Garden designer reveals £2.75 Tesco trick to turn plain gardens into lush rainforest paradise

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4 days ago

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DID you know there are rainforests in Britain? Nope - me neither.
But you may well have visited one without realising if you've holidayed in Cornwall, Wales or along the Atlantic Coastline.
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Zoe Claymore with her Rainforest inspired show garden at Chelsea Flower Show
Credit: Clive Nichols
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Moss is a great indicator that you could be in a temperate rainforest in the UK
Credit: Not known, clear with picture desk
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Adding any kind of water feature into your garden will help create a rainforest theme
Credit: free for devon wildlife trust use.
Especially if you remember walking through green woodland packed with ferns, moss and lichen - with a really memorable earthy, damp scent.
They once covered more than 20 per cent of the UK - but history devoured them - and now there's less than one per cent.
So the Wildlife Trust, sponsored by Aviva, has just launched an epic 100-year restoration project to bring them back.
The temperate rainforest restoration programme will restore approximately 1,755 hectares of temperate rainforest across the British Isles.
Some of the new sites created through this programme include Bowden Pillars in Devon, Bryn Ifan in North Wales, Creg y Cowin and Glion Darragh on the Isle of Man, Trellwyn Fach in Pembrokeshire, and – most recently - Skiddaw in Cumbria.
Garden Designer Zoe Claymore, won a silver gilt medal at RHS Chelsea for her British Rainforest Garden.
She told me: 'I didn't know it at the time - but I played in a British rainforest as a child. The end of my grandparents garden in Devon went into Lidford Gorge which is one of the last existing rainforests.
'In the UK they're found in the Goldilocks zone - not too hot, not too cold - and by rivers, gullies and gorges, because you also need the moisture from the river creating that ecosystem.'
But there are ways of recreating one in your own garden, she said.
'Even if you don't live in an area suited to creating a rainforest there's other plants that will create the same vibes.
Mums are raving about an indoor tropical rainforest attraction in the UK
'Create shade with Hazels - they're a great small tree which gives a real native-feel and perfect for small gardens. Or include hollies, birch or willows.
'Create a water feature - from a little stream with a few rocks or simply as an old-school rock water bowl - to create that sense of humidity.
"But even if you just did a pond in a pot surrounded by some fun little logs, that will create habitat, that will bring wildlife, and it will create that kind of feeling of rainforest-y wetness."
It's easy to make a home made pond - using old washing up bowls. Tesco's are currently selling one for just £2.75.
First choose a spot that's sunny but not in direct sunlight all day - otherwise the water will evaporate.
Then all you have to do is put some logs around it, and a few stones, so wildlife can climb in and out easily - almost like a ramp.
Ideally fill it with rain water rather than tap.
And then put in about three water plants - like mini water lillies or water forget-me-not and sit back waiting for the wildlife.
Zoe added: 'Then use British classic woodland plants and really focus on ferns - the unsung beautiful heroes of shade gardening - as well as bluebells, foxgloves, primulars, ivy, bananas and - if you've got a wet area - moss - which is the jewel in the crown - so your garden will be green all year round."
For a 'how to' guide adapted to all UK gardens - as well as a rainforest-inspired pot combination - head to www.zoeclaymore.com - and a share of the proceeds will go the Wildlife Trust.
Also in Veronica's Column this week...
Gardening tips, news, plant of the week and a competition to win a garden border worth £195
PLANT OF THE WEEK! Dierama Wind Nymph Pink - pictured above - clump forming perennial with slender arching stems with soft pink blooms and evergreen foliage. Bees love it. Plant in direct sunlight, likes well drained soil but might need protection in Winter.
NEWS! A dad's 60-year-old lawnmower has taken its place in gardening history as the UK's oldest Flymo - after he read a plea in Sun Gardening.
Pete Goddard's monumental mower was inducted into the British Lawnmower Museum in Southport, Merseyside, last week after Flymo sent out a request for old mowers.
The rare blue Flymo was unveiled last month - taking its place in the museum alongside King Charles, Brian May, and Nicholas Parsons' former mowers.
It came after a nationwide search for the UK's oldest Flymo to celebrate 60 years since the iconic hover mower was invented.
The 79-year-old retired Highway Maintenance Operative's Flymo was originally bought in the 1960s by his father-in-law and lovingly maintained across three generations - and still works today.
NEWS! Great Comp Gardens will show off some salvias not released to the general public before - at it's annual Summer Show next weekend.
The seven acre garden in Platt, near Sevenoaks will be at it's best - with the hot and cool border in bloom, salvias bringing swathes of colour to the perennial borders and the Italian Garden in full flower in time for their annual two-day flagship event.
The weekend event features a group of talented artists, craftspeople, award-winning nurseries and garden ornamental suppliers plus live jazz bands on the lawn.
Curator William Dyson says: 'We can't wait to share the garden with our Summer Show visitors - it looks particularly splendid in August with the salvias in full flow.
'We've also introduced lots of new and interesting plants to the garden this year including a collection of new world salvias that we've inherited from Lindsay Pink (a collector in Portsmouth) that people won't have seen before.
"We urge people to come along and see our revamped planting schemes which help to showcase new salvias that we have been keeping under wraps until now. There are salvias that I've only seen once before and can't wait to show people. We are mixing in drifts of South American annuals like Cosmos for interest and colour and Tagetes erecta (Mexican marigolds) plus lots of varieties of dahlias."
For more info visit www.greatcompgarden.co.uk
WIN! Garden on a Roll - which provide ready-made garden border paper templates, and the plants to put them in - are offering three £195 borders at 3m x 60cm of any style - including the 'Wildlife border' for bees and butterflies. To enter visit www.thesun.co.uk/GardenBorders, or write to Garden on a Roll competition, PO Box 3190, Colchester, Essex, CO2 8GP. Include your name, age, email or phone. UK residents 18+ only. Entries close 11.59pm. August 16, 2025. T&Cs apply
JOB OF THE WEEK! Stake your dahlias, trim your lavenders, take fuchsia cuttings, prune climbing and rambling roses, add tomato food to corn and peppers.
For more gardening content follow me @biros_and_bloom