How do I test old seed before sowing a whole bed?
A ten-seed kitchen-towel test that takes minutes, tells you the germination rate as a percentage, and saves you a bed of gaps and three weeks of waiting.
beginner15 min4 min read
Growing Vegetables
Food you can realistically grow at home.
110 guides in Garden
Why are my beetroot small, woody or running to seed?
Beetroot problems nearly all trace to one of three things: multiple seedlings from one seed cluster, a check to growth, or a cold spell after sowing.
beginner12 min4 min readWhy are my runner beans tough and stringy?
Stringiness is a maturity problem with a variety component — the picking size that avoids it, the stringless varieties, and what to do with the ones you missed.
beginner10 min3 min readWhy is my kale covered in grey powdery aphids?
Mealy cabbage aphid gets into the growing point and inside sprout buttons where nothing can reach it — catching it early, cutting it out, and clearing the overwintering source.
beginner15 min3 min readHow do I force rhubarb for early stalks?
Excluding light from a dormant crown produces tender pink stalks weeks early — the timing, the covering, and the recovery rule that stops you killing the plant.
beginner20 min4 min readHow do I grow chillies and peppers?
Starting early enough, providing enough warmth, and the feeding that determines whether you get fruit or just foliage.
intermediate1 hr2 min readWhy have my peas stopped cropping so soon?
Peas are a cool-season crop with a short natural window — how mildew, heat and picking rate end a row early, and how to have peas for months instead of weeks.
beginner12 min4 min readWhy is my cauliflower forming a tiny head?
Buttoning is a check to growth in a plant that then flowers anyway — the transplant, water and nitrogen faults that cause it, plus ricey and blind curds.
intermediate15 min4 min readDo I need two apple trees to get fruit?
How apple pollination groups work, when a single tree is enough, and the family trees and crab apples that solve it in one plant.
beginner25 min3 min readHow do I grow courgettes?
One of the easiest and most productive crops, plus the mildew and pollination problems that occasionally interrupt it.
beginner1 hr2 min readHow do I plant an asparagus bed, and when can I start cutting?
A twenty-year crop planted once — the site and drainage that decide everything, the crowns-versus-seed question, and the cutting discipline in the first three years.
intermediate2 hr5 min readHow do I stop caterpillars eating my cabbages?
Why netting is the only reliable answer, the mesh size that actually excludes the butterflies, and what to do when they get in anyway.
beginner1 hr3 min readShould I grow in the greenhouse border or in pots?
The border gives a bigger root run and a better crop but accumulates disease. Pots, bags and ring culture avoid that at the cost of daily watering. How to choose, and how to have both.
beginner15 min4 min readShould I sow seeds in modules or straight into the ground?
Which crops resent being moved, where modules buy you weeks, and the UK-specific reasons direct sowing so often fails in spring.
beginner15 min4 min readWhy are my courgettes rotting before they grow?
Why small fruit yellows and shrivels at the end — poor pollination in most cases — and how to hand pollinate in a wet or cold summer.
beginner20 min3 min readWhy are my parsnips small, forked or rotting at the shoulder?
Three separate parsnip problems that get confused — a short season, an obstructed tap root, and parsnip canker at the crown — and what each one actually needs.
beginner15 min4 min readWhy are my seedlings collapsing at soil level?
Recognising damping off, why it cannot be cured once it starts, and the hygiene and watering that prevent it entirely.
beginner20 min3 min readWhy do my potatoes have rough scabby patches?
Common scab is a skin blemish, not a rot — how to tell it from powdery scab and from blight, whether the potatoes are still good, and the watering that prevents it.
beginner12 min3 min readCan I grow vegetables in buckets and old containers?
Which household and builders' containers make genuinely good vegetable pots, the plastics to avoid, and the drainage and depth checks that turn a bucket into a working planter.
beginner25 min3 min readShould I line a raised bed?
Which surfaces of a raised bed benefit from a liner and which must be left open, plus the specific cases where a base liner is right.
beginner30 min3 min readWhy do my flowers open and then drop off without setting fruit?
Flowers that open, wither and fall with no fruit behind them are a pollination or a temperature problem far more often than a feeding one.
beginner15 min4 min readWhy do my leeks have orange streaks on the leaves?
Allium rust is disfiguring, common in a wet British summer and rarely fatal — how to confirm it, whether the crop is still edible, and the four things that reduce it.
beginner12 min3 min readCan I grow food from kitchen scraps?
Which scraps genuinely regrow something worth eating, and which are an interesting science experiment and nothing more.
beginner30 min2 min readCan I grow tomatoes and cucumbers in the same greenhouse?
The old advice says never. The real answer is that they want different humidity and shading, and there are three practical ways to keep both happy in one house.
beginner10 min3 min read