Autumn garden ideas – what works beautifully and what doesn’t

This year’s autumn garden has taught me a lot about choosing plants for late-season colour.

The leaves of the Robinia frisia (False acacia) and the Cotinus coggyria ‘Grace’ are a splendid sight in my autumn garden.

I’ve always thought of trees and leaf colour as the defining element of an autumn garden. And usually we do have good late-season leaf colour.

But the weather in summer dictates much of your autumn leaf colour. This summer has been exceptional – long, hot and dry. My leaf colour is not as good as usual, so I have realised how much shrubs and perennials contribute to a beautiful autumn garden.

Trees for autumn colour

The most magnificent tree for colour in this garden is Cotinus coggyria ‘Grace’. It is stunning in spring and summer, with dark green-red leaves and fluffy clouds of flower. But in the autumn it is usually a blaze of fire-gold. This October a few branches have turned, but many of the leaves are dropping almost without changing colour.

This Cotinus leaf changes from dark green to this red, and usually eventually turns flame-coloured. For the first time in 15 years, this isn’t happening this year.

The trees in this garden have always been fantastic in autumn. But I think this means I’ve overlooked the importance of the other elements – the perennials and shrubs.

I recently interviewed garden designer and BBC Gardeners World presenter, Mark Lane. He travels around the UK a lot, and says that the long, hot summer has had a different impact in different parts of the UK. Autumn leaf colour is affected by how much sunshine and rain you get in the summer. He saw excellent autumn colour in the north of the UK, not much autumn colour in the Midlands and thinks that the South East  has been very variable.

In my garden, the leaves seem to be dropping without changing colour as much as usual.

Even here in Kent, there is good late-season tree colour in his garden, but not such vibrant hues in mine – and the two gardens are only half an hour apart.

The best flowers for autumn garden colour

Dahlias are great for autumn colour. The Rip City dahlia showing off its elegant outlines

Dahlias, asters (most now called symphotricum) and sedum are all flowering in my garden now. But I have missed a trick by not having rudbeckia, gaura and penstemon. Japanese anemones are often recommended for autumn colour, but ours are over.

And perhaps it’s just me, but echinacea- another oft-recommended autumn favourite – never survives long in this garden. I have just planted some persicaria, given to me by a friend, and am looking forward to their impact on next year’s autumn garden.

However several roses are on their second burst of flowering – the Bonica roses in the front garden, and Burgundy Ice in the main border.

Bonica roses and Nerine bowdenii bulbs are two easy-care and super-reliable flowers for autumn colour in The Middlesized Garden.

Bulbs for autumn colour

We had a burst of white cyclamen earlier on in the month, but otherwise my top bulb for autumn is Nerine bowdenii. It was planted along the front wall of the house by my predecessor. In fifteen years, I’ve thinned them out once, but have otherwise done absolutely nothing to them.

So shockingly neglected that I think you can even see weeds behind them, but they go on and on. But apparently they do take a few years to get established, so hang on in there if yours aren’t doing much.

Shrubs are the late-season stars

So this autumn I have really appreciated what good autumn-leaf shrubs bring to the garden. And I realise that I’ve missed a trick or two. I’ve always adored peony foliage in the spring. It emerges a glorious dark red and looks wonderful with primroses. But I hadn’t appreciated what peonies can -sometimes – bring to the autumn garden.

The peony leaves behind the stone dog aren’t really contributing anything to autumn gloriousness…

I have an unknown peony with beautiful autumn colour. And several very large peonies with no autumn colour at all. Their green leaves are just dying. Think how much more spectacular the garden would have been had I considered late-season foliage and peonies!

I wish I’d chosen more peonies for their autumn foliage as well as their flower colour. I don’t know which peony this is as it was planted by my predecessor.

Apparently Monty Don doesn’t like viburnums. It seems hard to see why not – both the viburnums in my garden make a very useful contribution in two seasons of the year. In winter, Viburnum bodnantense has delicate, fragrant pink flowers.

Viburnum bodnantense – wonderful autumn colour.

Another multi-season star – Viburnum opulus or guelder rose has pretty white pompom flowers in spring and beautiful autumn colour. But it should have berries too, and I don’t know why mine doesn’t?

