prevents it. The proper pruning cut is made later, at the right time for the species.

Choosing for exposure rather than for a picture

Low, dense and flexible does well; tall, brittle and broad-leaved does not. Hawthorn, holly, elaeagnus, viburnum tinus, pines, berberis and the smaller-leaved cotoneasters all hold up on an exposed site. Anything grown for large soft foliage is marked by the end of its first windy spring. Hedges planted as shelter are more useful than fences, because they filter air rather than throwing it over the top into a turbulent eddy further into the garden.

Protection that earns its keep

Fleece thrown over a plant and left on all winter holds moisture against the foliage and rots it. Used properly it goes on for a forecast cold snap and comes off afterwards. A mulch over the crown of a borderline-hardy perennial does more good than anything wrapped around its top. Pots are grouped against a house wall and lifted onto feet for the winter, since a container that freezes solid kills roots that the same plant would survive in open ground.

Access on a steep street

Getting equipment and material to a garden here is its own problem. Streets climb sharply, parking is often restricted to permit bays, and rear gardens are frequently reached by a long flight of steps rather than a side gate. That is worked out at booking rather than discovered on the day. Where a clearance produces more than a garden round can carry back up to the road, the bulk is moved by vehicle, as with our waste removal service in Abbey Wood.

What a visit covers up here

Upkeep is charged by the length of the visit and the number of technicians, and the annual shape differs from that of a lower-lying garden: a later first cut, an autumn pass to reduce wind resistance, and a check after winter gales to firm anything that has lifted. Sheltered gardens further north are covered by affordable gardening services in Woolwich, exposed north-facing paving that greens over quickly by pressure washing for flats in Crystal Palace, and rodents sheltering under decking by pest control specialists in Crystal Palace. The season-by-season programme is set out on trusted lawn mowing.