When should I start sowing seeds?
Working backwards from your last frost date rather than from the calendar, and why sowing early is the commonest mistake.
beginner20 min4 min read
Garden
Seasonal, practical gardening for people with a normal garden and a normal amount of time. Timings are given for a temperate northern-hemisphere climate — adjust for yours.
687 guides
How do I grow tomatoes?
Growing tomatoes from seed or plug to harvest — sowing times, potting on, feeding, pinching out side shoots and avoiding the common diseases.
beginner7 days3 min readHow do I choose and look after a real Christmas tree?
Which species drop and which do not, the cut that lets it drink, and the watering routine that decides everything.
beginner45 min4 min readHow do I find out my last and first frost dates?
Where to get a frost date for your part of the country, what the two dates actually mean statistically, and how to turn them into the two numbers every sowing and planting decision counts back from.
beginner25 min5 min readHow do I keep a garden watered while I am away?
Reducing what needs watering before you go, the automatic and passive options, and the plants worth asking a neighbour about.
beginner1 hr4 min readHow do I grow herbs?
Which herbs are easy, what each one actually wants, and how to keep a windowsill or pot going all year.
beginner3 days2 min readHow do I keep the garden watered while I am on holiday?
A fortnight away in August is what kills more containers than any drought. The preparation that genuinely works, ranked by how long it buys you and how much it costs.
beginner45 min6 min readWhich bits do I pinch out on a tomato plant?
Telling a side shoot from a flower truss and a leaf, where the shoot actually grows, and the plants you must not do this to at all.
beginner10 min4 min readDo I need permission to cut down a tree in my garden?
The four separate things that can stop you felling a tree — a preservation order, a conservation area, a planning condition and a felling licence — and how to check each before you commit to anything.
beginner30 min5 min readHow do I start composting?
How to set up a compost heap that works — the greens-to-browns balance, what to include, and why most heaps fail.
beginner2 hr3 min readCan I cut branches overhanging from my neighbour's tree?
The general position on the right of abatement, the four limits on it that people routinely get wrong, and the sequence that keeps a hedge-trimming afternoon from becoming a legal dispute.
beginner30 min5 min readHow do I find out what type of soil I have?
Two tests that settle it — the ribbon test in two minutes and the jar test overnight — plus what the answer changes about watering, feeding and what you can grow.
beginner20 min4 min readHow often should I water and feed tomatoes in a growbag?
Why a growbag is the hardest place to grow a tomato, the watering rhythm that prevents splitting and blossom end rot, and when to switch feeds.
beginner10 min5 min readHow do I deal with insects indoors and out in summer?
Excluding rather than killing, the specific answer for each of the common summer insects, and when it becomes a job for someone else.
beginner45 min4 min readHow do I get ahead of weeds for the season?
Killing weeds while they are small, the difference annual and perennial makes, and why bare soil is the real problem.
beginner1 hr 30 min4 min readHow do I get rid of silverfish?
Why they are a damp signal rather than a hygiene one, and why drying the room out ends it when spraying does not.
beginner45 min4 min readHow do I improve my soil?
How to work out what kind of soil you have, and the organic matter approach that improves clay, sand and everything between.
beginner4 hr3 min readHow do I make an outdoor space usable in the evening?
Light, warmth and insects — the three things that decide whether a garden gets used after dark, in the order that matters.
beginner1 hr 30 min4 min readHow do I prepare soil for planting?
Finding out what soil you have, adding organic matter, and why digging is usually the wrong instinct.
beginner2 hr4 min readWhen and how do I make the first lawn cut of the year?
The temperature that decides the timing rather than the date, and why the first cut must be high.
beginner1 hr4 min readWhen should I cut my hedge?
The cutting windows for the common UK hedge species, why they differ, and the nesting-bird check that comes before all of them.
beginner20 min4 min readWhy are my plant leaves turning yellow?
Reading the pattern of yellowing to tell watering problems from feeding problems from disease.
beginner15 min2 min readWhy are my tomatoes splitting and cracking?
Splitting is caused by the change in water supply rather than the amount, plus the two crack patterns and which of them matters.
beginner15 min5 min readWhy are my runner beans flowering but not setting pods?
Runner beans need insects, moisture at the root and night temperatures below the mid-teens to set — which of the three you are missing, and what actually works.
beginner15 min4 min read