Hydrangeas and cornus are two more multi-season shrubs. I planted my cornus for the vivid colours of the winter stems, but am enjoying their autumn foliage too.

Cornus ‘Midwinter fire’ (left) and Cornus alba ‘Elegantissima’ (right) with Viburnum opulus behind.

As with the peonies, some of my hydrangeas have beautiful autumn colour and others don’t. This is an oak-leafed hydrangea, probably Hydrangea quercifolia ‘Snow Queen.’

Grasses in the autumn garden

Grasses really come into their own in the autumn garden and I have some in pots. But this is probably an area where I could improve.

The parterre in mid October with Panicum ‘Shenandoah’ and topiary cut box in the pots.

The most important lesson about autumn garden colour

I feel I’ve learned a very important lesson about autumn garden colour. You don’t necessarily need to plan it. All you need to do, when choosing plants for spring or summer, is to check what their autumn foliage is like too. Given the choice between a peony with good autumn foliage and one without, all other things being equal, you can get two seasons for the price of one.

Take a tour of the garden

There’s a full tour of the garden here on this video. If you just want a quick overview, fast-forward to the 30-second tour (with music) which you’ll find at

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Accessible garden ideas – how to make a garden everyone can enjoy

Does an accessible garden only matter to people in wheelchairs? Or to the partially sighted, or to someone with a chronic illness?

What about mothers with small children, or grannies…or those who worry when paving or decking gets slippy in winter…?

Mark Lane of Mark Lane Garden Design and the BBC Gardeners World at his home in Kent.

Mark Lane is the UK’s first garden designer in a wheelchair. He is also one of the presenters on BBC Gardeners World.

Mark showed me around the garden he shares with his partner, Jason, as well as talking to me about how you design an accessible garden.

That means a garden which is beautiful, safe, secure, welcoming and (preferably) usable for 365 days a year.

How long do you plan to live here?

Most of Mark’s garden design work is for private gardens where accessibility isn’t a specific element of the brief.

However, he still asks people to think about how long they plan to live with the garden. ‘None of know what’s round the corner,’ he says, ‘so it’s worth future-proofing your garden to some extent.’

Aster ‘Twilight’ against Jackson’s acoustic fencing, in Mark and Jason’s garden. Mark says he always asks clients what colours they want in the garden – and he doesn’t mean flower colour. He means the colours of the paths, fences and structures. I think this pale fence really shows off his autumn colour.

Interestingly, there’s legislation around how accessible new homes must be but it doesn’t extend to the garden around the home.

So if you’re doing a re-design, think beyond the next year or so. In five years’ time, will your needs be different? What about thirty years’ time? Of course, you can make changes further down the line, but sometimes it’s cheaper and better – in the long run – to get it right first time.

Key areas for accessible garden design

Mark talked to me about paths, edging, lighting, garden furniture and planting, and how you can maximise safety or accessibility. These issues apply to all gardens, not just gardens which need to be accessible for specific conditions.

The first thing that surprised me when I arrived at Mark and Jason’s house was the wide gravel path that leads all round the garden.

But Mark says that gravel is a cost-effective choice for paths. If you’re creating an accessible garden, you’ll probably want a path that goes everywhere in the garden, and that can get expensive.  Mark and Jason’s garden is nearly an acre (middle-sized!), so that’s alot of path.

If you lay a gravel path properly, it will be fine for wheels (and that means wheelbarrows and buggies, too).

A wide gravel path goes all round Mark’s garden, with paths leading off it so that Mark can access benches, statues and all borders.

You need what’s called a secure MOT type 1 base. This is a sub-base made of crushed recycled concrete, consisting of lots of different-sized chunks. It is compacted down to make it very secure (it’s used as a base for roads, too).

Then Mark had a layer of gravel added and pounded down, so that it, too, was very secure. This was followed by a top layer of gravel (‘so it’s only top few inches that move’, he says).

‘The National Trust uses a self-bonding gravel, for example,’ he says, ‘because it’s easy to lay and repair.’

More accessible garden path advice

Under the pergola, the gravel path slopes slightly. To stop gravel sliding down to the lowest part, it has been laid in lateral sections. This is a grid below the surface level of gravel so it can’t be seen.

