Andrew Staib

Petworth is famous for its majestic 17th Century English Baroque mansion and art work collections, but it is its fusion with the surrounding pleasure grounds and deer park that make this such a special place to visit. John Tuner often visited here and painted some wonderful views of the grounds and house. The house, perched on the edge of the historic town of Petworth, overlooks the opposite way, over a great valley literally sculptured three hundreds years ago by Capability Brown, the most popular english landscape designer of his day. He was famous for pulling down the orangeries, formal parterres [...]

Where does our green waste go that we painstakingly take to the tip or put in our recycling bins every week? Andrew Staib, Principle designer for Glorious Gardens, has always wondered. Every year Glorious Gardens buys in tonnes of green compost for our clients, to make raised vegetable beds and mulch the rest of the borders to improve the soil quality. I have always wondered where it comes from. So I met up with James Herst, Sales and Production Manager, at Olus Recycling in West Sussex near Hurstpeirpoint. He greets me at the main office and we don those yellow [...]

Fairy Tale Gardens Exquisite is the only word to describe the Arundel Castle Gardens. From the tropical beds, the vegetable areas or the newly renovated wilderness down by the lakes, the castle gardens join seamlessly a variety of styles and landscapes. Of course the well proportioned, fairy tale looking castle helps but it is also the rolling hillocks, winding paths and secret rooms that give the gardens an exploratory and fascinating atmosphere. Much of the recent inspiring originality is due to the passionate endeavours of Martin Duncan, Head Gardener for the last 10 years. He takes me on a tour [...]

Small and beautiful - choosing the right small tree for your garden One of the most common issues I find in the many new gardens I visit each week is the lack of perfectly sized trees for the particular space. They are often not singing from the treetops but they have either grown too big and now dominate the space, or have been relentlessly pruned until their little fingers and toes look all knobbly and truncated. Choosing the right tree for the right place is an art based on knowledge and observation. Trees must be chosen carefully.  Often I arrive [...]

July Gardening The storm of activity is abating. All your hard work in Spring and early Summer is paying dividends. The easing of lockdown means that you can still buy some lovely plants and even top up your vegetables with discounted punnets. Gardens all over the UK have never been so well tendered and every second shed is gleaming with new paint. Weeding For all small annual weeds like Chickweed, you can hoe them back in the soil. For bindweed and dandelions I’m afraid the only way is to dig them out as deeply as you can and know that [...]

January Resolutions- to enjoy impermanence On a Saturday morning, when you look out your window, does your garden invite you in or does it look wild, cold and without interest? There is a trend to want our gardens to be like our new kitchens. Spotless, shinning and minimal, with plastic decking and Astroturf that will last not just for our lifetimes but hundreds of thousands of years -  hygienic immortality. But there are other ways to look at nature in January. The frosts, snow and rains wreak their havoc over the land and the perennials, with millions of years of [...]

Hanna Pechar Sculpture Garden As lockdown eases, the Hanna Pechar Gardens is now open for bookings. With an appointment you will be able to walk around their lovely gardens with even more space to yourself. As a garden designer I have always attempted to design a garden without the need for sculpture , being wary that sculpture might detract from the beauty of the plants. However, after my visit to the Hanna Pechar sculpture gardens recently I have realised that not only can a sculpture really enhance the beauty of a garden but the design itself can be influenced by [...]

Recently, our regular columnist, Andrew Staib, Director of the garden design company Glorious Gardens Sussex, has literally branched out and formed Glorious Woodlands.  Sussex Local decided to see what he was up to! What exactly is Glorious Woodlands?  This is a design service I am offering to people with a spare field or few. We are offering a bespoke woodland design, to help people create a lovely addition to their house and garden. I am interested in both the ecological benefits as well as including beautiful elements like tree circles, paths, contoured mounds and ponds. Clients can even chose their [...]

Taking a fresh look at your garden with Design Eyes In this article I’d like to take you through the steps I would go through with a client to help you see your garden afresh and help you make the decision process easier. People are often intimidated by their garden space, accompanied often with a fear of plants. Maybe in the past they have bought plants that have died on them or just don’t know how to maintain each one. Likewise, some have spent lots of money on the garden and it hasn’t resulted in the transformation they had hoped. [...]

February- The Set-Up Month February is an important month to really set up your garden.  With Covid keeping us at home, our gardens can give us the expansiveness, connection and hope we desperately need. Andrew Staib from Glorious Gardens Designs takes a look at plants that will light up your garden. February can be an up and down month. Sometimes clear days have us running out to turn over the soil and dig in some compost, other days have us sheltering indoors looking out of a rainy window. If you are one of those gardeners who don’t start visiting their [...]