Olli Thomas Garden Rescue

30/08/2026

Selling This Autumn? Don’t Let the Garden Cost You £7,360

The average asking price of a newly listed home fell by £7,360 this August—which is a rather substantial sum to mislay while everybody is in Alicante.

According to Rightmove, it was the largest August fall for eight years. There are also more homes competing for attention than would normally be expected at this point in the summer. Fortunately, autumn traditionally brings a second flurry of activity as the schools reopen, holidays end and couples across the country suddenly decide they absolutely must be living somewhere else by Christmas.

That presents sellers with an opportunity. It also means that when buyers return, they will have plenty of gardens through which to wander slowly, making thoughtful noises and silently reducing their offer.

Read the rest of the article by clicking this link:
https://www.otgardenrescue.co.uk/3333790_selling-this-autumn-don-t-let-the-garden-cost-you-7-360

27/08/2026

When Does an Old Garden Become Archaeology?

You have bought the doer-upper. The surveyor has inspected the roof, tested the damp and produced several alarming paragraphs about the electrics. You know roughly what needs doing inside the house.

Then you open the back door.

Beyond the first few metres of lawn lies an older garden that has apparently been left to negotiate its own future. Brambles have swallowed the boundaries, ivy has climbed into the trees and something made of brick disappears beneath the laurel. You intend to live here for the next forty years, raise your children here and eventually create a wonderful garden — but first you need to know what you have inherited.

There is something magical about an old garden whose whole story has not yet been told. Overgrown gardens are like palimpsests* — one version written over another, with traces of earlier lives still showing through. Some may be fascinating. Others are things you ought to find before the children or the dog do.

Press the link below to read the full article:
https://www.otgardenrescue.co.uk/3333662_when-does-an-old-garden-become-archaeology

23/08/2026

Did Anyone Actually Grow a Watermelon Locally This Summer?

Last year, anybody claiming to have grown a watermelon in their back garden would have been met with suspicion. Where exactly was this ‘garden’? Surrey or Senegal? Was there photographic evidence? Had the fruit been observed growing or merely placed beneath a leaf shortly before witnesses arrived?

This year, it appears perfectly plausible.

After months of exceptional heat, relentless watering and the gradual transformation of southern England into something resembling a Ryvita, the Guardian reported this week that an allotment holder near Bristol has successfully grown watermelons. Not in an experimental desert research station or the Eden Project, but on an English allotment.

This raises an important local question: did anybody manage it here?

Read more of the article here:
https://www.otgardenrescue.co.uk/3333472_did-anyone-actually-grow-a-watermelon-locally-this-summer

21/08/2026

Shampooing in the Rain...

For weeks now we have gawked at mirages of fluffy rain clouds — doubly sadly they were smoke — watched weather forecasts in the last-chance saloon and treated three spots of rain on the windscreen as a prelude to The Flood — miraculously this only happened at Heathrow… indoors.

The prospect of several hours of proper, determined, authentic ‘British’ (not French) rain sounds profoundly intoxicating.

But when it does fall on Slough, like friendly bombs, what is actually going to happen? When the earth has spent months being oven-roasted, plants have been surviving on pigeon dribble and gutters have filled only with dust, the first serious rain may not necessarily be the smiley emoji we crave. Like that first Peroni on February 1st, our ‘rain tolerance’ may not be what it once was.

We have spent all summer wondering when it is going to rain; that time absolutely must now be coming. The more interesting question may be what happens when it finally does.

To read the full article, please click the link below:

What happens when heavy rain finally follows a long drought? From the extraordinary summer of 1976 to thirsty ground that won’t drink, OTGR looks at what happens when the rain returns.

17/08/2026

The Canicule is Finally Loosening its Grip!

After weeks and weeks spent hiding under parasols, trees and anything else capable of producing six square inches of shade, we can slowly venture back into our gardens.

This extraordinary summer hasn't just damaged things. It has stress-tested our gardens — and some of what it has revealed might actually be extremely valuable....

So we ask - When the Canicule Breaks: What Will You Find?

Have a read below:
https://www.otgardenrescue.co.uk/3325128_when-the-canicule-breaks-what-will-you-find

And if you enjoy these slightly less conventional wanderings around gardens, **follow Olli Thomas Garden Rescue on Facebook** — there are plenty more coming.

14/08/2026

32 Bags of Compost… Is the Great Garden Fightback About to Begin?

At 7.30 this morning I noticed a couple at Tesco in Haslemere loading 32 bags of compost into their car. Not three. Not twelve. Thirty-two!

After the summer we've had, this seemed less like a spot of weekend gardening and more like stocking up on supplies for the opening move in a counter-offensive.

What with Wednesday's solar eclipse and another record-breaking blast of extraordinary heat yesterday, it feels as though hopefully, this remarkable summer may finally be approaching a watershed (well, one can only hope).