Other options include poured rubber or even Tarmac. If you use pavers, remember that they can get uneven over time, which could be a trip hazard or be difficult for wheelchairs.

The gravel path with its timber lip concealing a long run of LED lighting. Here seen leading to the ‘white border.’

Paths need to be wide enough for two people can walk along them together. That also makes them wide enough for a wheelchair, a wheelbarrow, a buggy or perhaps for someone using a stick or walking frame or who has someone else walking beside them.

Edging is important

Edging is important in accessible gardens. Someone using a wheelchair or walking frame, the visually impaired or those using a stick need to feel where the path ends and the border begins. Mark has raised timber edges around his paths.

On top of the low timber edging, there is a small overhang (made of a fence topping, in fact). This means that his wheelchair can sense where the border is. And it also conceals a long run of LED lighting. ‘When it’s dark, the paths are lit and the whole garden seems to float above it,’ says Mark.

The almost teasel-like heads of Eryngium agavefolium and a cloud of blue Aster ‘Twilight’ are kept in their place by privet hedging.

He also has privet hedging at around hand height. This stops plants from flopping over the ground. It’s also at the right height – Mark can cut the privet edging himself.

Accessible garden seating

Seating is one of Mark’s bugbears. ‘Everyone is a different height, so why don’t we have different heights of seating in a garden?’ he asks. ‘

He suggests varying the heights of your seats, benches or perches around the garden, so that they are equally comfortable for children and very tall or small people.

In fact, this is something we do without thinking inside our homes. As an exercise, I’ve just checked the heights of the chairs and sofa in my sitting room. There are five different heights. Although they don’t vary hugely, one chair is much more comfortable for tall people. Another is my favourite (I’m the shortest in my immediate family).

Chairs (at two different seat heights) around a table that Mark can get his wheelchair under.

He also suggests having some garden benches with arm rests and others without, because if you want to transfer from a wheelchair to a bench, an armrest can get in the way.

And tables need to be a specific height for wheelchair users – you can’t get a wheelchair properly under some tables, even tables in restaurants.

A new look at garden lighting

Lighting is obviously a big safety issue, not just in accessible gardens but for all of us.

Mark says you should think of your garden lighting the way you think of the lighting in your home.

You’ll need big spotlights where you need to do practical things like take out bins or clear away tables, accent lights to outline a tree and atmospheric lighting at the table. But think about the height of a wheelchair – a row of bollard lights, for example, is at absolutely the wrong height. It will dazzle a wheelchair user.

He also says coloured lights should only be used decoratively – ‘it’s impossible for a wheelchair user to negotiate a path lined at ground level with rows of blue lights,’ he says. (I get the feeling he is thinking of a specific path here, as I’ve never seen a path lined with blue lights. But that might just mean I’m a bit behind the fashion.)

Should you choose easy-care planting?

Mark believes its important to get the structure of a garden right first, and then to consider the planting.

Like most garden experts, he just doesn’t really believe in what is called ‘low maintenance gardening’.

But he does point out that grasses and perennials are relatively easy care: ‘you chop them down once a year, and they pop up again the next’.

Forsythia in its autumn glory, hydrangea ‘Vanilla Fraise’ and the tree lupin or Lupinus Arboreus. Shrubs and perennials are easier to care for than annuals.

He also says it’s important to think about where branches and plants overhang – something that you might brush your hip against could hit a wheelchair user in the face.

Trees are also easy to look after, but don’t let branches overhang at the wrong height. Gleditsia shedding the last of its autumn leaves.

More of Mark’s garden on video

See more of Mark’s garden here on this video:

Be realistic

In the end, Mark says that there’s no such thing as a ‘fully accessible’ garden. People’s needs are so different. But he advises thinking in a logical way about the needs of the person or the group of people who are going to use the garden. There are more posts about garden design here: see Adam Frost’s garden design tips or discover the essentials of garden design from the professionals at KLC.

Find Mark Lane Designs here or catch up with BBC Gardeners World here. Mark is also involved with a number of charities, including Accessible Gardens.org, who have a directory of accessible gardens. When I mentioned this to a friend of mine she asked – aren’t they obliged to be accessible by law?

