The Daily Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph’s Saturday Home section ran ‘Garden protection program’ in July 2019, Robyn Willis’s guide to keeping a garden alive through the chaos of a build or renovation, and came to Growing Rooms for advice.

Our advice was practical. We have turned up to plant behind a retaining wall on a new build and found nothing but rubbish, so we push clients to settle the boundaries and no-go zones at the planning stage. With so many subcontractors on site, it is often the painter tipping something onto the grass, or someone backing machinery over a bush. The lawn usually cops it first: because it is flat, it becomes the natural spot to store materials or cut things up, but at least it is cheap to replace. Established trees are worth protecting harder than council’s barriers require. We like a penalty clause written into the building contract, so the builder pays if a protected tree does not survive. Hedges need the same discipline: they can take years to grow, and caring for one through the build saves you in the long run. Getting all this right before the builders arrive is far cheaper than repairing the damage once they have gone.