That doesn't mean the drought is over. We could have weeks of dry weather ahead. But we're entering the second half of August and, sooner or later, the weather will change.

The question is whether our gardens will be ready when it does.....

For the rest of this article click the link below
https://www.otgardenrescue.co.uk/3324029_32-bags-of-compost-is-the-great-garden-fightback-about-to-begin

07/08/2026

So what next?

Having been rightly (or more likely likely wrongly) severely castigated, on my website's comments section (watch out Mail Online), by a certain Medora Ann for slagging off Bracken and Brambles and her then instead acclaiming the delights of Bramble Jelly (suggesting your grandparents gave up the delights of India to move to Ludshott Common because of these wretched plants is a brave call) - and because I like to think of myself as open-minded (I once played squash) I decided to attempt to see things from the other sides' point of view.

After all, it has recently been suggested that eating something that has grown outside is potentially beneficial and probably won't definitely kill you or cause long term organ damage.

So this morning instead of walking I went foraging. Having discovered that bramble juice is an excellent coagulant (GSK if you didn't know this - I want royalties, I truly deserve them), that things grown outside cause the tap water to turn very dark (definitely don't eat straight from the bush) and put my haul in a big orange pot - I now need to know what to do with it when I get home tonight - so I can come to a balanced, considered conclusion as to whether Brambles really did escape from hell.

I don't think I would ever use enough Jelly to warrant turning it into that and because it is made of something that grew outside I would worry that if I gave any away I would likely be arrested for murder; so perhaps you can make Jam or something? Does this require a Jam machine - if so I don't have one?

I don't even know if I have too much or not enough (there are several trillion tonnes going begging up the hill if any more are required - it's clearly not that popular Medora Ann!).

As such, all suggestions for what I should be doing in my kitchen this Friday night are welcome (chuck it in the bin and go and see The Odyssey instead! - who said that?) .

If you have no idea what any of this refers to you can see the article at https://www.otgardenrescue.co.uk/3304636_oh-to-peramble-the-bracken-the-bramble-just-not-in-my-backyard

02/08/2026

Oh to Peramble the Bracken & the Bramble! (Just Not in My Backyard)

A Thorny Issue - Something has been bothering me in the mornings. Not the sun streaming through the bedroom window at five o'clock, nor the slightly alarming fact that I'm already awake and bouncing towards the window announcing, "Ooh... it's sunny!" - I've been doing that rather a lot since May!

It's the brambles. Stupid brambles, with their stupid thorns and their stupid habit of appearing exactly where you don't want them. Then there are their bracken mates, their stupid, growth inhibitor spreading, bracken mates. The botanical Mafia; which has spent the summer quietly taking over the countryside while everything else has been distracted by the drought.

Every morning, before work, I've wandered (aimlessly as a cloud) around Ludshott Common, Waggoners Wells, the Devil's Punch Bowl, Hindhead Common and Swan Barn Farm. I walk fast. Everywhere I've gone I've found exactly the same thing: rampant brambles, growing before my eyes, absolutely groaning with fruit and bracken that seems to double in size every night - a Triffid invasion.

At first I wondered whether I'd imagined it. Perhaps I'd simply never paid much attention before. But after seeing exactly the same thing in five completely different places over several weeks, I'm convinced something rather unusual has happened this summer......

Click the link to read the full article at otgardenrescue.co.uk
https://www.otgardenrescue.co.uk/3304636_a-perambulation-amongst-bracken-brambles

31/07/2026

Why We've Started Writing About Gardens (Instead of Just Working In Them)

A few people have asked why we're starting to publish these themed batches of articles (our intention is now to do one series each month), so I thought I'd explain.

The first reason is simply to highlight an important issue affecting our gardens, pass on one or two useful ideas, and hopefully leave you with something worth thinking about without being preachy. If we can sneak in the odd Dad joke and encourage some friendly discussion along the way, even better.

The second reason is to explain, without turning it into a sales pitch, what makes Garden Rescue different.....

For the full article click the link
https://www.otgardenrescue.co.uk/3288834_why-we-ve-started-writing-about-gardens-instead-of-just-working-in-them

30/07/2026

The Drought Didn’t Damage Your Garden… It Exposed It
(Observations from years spent rescuing gardens across Surrey, Hampshire and West Sussex.)

Drought Wasn’t the Problem

Over the past few months we’ve visited gardens ranging from modest town plots to large country properties, and one thing has been remarkably consistent. The gardens that had been cared for steadily over many years have generally come through this drought surprisingly well. Those relying on last-minute watering or quick fixes have struggled far more.

When conditions are easy, almost every garden can appear healthy. It is only when nature turns off the taps that the true picture begins to emerge....

For the full article press the link: https://www.otgardenrescue.co.uk/3287678_the-drought-didn-t-damage-your-garden-it-exposed-it