Well, there’s the law, and there’s commonsense – Mark says that designers may make an entrance wide enough for a wheelchair, but still have a small lip on the ground which stops the wheelchair in its tracks. And I don’t suppose that lip is much fun for those who have to trolley a wheelbarrow full of compost over it…

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Adam Frost’s top tips for your garden redesign

I asked garden designer Adam Frost  about garden redesign. Especially if you have a middlesized garden and have recently moved in.

(‘Recently’ in garden terms can be years, as we often do the work on the house first, or life is just too busy to do more than keep the garden under control.)

We met when he spoke at the Painters Forstal Garden Club. Before the talk started, we repaired to the hall’s mini-kitchen to discuss middle-sized gardens amid catering size packs of Rich Tea biscuits.

Surrounded by Rich Tea biscuits – it was a great treat to meet Adam to chat about garden redesign. He gave the Middlesized Garden some fab tips and he’s also a wonderful speaker (as you might expect). His advice is both inspiring and practical.

Adam Frost, of course, is a well known (and well loved) face on BBC Gardeners World. He has won seven Gold medals at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. And recently he started the Adam Frost Garden School in his new home in Lincolnshire.

So I asked him what his advice was to anyone planning a garden redesign for their middle-sized space. ‘Middle-sized’ on this blog is under an acre, but the average garden size in Britain is currently around 50ft long, so that was what we were talking about.

Or watch the video…

If you prefer watching a video, this also has Adam’s tips:

Don’t do anything when planning a garden redesign!

‘Get to know your garden before you do anything,’ says Adam. He himself has recently moved into a new house and garden. Before doing his own garden redesign, he’s followed his own advice:

‘When we moved into our house, I walked the space every evening and every morning, so that I really understood it.’

You might think that a garden designer would prioritise creating a wonderful garden before anything else.

‘But it’s better to understand it first,’ he advises. ‘Find out where the sun comes up, and where it goes down. Where are you drawn to in the garden? Is there anywhere you don’t really like? Why is that? Have you got a good view? Or something you want to hide? Is privacy an issue?’

‘Give it a whole growing season before you make changes. Don’t be in a hurry to slash and burn. You may inadvertently take out something that could have been a godsend.’

If you’ve been in your house for some time before deciding to ‘get the garden sorted’, then you’ve already done that bit. But it’s probably worth writing it all down.

Forget your prejudices

‘Forget any gut reaction you have on things you don’t like.’

This certainly resonates with me. When we first moved in, we were determined to get rid of a large cypress ‘Leylandii’.

After all, no-one ever has a good word for a Leylandii. However we keep this one under control by pruning it every few years. It adds evergreen structure to the garden and blocks an ugly street lamp. If we’d ripped out – and we so nearly did – the glare on our terrace would have been close to unbearable.

And once you have removed a mature tree, it can take years before its replacement can properly fulfill its role.

‘For example,’ says Adam, ‘you might instinctively want to remove a hedge and have a fence, but you’d be taking out a massive wildlife habitat. It’s really worth thinking about, and being sure that you’re doing the right thing.’

Every garden has a micro-climate

Every garden, no matter how middle-sized, has a micro-climate. Adam quotes the experience he had of growing four rows of kale. The kale nearest the garden wall grew more than twice the size of the other kales, because it was close to the warmth of the wall. And each row of kale got smaller and smaller as it got further away from the warmth of the brick.

Equally, you may find some pockets of cold.

Frost on garden privacy

Adam quotes ‘noisy neighbours’ and privacy as issues you may want to address in your garden redesign. To counteract noisy neighbours, he suggests adding a water feature and creating a cosy, secluded spot. You won’t lose all the noise but there’ll more of a sense of privacy.

And when it comes to privacy from over-looking windows, he cautions against planting trees against the fence at the bottom of the garden. ‘It could take 10-15 years before a tree is big enough to block a sight-line,’ he says. ‘But you can achieve an intimate, private feeling by planting smaller trees or shrubs round the terrace where you sit.’

A garden needs layers

‘Good gardens have the right amount of layers,’ he says. He believes that a good garden in the UK ‘reflects an English woodland. A woodland naturally has four layers.’

