How do I prune a new hedge in its first few years?
Formative pruning — cutting back hard when every instinct says not to, and building the tapered profile that keeps a hedge dense at the base for its whole life.
intermediate1 hr 30 min5 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 prune a rambling rose?
Pruning immediately after flowering rather than in winter, the renewal cut that takes whole canes out at the base, and the case for barely pruning a rambler at all.
intermediate2 hr5 min readHow do I put up wires for a climber on a wall?
Vine eyes into mortar joints, the standoff that lets a plant breathe and a twiner wrap, sensible wire spacing, and the hinged-trellis alternative when the wall will need maintenance.
intermediate2 hr5 min readHow do I save seeds from my own plants?
Which plants come true from saved seed, how to dry and store it, and how long each type stays viable.
intermediate45 min2 min readHow do I service a petrol lawnmower myself?
The four jobs that make up an annual service — oil, air filter, spark plug and blade — and the order and details that make each worth doing.
intermediate1 hr 30 min5 min readHow do I stop birds and cats damaging my garden?
Physical barriers and deterrents that work, applied humanely, plus the ones that reliably do nothing.
beginner45 min2 min readHow do I stop birds eating my cherries?
Why cherries are the hardest fruit to protect, the netting that works without trapping birds, and the tree size and form decisions that make protection possible at all.
intermediate1 hr 30 min5 min readHow do I stop seed trays drying out in the greenhouse?
Small cells in a sunny greenhouse can dry out in a single morning. Capillary matting, sand benches, covers and positioning — what actually holds moisture without drowning the seedlings.
beginner20 min4 min readHow do I tell if manure is well rotted enough to use?
The look, smell, heat and structure of manure that is ready — and why 'well rotted' answers the scorching question but says nothing at all about herbicide residue.
beginner15 min4 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 readShould I buy an aluminium or a wooden greenhouse?
Frame material changes maintenance, insulation, cost, light and how easy the greenhouse is to fit things to. An honest comparison of aluminium, western red cedar and softwood.
beginner10 min3 min readShould I line a wooden planter, and how?
The liner that makes a timber planter last a decade and the almost identical one that rots it in two years — where the liner stops, where the holes go, and why the base is different from the sides.
beginner45 min4 min readWhat can I actually do in the garden during a hosepipe ban?
What a temporary use ban restricts and what it does not, where to check the rules that apply to you, and how to keep a garden going on cans, butts and greywater.
beginner12 min4 min readWhat plants survive a really windy garden?
What wind actually does to a plant, the leaf and growth characteristics that survive it, and why filtering the wind beats blocking it.
beginner25 min4 min readWhen is the soil too wet to dig or walk on?
The smear test settles it in ten seconds — and on clay, getting the answer wrong in February costs you three years of structure.
beginner10 min3 min readWhy are my blueberry leaves turning yellow?
Lime-induced chlorosis in blueberries — how tap water causes it, why it looks like a nutrient shortage when the nutrient is present, and the permanent fix.
beginner20 min3 min readWhy are my leaves mottled yellow and green?
Whether the mottle respects the veins, repeats identically and relates to anything at all — the test that separates virus from nutrients, variegation and scorch.
intermediate18 min4 min readWhy did my plant droop as soon as I planted it?
Transplant shock is a supply problem, not an illness — what to do in the first fortnight, and the three mistakes that turn a wobble into a death.
beginner15 min5 min readWhy do my apples have black scabby patches?
The fungal disease behind cracked, corky black patches on apples and olive blotches on the leaves, why wet springs make it bad, and the leaf clearance that breaks its cycle.
beginner30 min3 min readWhy do my blueberries hardly crop?
Blueberries need acid conditions, rainwater, a second variety for cross-pollination and consistent moisture — and a poor crop nearly always traces to one of those four.
beginner30 min5 min readWhy do my plant's leaves have bleached white patches?
Telling sun scorch from disease, chemical damage and frost, and the pattern that identifies each in a couple of minutes.
beginner15 min3 min readWhy do my strawberry plants have lots of leaves and no fruit?
Six causes in the order worth checking — plant age, nitrogen, frosted flowers, runners, shade and pollination — with the black-centred flower that identifies frost damage instantly.
beginner25 min4 min readWhy does artificial grass get so hot, and can I cool it?
Plastic fibres over a solid base have no water to evaporate and nothing to cool them, so they run far hotter than real grass. What genuinely reduces it and what does not.
beginner12 min5 min readWhy does my apple tree only fruit every other year?
How a tree gets locked into cropping in alternate years, why a frost or a heavy crop starts it, and the blossom thinning that is the only reliable way out.
intermediate1 hr4 min read