Martha Stewart’s tips for creating a perfect garden

The domestic goddess is celebrating her love of gardening in her latest book - John Kernick

Martha Stewart is the original lifestyle influencer. For four decades, the American businesswoman has been an authority on all things cooking, decorating and general home-making wholesomeness. Before there was ever Instagram, and even before Gwyneth created GOOP, Stewart was the honey-haired all-American domestic goddess.

Now, at 83, and after starring on the cover of Sports Illustrated last year, she is celebrating gardening with her 101st book.

Since 2000, Stewart has owned her estate, Cantitoe Corners, in well-to-do Bedford, New York, known for its rural charm and wealthy inhabitants. Spread across 152 acres, the estate features a variety of gardens, including a large flower border garden, a living maze, and a cutting garden. There are also greenhouses, vegetable gardens and horses, donkeys, and chickens.

In her Gardening Handbook: The Essential Guide to Designing, Planting, and Growing, Stewart shares her advice, as well as her thoughts on the importance of gardening in her life. Here are some of her top tips for creating a beautiful garden.

1. Plant straight into the ground; but raise it up

Many gardeners appreciate how this maximises growing areas – and are willing to do the prep work. The pros include it being the most economical option, requiring nothing other than a spade and a shovel. You can plant wherever you like, including on slopes and rocky areas where a raised bed wouldn’t work. This also lets you fill in spots in the landscape too small for a raised bed.

Planting on sloping and rocky areas can make your garden more aesthetically pleasing - John Dolan

The cons are that you are working with the soil you have, which may require testing and amending to become fertile. It can take years to regenerate unworked soil, if necessary. Ground-level soil is more prone to weeds, pests and poor drainage. It can also take longer for the soil to warm up in the spring if you live in a colder climate.

One way to get around these downsides is to create slightly raised rows where the planting soil is mounded a few inches higher than the surrounding soil level. This allows plants to develop deeper roots; raised rows also drain better.

2. Give annuals enough space to flourish

For annuals to strut their eye-catching abundance of flowers and foliage all season long, they require a little more initial care. Proper planting will ensure they last until the first frost. In this hen house-adjacent vegetable garden, for example, zinnias, dahlias, and giant sunflowers bloom well into autumn.

If you are planting many annuals in one bed, you may want to dig all the holes and place the plants in them before planting each annual, or do what the professional gardeners do: stab your trowel, concave side facing you, into the soil, pull the handle forward and back to create a divot, then place the annual in the hole and repeat for the next one. That way, you can stand back and see the effect before backfilling with soil.

Annuals grow quickly, so be sure to give them ample room to reach their full size.

3. Sow wildflower mixes

Sowing mixes of wildflowers can make the colours of your garden pop out anytime of the year - Caitlin Atkinson

Dreaming of a pollinator-friendly meadow outside your kitchen window? It couldn’t be easier to create – just use a high-quality wildflower mix, available at many garden centres and online.

Look for mixes that are “100 per cent perennials” with no fillers, and that are appropriate for your region, including native-only mixes. What’s great about mixes is that they are designed to provide waves of season-long colour, so you don’t have to take the time and effort to research this yourself.

Make sure the mix includes lots of clump-forming grasses, which are a major component of most naturally occurring meadows and will crowd out weeds and help prevent soil erosion during the first critical season.

4. Check now for any gaps in your planting

A perennial paradise offers wave after wave of flowers from spring through to autumn. This “garden of variety” at my farm in Bedford, New York, counts more than 200 different types, including climbing roses, lupines, poppies, hollyhocks, asters, and daisies, to name just a few. Perennials in border areas complement shrubs and trees.

Spring is a great time to assess your bulb plantings and identify gaps. Use wooden markers to indicate where to add more bulbs. Taking photographs of any thin areas is another good way to remember where to plant bulbs that arrive in the autumn.

5. Water deeply, not daily

Periodic deep watering is much better than light daily dousing in promoting the development of vigorous roots. Avoid the temptation to dampen the soil whenever the surface is dry; with shallow watering, the roots never need to reach very far to slake their thirst.

Conversely, by allowing the soil and roots to slightly dry out between waterings, soaking the area six to 12 inches deep, the plant’s roots will reach into the reservoir of water below.

Vigorous roots will develop if you deeply water the soil rather than only dampening - Pieter Estersohn

A good way to monitor the soil’s moisture is to brush any mulch away from the surface, then poke your finger down about two inches – if it feels dry at that level, it’s time to water.