‘First you have your mature trees – your oaks and beeches. Then there are the smaller, younger trees.’

After that you’ll see the equivalent of shrubs – in some woodland you’ll see rhododendrons or hawthorn, growing sideways to make the most of the light. Then there are ferns and bracken – the equivalent of the herbaceous border.

And finally you get the lowest level – the snowdrops, bluebells, anemones and more. This is your bulb layer.’

I can see what he means. Think about a garden you’ve seen that doesn’t have any mature trees – just shrubs and herbaceous plants. It doesn’t feel right, does it?

It’s all about the soil

When Adam started to speak to us all in the hall, he asked how many of us had tested our soil. Only about half a dozen hands went up. There were about 100 people in the room.

I’m sorry to confess that I was not one of those who had tested their soil. He explained that it was essential. When he moved into his own new garden, he tested the soil in dozens of places, and even though he thought he could tell what it was like just by what was growing there, he still had quite a few surprises.

Experts have been telling me to test my soil for years. so I went online to research best soil testing kits. Going by the number of reviews and stars on Amazon, and also by checking soil testing kit reviews, I bought three soil testing kits.

They are the Moon City 3-in-1 soil tester and The Soil Test Kit with the Soil PH Test Kit . I will report back on them soon.

NB: links to Amazon are affiliate links, which means I may get a small fee if you buy through them, but it doesn’t affect the price you pay.

Plan your foliage before your flowers

If you have a gap, Adam suggests you forget about the colour of the flowers. Think about the leaf shape. ‘Put a plant with a different leaf form in the gap.’

This is a fascinating exercise. I have an empty space in the middle of a border. It is so difficult to avoid thinking about flower colour – it’s almost like trying to write left-handed if you’re right-handed.

But I am repeating ‘different leaf shape’ over and over again as a mantra.

Leaf contrast – I absolutely love this combination, and with the exception of the Hydrangea ‘Annabelle’, it is all about foliage. It was, however, a lucky accident – I didn’t plan it that way.

Plant for wildlife

‘We’ve lost 97% of our wildflower meadows in the last 10 years,’ says Adam. If you’re planning a garden redesign, then design in the wildlife, because our gardens can help fill that gap. And planting for wildlife doesn’t have to mean having a wildflower meadow.

A patch of meadow planting at our local Stonebridge Pond Allotments.

There are two posts that may be helpful here: what makes a good wildlife garden and how to plant a mini-wildflower meadow.

Or if you prefer video – here is how to plant a mini wildflower meadow and more tips in a tour of the wildlife-friendly Abbey Physic garden in from bare earth to wildlife sanctuary.

Repeat shapes and colours

In the talk to the Painters Forstal Gardening Club, Adam showed us how important repetition is. He advised us against planting a clump of one thing followed by a clump of another.

Instead he showed us how effective it is to repeat several groups of plants along a border.

He also advises simplifying borders by repeating the same colours along it. While doing your garden redesign, think about how you plant, not just what you plant.

Think about what word fits your garden redesign

Adam suggests summing up your garden with a word. It could be ‘calm’ or ‘romantic’. ‘Then,’ he says, ‘assess something you want to buy against that word. Tell yourself that if it’s not ‘romantic’ or ‘calm’, then it’s not coming home.’

Finally…

‘Don’t chase the dream that it’s got to be perfect all summer,’ says Adam. ‘Enjoy the moments, find your own way, and don’t worry about what anyone else thinks.’

Adam’s talk to the Painter’s Forstal Gardening Club was enormously enjoyable and helpful, too. You can find out more about his garden design service, garden school and availability for talks on adamfrost.co.uk

Catch up with the BBC Gardeners World here.

And do join us on the Middlesized Garden every Sunday morning (leave your email in the box) or the Middlesized Garden YouTube channel every Saturday. Thank you!

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What are the risks when you blog for money?

Do you blog, vlog or podcast for money? And if so, are you doing it legally?

Or are you risking your blog being removed from Google listings?

Perhaps you get sent products for review? Surely that doesn’t count as an ‘advertisement’?

This isn’t just about bloggers. You need to know the rules if you’re doing videos, podcasts and social media posts….because things are happening out there.

