Your gardener in Great Malvern, from the hill roads to the Link

Great Malvern's problem — and the reason its gardens are worth the effort — is that the whole town is built on a hill. Between the Worcestershire Beacon above and the Priory below, the Victorian villas step down the slope in terraces: retaining walls, flights of steps, lawns you reach through a gate and down again. Working here often means carrying kit down and hauling green waste back up, and that's fine — it's what I'm set up for.

The soil changes as you climb: thin and acid up near the hill, where the Malvern Hills National Landscape starts at the top of some gardens, heavier and kinder down on the flat. What thrives on the ridge sulks down on the flat, and planting advice is part of the visit when you want it. Thin ground up top is where mulching earns its keep fastest.

The town itself — North Malvern up the hill, Malvern Link and Barnards Green on the flat, Poolbrook to the east — is the core of the round. The villages ring it.

Guarlford and Madresfield

East of the Link the ground flattens into commons-and-court country: Guarlford strung along its common, Madresfield around the court and its moat. Big hedges, long verges, gardens that run to orchard corners.

Newland

Newland is the small triangle by the Three Counties Showground — the ground the RHS Spring Festival fills each May — with gardens that hear every event across the hedge.

The ridge and the Wells

On and over the hill: West Malvern takes the weather first, The Wyche and Upper Colwall sit in the gap itself, and south of town the slope eases through Malvern Wells to Little Malvern below the Beacon.

Terraces, steps and slopes are the daily bread: hedges on retaining walls, beds cut into banks, grass paths between levels. If you want a gardener in Great Malvern who's set up for exactly that, call 07443 797 834 and tell me which bit of the hill you're on.

The garden is terraced up the hillside with steps-only access — can you actually work it?

Yes — steps-only is normal for Great Malvern. I carry compact kit that can go up and down stairs, and green waste comes out by the bag. It takes a little longer than a flat garden of the same size, and that's the only difference.

What actually grows in the thin, acid soil this close to the hills?

More than you'd think — heathers, rhododendrons, azaleas and camellias are the classic upslope choices here, and plenty of natives cope fine. The trick is working with the acidity rather than fighting it. Happy to suggest planting that suits your level of the hill.

Looking for a gardener in Guarlford or Madresfield — or just on the flat side of town?

Both ends are the same round. Barnards Green, Malvern Link and Poolbrook are covered the same as the hill streets, and the villages east — Guarlford, Madresfield, out to Newland — with them. Flat lawns are the quick half of Great Malvern.