Or you can follow the “cake tester” approach: insert a wooden dowel or chopstick a few inches into the soil and then pull it out; moist soil will stick to the dowel, but if it comes out clean, it’s time to water.

6. Fertilise only when necessary

Many plants, including perennials, trees, and shrubs, don’t need much fertiliser, especially if you add plenty of compost or other organic material to their soil before planting in and as a top dressing around established plants in the spring to help tamp up their growth – and again before winter sets in.

All container plants need monthly fertilising, since more frequent watering causes the plants to quickly deplete the nutrients in the potting mix, and there’s less soil for them to feed on to begin with.

7. Save seeds

Seeds from annual self-pollinating plants are the easiest to save. Calendulas, celosia, echinacea, marigolds, milkweed, nasturtiums, sunflowers and zinnias are among the best flowers; poppies are even self-seeding.

Timing is key to reaping the biggest yield; too soon, and the seeds will lack the necessary genetic material; too late, and the seeds will open and spill their contents.

Flowers are ready when their seed heads begin to dry, typically about a month after their blooms fade.

8. Embrace the right kind of weed

Many weeds offer medicinal benefits and can also fend off pesky critters in your garden - Jose Picayo

Weeds can benefit the ecosystem of your garden.

They are fast-growing and quickly cover bare ground to protect it from eroding in the wind or rain. They flower frequently and often have dense foliage, which attracts beneficial insects looking for habitat or nectar, and thereby fend off harmful pests. Their decaying roots (especially deep taproots) enrich the soil with organic matter and provide channels for air and water as well as worms and beneficial microbes to penetrate.

Some weeds are even edible or have medicinal properties.

Of course, you don’t want weeds to overtake your garden plants, but when quarantined to a corner of your garden – say, where not even grass will grow without chemical fertilisers – or closely monitored, they can be an intentional part of your overall plan.

9. Winterise vulnerable plants

Many trees and shrubs can survive winter on their own. However, young saplings or prized specimens may warrant a protective barrier to winter’s harsh conditions.

Avoid pruning shrubs and trees close to your first frost date. Doing so can weaken the plant and make it more susceptible to damage. Cover vulnerable plants – namely broadleaf evergreen shrubs such as boxwood, azalea, rhododendron, and holly, as well as short-needled spruces and cypresses – with burlap to protect them from splaying and breaking from the weight of heavy snow, while shielding foliage from freezing windburn.

10. Create a border garden

It is easy to fall under the spell of border gardens, especially the incredible examples at Sissinghurst, Upton House, and Hidcote in England.

A border garden should have tiny edges to prevent more harmful weeds venturing in - Elizabeth Zeschin

One of the most famous examples is the Long Border at Great Dixter House & Gardens, the former British home of influential gardener and gardening writer Christopher Lloyd (1921–2006) in East Sussex.

In Lloyd’s description, “The effect should be of a closely woven tapestry… For all the work that goes into it, I want the border to look exuberant and uncontrived.”

Border gardens look best when they have tidy edges. This will also help prevent weeds and grass from venturing into the bed. You can use bricks, pavers, river rocks, or ornamental edging from a garden centre. A flagstone path runs along the Long Border and is wide enough to allow plants to spill over it while leaving ample room for strolling.

11. Grow clematis, the queen of climbers

An idyllic climbing perennial, clematis can be implemented in landscapes in a variety of ways – on trellises, up a fence, or around an arbour or pergola, such as at my farm in Bedford.

As twiners, clematis use a slender leaf stem to hook onto small, narrow supports, such as the bank of a tree, the branches of woody shrubs, or the struts of a trellis, arboretum or tuteur.

To grow it on a smooth pole or fence, you will need to direct its path by attaching plant weir, microfilament (fishing line), or jute twine, wrapping it in a criss-cross fashion up and down the support. At Bedford, the clematis clings to sturdy cable around the granite posts in the pergola.

12 Use the ‘thriller, filler, spiller’ formula for pots

For a showstopping – and foolproof – display, try the “thriller, filler, spiller” formula: first, cast a “thriller” standout variety as the central focal point, then add a “filler” to fill in the gaps. Finish with a “spiller” plant, such as a trailing or vining type that cascades over the rim. View them together in a sunny spot at the nursery before buying, to ensure they are truly compatible.

‘Martha Stewart’s Gardening Handbook’ by Martha Stewart is published by HarperCollins on 8th May; £30

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