Every so often, I do a post about blogging rather than gardening. And now the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) is getting increasingly interested in the relationships between bloggers/influencers and brands, so it’s time for a blogging update.

The ASA has been working with bloggers, including Kat Molesworth of Blogtacular to make its rules on advertising and disclosure clearer. There’s been a recent re-release of the rules that cover how to blog for money: ‘They’re the same rules,’ says Kat. ‘But they’ve made them easier to understand.’

Download the ASA’s guidance here. Please note that this post doesn’t constitute legal advice. It’s your responsibility to check the guidelines and to consult a qualified lawyer if you’re in any doubt.

But I don’t do advertising…do I?

In the Garden Media Guild magazine recently, there was an interview with Graham Paskett of Paskett PR, who handle a number of garden brands. When asked what he disliked about the garden media industry at the moment, he said ‘the increasing blurring between editorial and advertising.’

In fact, the ASA is quite clear on what constitutes advertising and what doesn’t.

However, it is much more complicated than it was. There are rules. However, quite a few people (digital media agencies, in particular) are failing to respect them. And that makes it more difficult for everyone.

I have had literally hundreds of emails from media agencies this year wanting to work with the Middlesized Garden. As soon as I make it clear that I follow the ASA rules and Google’s guidelines, they vanish.

And then – a few weeks later – I see their clients’ products on other blogs and not following the ASA regulations properly. Which means they may also be risking the wrath of Google.

Natalie Lue of the Baggage Reclaim blog talking at Blogtacular about how to earn from your blog.

I recently attended a brilliant workshop on how to blog for money (This Blog Means Business), run by Blogtacular, where this subject was covered.

Disclosure: Blogtacular haven’t paid me in any way. In fact, I paid them. And it was well worth every penny – there’s an annual Blogtacular event every year, and if you want to blog, I strongly recommend that you go on their mailing list to hear about early-bird tickets. 

What’s disclosure?

If you run a blog, vlog or podcast or you post on social media  (even if you don’t blog for money) you need to know about disclosure.

If you read blogs, watch videos, listen to podcasts… it’s a good idea to understand disclosure. So you can tell if you’re being sort-of fibbed to.

And if you work for a company that deals with bloggers, vloggers or social media influencers in any way, you really, really need to know about disclosure.

Disclosure is explaining the money to readers. You have to be clear, and you have to do it at the earliest possible opportunity.

You have to explain the money….

For example, you – Ms or Mr Blogger-Vlogger-Influencer – write about choosing garden furniture. You’ve been paid a fee by John’s Kentish Garden Furniture Company. So you base it around their garden furniture (although, of course, your opinions will be your own).

So you must make it clear that you have been paid. Or you can label it ‘advertisement’, ‘advertorial’ or ‘ad’.

You are legally required to do that at the beginning of the post, video or podcast, NOT at the end.

And it can’t be weaselled over – ‘with thanks to John’s Kentish Garden Furniture’, ‘collaborative post’ or some other vague wording. You blog for money and John paid you. Readers need to know. At the earliest possible opportunity.

But surely then nobody will read it…?

Successful bloggers/vloggers usually say that they would only work with companies they’d be proud to work with. Full acknowledgement – upfront – is part of that.

One of my all-time top 10 posts is The Best Plants for Amazingly Low Maintenance Garden Pots. It was sponsored by Phostrogen/Baby Bio.  It’s had over 64,000 page views since it was published in May 2017. The sponsorship disclosure comes immediately after the intro, with product information at the end. Being upfront about it doesn’t seem to have harmed the post.

I enjoyed working with Phostrogen and Baby Bio. There was no issue – we were completely upfront about the sponsorship, and it’s been one of my most successful posts.

Admittedly, some people won’t like the fact that you blog for money. We are a bit squeamish (or snobby) when talking about such things in Britain. But we don’t like being misled, either.

What if it’s an ongoing relationship?

Suppose you have a long-term collaboration with a brand. Do you have to explain it every time you mention them on your blog, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter?

The guidelines say that even if regular followers know you’re sponsored, the commercial relationship needs to be clear to anyone who comes across a post and who isn’t a regular follower of yours. Recently a beauty blogger was ruled against by the ASA because of an Instagram post about a beauty product, which didn’t have any indication it was an advertisement. In her Instagram bio, it said that she was ‘brand ambassador’ for the beauty company, but that wasn’t enough.

