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What I wish I’d known about gardening

As part of National Gardening Week, 28 April to 4 May 2025, RHS staff shared what they wish they’d known when they first started gardening

How did your gardening journey start? Maybe you gardened with a grandparent, or joined a group to combat loneliness? Everyone has their own story to tell.

RHS staff are passionate about gardening but they have also had to learn along the way. Here they share their tips, trick and mishaps, to help new gardeners get the best start to their gardening journey.

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I wish I’d known...

Marcus Chilton-Jones – Curator, RHS Garden Bridgewater
I wish I’d known how much time I could have saved on seasonal weeding by covering as much soil as possible with cardboard and a layer of mulch; how much time I could have saved on tying in cordon tomatoes by simply wrapping them round a vertically placed string rather than up a cane; how useful biodegradable coir pots are for annual sowings of vegetables – just plant the pot straight into the ground once they’ve germinated and hey presto no plastic waste; and how effective beer traps are at solving slug problems in the vegetable patch. 

Becky Mealey – Horticultural advisor

When I first started gardening, I wish I’d known about growing plants in the shade. Trying to grow herbs in a shady corner, was not fun - the mint did ok, but I wish I could say the same for the lavender!

What can I grow in a dry shady spot
Becky Mealey – Horticultural advisor

Sarah Wilson-Frost – Horticulturist, RHS Garden Hyde Hall  
Leave the tidy until spring: when I first started gardening, I wish I had never done an ‘autumn tidy’ or thought that gardens in winter had little interest. Everything cut back, soil forked over - I would bask in the bare neatness. I now understand the essential wildlife habitat we provide in the garden, how plants protect and enrich the soil and the ornamental beauty plants provide during our coldest months: ornamental grasses backlit by low winter sun where small mammals find refuge; beautiful seed-heads carrying sparking frost offering bird’s sustenance; an interesting tapestry of texture and colour with little bare soil to be seen. 

I wish I’d known that there is such a thing as too many pots...the watering, oh lord the watering!

Tom Howard – Head of Editorial

Mo Marvin – Horticulturist, RHS Garden Rosemoor  
I wish I’d known the about the hori-hori, surely the most useful of all gardening tools. They are handy for a multitude of tasks: the strong narrow point useful for weeding heavy or stony soils and easier on your wrist than a hand fork or trowel. In autumn, we often use them for planting bulbs in the meadow as they can get to the right depth with minimal soil disturbance. They can be used to tease out or cut through tough roots when planting any pot bound plants, and the sharp edge is also good for dividing tough perennials and slicing through overgrown turf. 

Alex Hankey, Garden Manager RHS Garden Wisley

I wish I’d known to put nature first – when I first started out in gardening, nature was seen as the enemy in many ways, with an emphasis on controlling pests rather than understanding them. Now, I embrace the garden as a biodiverse landscape, not on overly contrived and controlled space. Even in formalised spaces, nature has its place. I feel as though my education was back to front!

Encourage wildlife to your garden
Alex Hankey, Garden Manager RHS Garden Wisley

I wish I’d known what an impact your local climate makes. Gardening in South Wales is completely different to gardening in the East Midlands. Right plant, right place, basically.

Melissa Mabbitt – Executive Editor of The Garden magazine

Tom Freeman – Garden Manager, RHS Garden Hyde Hall  
I wish I’d known about horticulture as a career in the first place, it’s been so rewarding. I grew up on a farm, so have an affinity for the natural world but I spent the first 11 years of my working life in investment banking in London before growing bored of sitting in an office. One day I quit my job, did a ski season and some travelling, before spending three years studying Horticulture. I’ve now been at RHS Hyde Hall for 11 years, currently as Garden Manager. No two days have ever been the same, on the one hand, it’s very physically demanding but also eternally engaging. I just wish I’d made the switch sooner! 

Olivia Drake, Digital Science and Horticulture Editor

I wish I’d known that potting compost only ‘keeps’ for around six months – I’d have resisted all those tempting three-for-twos at the garden centre, knowing they’d need using up within the season!

How to use peat-free compost
Olivia Drake, Digital Science and Horticulture Editor

Ian Bull – Garden Manager, RHS Garden Hyde Hall 
I wish I’d known that preparation is key to success in the garden – including doing your homework before buying a plant, thinking about your soil type and the aspect of your garden, and choosing your plants that will suit these conditions and not being tempted by whatever happens to be in flower at your local garden centre! Also, I wish I’d known to focus time and energy on what’s underground to give new plants the best possible chance to thrive. It’s all in the preparation.  

I wish I’d known to grow more trees from seed - seed raised trees grow quickly once established and they overtake larger, container grown trees in time. The modern methods of growing in cells and then air pots mean tree roots are given the best possible start.

Paul Cook – Curator, RHS Garden Harlow Carr

Hina Joshi – Graphic designer, Marketing

When I first started gardening, I wish I’d known not to sow too early - knowing the best time to plant different types of seeds, and timings of last frosts before they can go outside. I always used to run out of windowsill space (and still do!) 

How to sow seeds indoors
Hina Joshi – Graphic designer, Marketing

Lia Hervey – Digital Executive Editor 
I wish I’d known that the most important garden of all is your winter garden, that’s when you need it –  summer takes care of itself. The most joy you get will be from the red and orange and lime green stems of cornus, the winter flowers of hellebores or winter flowering camellias and if you can also incorporate winter scent with plants like sarcococca, winter jasmine and early crocuses you’ll have even more to put a smile on your face. By summer you don’t need the little things as the garden is abundant.

Heather Greig –​ Associate Editor, The Garden magazine
I wish I hadn’t planted shrubs too close together when they were small but taken heed of their eventual sizes.

Dan Masoliver – Shows Guide Editor

I wish I’d known that gardening requires a lot of patience. I wish I’d bothered getting to know my garden before stripping it back to bare soil and starting again. I wish I’d known how long it would take for tiny shop-bought shrubs to turn into the plants on their labels. 

Beginner’s guide to gardening
Dan Masoliver – Shows Guide Editor

Carly Hurd – Deputy Art Editor, The Garden magazine
I wish I’d known that I would eventually think the best gardens are the ones that have a planting theme, rather than just putting plants in left, right and centre, just because at the time I thought they were ‘pretty’! 

I wish I’d known that where a houseplant comes from can help me decide where to put it in the house. That would have saved me a regrettable amount of money. So many deaths!

Jenny Laville – Show Manager

Emma Kendell – Editorial contractor, The Garden magazine
I wish I’d known that your garden is a process, not at all like ripping out your old kitchen and putting in a nice new one. I ‘sorted’ my first teeny-tiny garden then was really surprised that I needed to KEEP sorting it. Also, that you need to go to a few garden centres and pick up spades, forks, trowels, snips etc and try them for size, just as you would a pair of shoes, so you end up with tools that are easy and comfy to use.  

Pete Adams – Team Leader, RHS Garden Rosemoor 
I wish I had known to look after my knee’s better at the start of my gardening journey, it might have saved me a few aches and pains later on. If I had known 20 odd years ago that taking cuttings in a little 8x6 greenhouse to make a few pennies when I was growing up, would have blossomed into a career in horticulture, then I might have got a bigger greenhouse! 

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National Gardening Week

National Gardening Week

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The Royal Horticultural Society is the UK’s leading gardening charity. We aim to enrich everyone’s life through plants, and make the UK a greener and more beautiful place.