How do I cool a greenhouse down overnight?
A greenhouse that stays warm all night gives plants no recovery period and costs fruit set. Why it holds heat, and the vent arrangement that empties it after dark.
beginner15 min4 min read
Seasonal Tasks
What to do now, and what can wait.
69 guides in Garden
How do I get the most from a greenhouse?
Ventilation, shading and hygiene — the three things that determine whether a greenhouse works or cooks.
intermediate1 hr 30 min2 min readHow do I use a cold frame properly?
What a cold frame is genuinely for through the year, how to ventilate it so it does not cook, and the week-long routine that hardens plants off properly.
beginner1 hr5 min readHow do I use a greenhouse properly?
Ventilation, shading, watering and winter cleaning — the four things that determine whether a greenhouse works.
intermediate2 hr2 min readWhen should I cut back herbaceous perennials?
The case for leaving stems standing over winter, the plants that genuinely need cutting in autumn, and how to get both a tidy garden and the wildlife benefit.
beginner1 hr 30 min3 min readDo I need to water pots in winter?
The container plants that die of drought between November and March, why rain never reaches them, and how to water in cold weather without causing more harm than you prevent.
beginner5 min3 min readHow do I adjust a published frost date for my own garden?
The five site factors that shift your frost dates away from the nearest weather station's — altitude, hollows, aspect, urban heat and the sea — and how to combine them into a correction you can actually use.
intermediate20 min4 min readHow do I overwinter tender plants?
Bringing plants through the cold months, whether by lifting, wrapping or simply moving them somewhere sheltered.
intermediate1 hr 30 min2 min readWhat can I grow in an unheated greenhouse over winter?
The crops that genuinely produce in a cold greenhouse from November to March, why light rather than temperature sets the limit, and how to stop everything rotting.
intermediate45 min5 min readWhat garden jobs have to be done before the first frost?
The short list of jobs with a genuine deadline rather than a preference — what the first frost destroys, in the order it destroys it, so nothing is lost to a night you did not see coming.
beginner3 hr4 min readIs it too late to plant spring bulbs?
The real deadlines for each kind of spring bulb, why late planting usually still works, and what to do with a bag of bulbs you have found in the shed in January.
beginner15 min4 min readWhen is each fruit ready to pick in the UK?
A month-by-month picture of the UK garden fruit season from forced rhubarb in April to late apples in October, and how to plan a garden that produces something for six months.
beginner15 min3 min readWhy does winter wet kill more plants than winter cold?
Why a plant rated hardy enough for your area still dies in a mild winter, what waterlogged cold soil actually does to roots, and the order in which the four winter survival factors really matter.
beginner12 min4 min readHow do I protect a greenhouse from storms and frost?
Greenhouses fail in two ways over winter — wind lifts the structure and glass, and frost kills what is inside. Both are prevented by work done before the weather arrives, not during it.
beginner2 hr6 min readHow do I shade and cool a polytunnel?
A polytunnel heats faster than a glasshouse and shades differently, because you cannot paint the polythene and the ends do most of the ventilating.
beginner25 min4 min readShould I clear up fallen leaves or leave them?
Where fallen leaves do harm and must come off, where they do good and should stay, and the surfaces where they are purely a safety problem.
beginner1 hr4 min readWhat is a frost pocket and is my garden in one?
How cold air drains downhill on still nights and pools where it cannot escape, the signs that your garden collects it, and the two things you can do about it.
beginner20 min4 min readWhy do my pears go from rock hard to mushy overnight?
Pears are the one tree fruit that must be picked unripe and ripened off the tree — how to know when to pick, how to control the ripening, and the neck test that catches the right day.
beginner20 min4 min readHow do I recover a garden after a storm?
The order to work in after a storm — power lines, unstable overhead, blocked drains and exits, then the plants — and what genuinely saves a blown-over plant.
intermediate2 hr5 min readWhat is the difference between an air frost and a ground frost?
The two frosts a forecast reports, why ground frost happens far more often and matters more to seedlings, and how to read a forecast that mentions one but not the other.
beginner8 min3 min readHow do I measure soil temperature and why does it matter more than air temperature?
Where and when to take a soil reading so it means something, why cold soil rather than cold air is what stops seeds germinating, and how to warm a bed before you sow into it.
beginner10 min4 min readHow do I wrap a tree fern or banana for winter?
Protecting the growing point rather than the whole plant, the wrapping order that keeps water out, and when to take it all off again.
intermediate1 hr 30 min4 min readShould I plant in autumn or spring?
The genuine trade-off between the two planting seasons, which plants and which soils clearly favour one over the other, and the four questions that settle it for your garden.
beginner12 min5 min readHow do I map the microclimates in my garden?
A year-long survey done in ten-minute instalments that tells you which parts of your garden are warm, cold, wet, dry, windy and shaded — and stops you killing plants by putting the right one in the wrong place.
beginner1 hr4 min read