What about affiliate sales?

In the US, most people understand what an affiliate link is. So you can say ‘affiliate link’ and that’s enough disclosure. (Affiliate links count as ‘advertising’, btw).

Here in the UK and Europe, you need to explain it. You don’t have to go into as much dreary detail as I do. Now that I’ve discovered that I am saying too much (at Blogtacular) I’m going to scale it back.

But, once again, the disclosure must come as soon as it’s needed. So if, halfway through a post, you recommend Monty Don’s book Down To Earth, with an affiliate link to Amazon, then you have to disclose that you may get a small fee – at that point or earlier.

This mention of  Down To Earth  is indeed an affiliate link. I usually say ‘Links to Amazon are affiliate links, which means I may get a small fee if you buy through them, but it doesn’t affect the price you pay. Other links are not affiliate.’

In fact, to comply with the rules, I just have to say ‘Links to Amazon are affiliate – find out more here’ with a link through to the full disclosure.

Or you can do it near the beginning of the whole post, as the Empress of Dirt blog does.

You have to display a badge saying you’re an Amazon affiliate (there’s one on the top right of this page), but that’s not enough on its own. Nor is burying the info at the bottom of the post. You risk violating both ASA rules and Amazon’s own disclosure guidelines. They may close your Amazon affiliates account without paying you.

Considering that my affiliate link explanation is so long, you’d think it would put people off. But I still make about £70 a month from Amazon affiliate links.

I don’t know if that’s good or bad, as I don’t know what other bloggers earn. But I will be interested to see if making my explanation shorter increases my income from Amazon. I might find (perversely) that it doesn’t, but will report back.

But it’s not just the ASA – there’s also Google

If you vlog, podcast or blog for money and you write about a company that is paying you (in any way), Google guidelines say you must use ‘no-follow’ links.

If you break this rule and are found out, then Google will stop listing you. It will also de-list the company that paid you.

A company or blog that doesn’t appear on Google is virtually invisible.  Companies and blogs all want to come high up on Google when someone searches for something – and certainly when someone searches for their actual name.

If your company is called John’s Kentish Garden Furniture, you would like to appear if someone searches for ‘garden furniture in Kent’.

And you certainly want to appear if someone puts John’s Kentish Garden Furniture into a search engine because it means they not only wants garden furniture, they want your garden furniture.

But a few years ago, a big flower delivery company found itself not even ranking for its own name for a few months, let alone for ‘flower delivery’. Google had taken it off its listings.

What is follow and no-follow?

I often link to Posy Gentles’ garden consultancy website, because I think she’s very good at garden ideas and I often quote her. The link is an ordinary ‘follow’ link which means Google can see it. I’m effectively saying – to both you and Google – that I am personally recommending Posy.

Posy Gentles consulting – I can quote her with an ordinary (follow) link, because it’s a personal recommendation and I haven’t been paid in any way.

Websites that have ‘follow’ links from reputable sites rank higher up when you search on Google.

But if I’ve been paid in any way, then Google says it should be a ‘no-follow’ link or both parties risk being taken out of Google’s rankings completely (no-one knows if the flower company was de-listed due to follow links or whether there was another issue, by the way).

You, the reader, can click through on a ‘no-follow’ link and get all the information or buy the product. You won’t see any difference between a follow and a no-follow link.

But Google won’t follow it and it won’t improve the company’s ranking.

And here’s where it all goes horribly wrong…

Media agencies want to build their client’s follow links to push them up the Google rankings. So they offer to pay for follow links. Sometimes they want them ‘inserted’ into a post that’s already published. Or they insist that sponsored blog posts must have follow links.

Now here’s the thing. The media agency is not risking their own company being de-listed by Google. They’re risking your blog being de-listed. And their client’s website. I often wonder whether client companies realise what’s going on.

Because I don’t think I’ve ever known an actual gardening company or brand suggest circumventing these rules. Also, it’s rare for professional PRs to insist on follow links, too. But the pressure from other media agencies is relentless.

