What to do now, and what can wait.
69 guides in Garden
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.
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.
The four conditions that all have to be met before tender plants go outside permanently, why waiting a fortnight usually produces a better plant, and what to do if you have already planted and a frost is coming.
The order of jobs in early spring, and what to leave alone rather than tidying too early.
The autumn jobs that matter — protecting tender plants, mulching, clearing (and not clearing), and looking after tools and pots.
Why pots freeze when the ground does not, protecting roots rather than leaves, and saving the pot as well as the plant.
How to work out what to sow whenever you are reading this, using frost dates and soil temperature rather than a fixed calendar.
The short list of spring lawn jobs that are worth doing, in the order the weather allows them, and the popular ones that are better left until autumn.
The order to do things in when the forecast says thirty degrees — what actually brings the temperature down, what makes no difference, and which plants to move out entirely.
The temperatures at which growth slows, pollination fails, ripening stops and damage begins are all different. Which one you have hit tells you how urgently to act.
Hot weather strips oxygen out of pond water while simultaneously increasing what everything in it needs. Aeration, shade and restraint — and the one thing never to do to a struggling pond.
Why one clear night in April costs a whole year's fruit, how to tell whether blossom has been killed, and the fleecing, siting and variety choices that actually work.
Where the lining goes, why it must be clipped to the bars rather than taped to the glass, which faces to do first if you only line part of it, and the light cost you are accepting.
More container plants are lost to saturated compost between November and March than to cold. The five changes that keep a pot draining through a British winter, and why they matter more than fleece.
A season-by-season list of what actually needs doing in a normal garden, and what can safely wait.
Getting tender perennials, citrus and cuttings through a British winter under glass — the water regime, the ventilation that prevents grey mould, and why most losses are damp rather than cold.
What to cover and in what order when a frost is forecast onto growth that has already broken, why soft new growth is the vulnerable part, and what to do the morning after.
The lift-and-twist test, what the pips tell you, and why an early apple and a keeping apple are picked at completely different stages of ripeness.
What to do before, during and after a hot spell — which plants to prioritise, what shading actually helps, and the jobs to stop doing until it passes.
What frost actually damages, the protection that works, and how to help a plant that has already been hit.
Which varieties keep and which never will, the cool damp dark conditions apples actually want, and the sorting and checking routine that stops one rotten apple taking the tray.
How much protection fleece actually gives, the two things people get wrong — laying it on the leaves and leaving it open at the bottom — and how to keep it usable for several seasons.
How to take on an overgrown garden without destroying what is worth keeping — survey and hazard check first, cut to see, then wait a full year before making permanent decisions.
What frost actually does to plant tissue, why the youngest growth goes first, and the strong case for leaving the damage exactly where it is.