So if your company has engaged an agency, find out exactly what they’re up to. They may say it doesn’t matter. Or they may say it’s perfectly legal to pay for follow links. Which is correct. It’s not illegal, but it does have serious consequences if Google finds out.

And the Googlebots get very suspicious when they see a sudden increase in follow links to a particular company’s website.

To find out how to do no follow links, see Dummies or How to add a no follow tag to a link.

Er…what about ‘anchor text’?

Anchor text is a really sneaky one. You write your post about choosing garden furniture. When you say garden furniture, you highlight it and link it back to John’s Kentish Garden Furniture’s website (why did I invent a company with such a long name? Let’s call it JKGF).

If this is a follow link, then this helps JKGF to rank for higher up in Google when people search for ‘garden furniture’ online. The words ‘garden furniture’ are the anchor text. The reader has no idea that the link has been paid for.

The agency breezily says – in its email to the blogger –  that it’ll tell you what words to link to in the post. The word I particularly link to at this point is ‘delete’. It’s in the top right of my mailbox….

So you always have to say when you vlog or blog for money?

Yes. Blogs, vlogs and podcasts don’t usually sell subscriptions. And we probably don’t get much out of taking standard banner advertisements (I haven’t tried it yet). There are various other ways of running a blog for money. A company can pay you to do social media. You can get a fee for affiliate links. Or you can use it to promote your other work or launch your own products.

And there are the softer ways of payment – free products, invitations to events, press trips…

The green bag was sent to me by the RHS as part of its gift range. It included Burgon & Ball tools, a mug and a scented candle diffuser. The quality is very high – as you would expect. But, however reputable brands are, I believe we need to see, handle and use things before recommending them.

The ASA definition is that an advertisement = payment + control. Payment can be product, vouchers or trips etc as well as money.

If a company gives you anything on the understanding that you will do something specific in return, then that is an advertisement. You must say so.

But it’s not an advertisment when…

If you get sent a review product, but you decide whether and when you review it and what you say, then it’s not an advertisement (provided that the company hasn’t asked for any sort of control, such as copy clearance or particular links).

The photo above shows a bag sent to me by the RHS with products to review. They had no idea when or if I was going to review the product. There were no demands as to links or wording. It doesn’t count as advertising.

You have to disclose you were sent it for free, but most bloggers do anyway.

I think it would be almost impossible to recommend a product without trying it. Blogs are very personal and you can’t put your name behind something you’ve never used. Nor can you buy every product you want to write about. And I think both readers and legislators recognise that.

It’s not fair…

When you read a travel article in a national newspaper or magazine, does it make it clear that the trip has been free? Right at the beginning? Or is it in the small print at the bottom of the article?

And what about those huge glossy advertisements? It’s well known that there’s pressure (strongly resisted, though) for their company’s products to be included in ‘editorial’? I think we garden writers are lucky that there is less advertising in gardening than there is in fashion/beauty, so we’re much less likely to be on the sharp end of this one.

Do the book review pages say that all the books reviewed have been sent for free? Or the beauty products? Newspapers and magazines don’t usually buy products for review, so pretty much everything will have been sent in free, but I’ve never seen that disclosed.

So perhaps it’s not fair that those who blog for money must sometimes work to higher standards of transparency than the traditional mainstream media.  The answer, however, is to complain to the ASA, not to risk your own blog by flouting the rules.

Working with brands can be so exciting…

Working with brands can be very exciting, provided that it’s not just about links, click-throughs and money. When a brand or a blogger comes up with an idea, and both sides contribute (time, effort, creativity, contacts, expertise and – yes – finance), the results benefit the blogger, the brand and the consumer. There’s no need to try to deceive anyone.

The current #allotmentfashionweek run by blogger Grow Like Grandad is a good example. It’s fun, different and upfront about its sponsorship from Empathy Rootgrow. It looks great.

So what now?

If your company is paying an agency to ‘improve its Google ranking’, do please pass this round for discussion.

And if you think we should be open about who pays us when we podcast, vlog or blog for money, then please do share this post. If we all stand together, we can say ‘no’ to misleading demands.

We can be open and proud about saying ‘Yes, we blog for money.’

And if you don’t think I’ve been fair or accurate, please let me know on Twitter, Facebook or here in the comments. Thank you!

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