Why does my lettuce bolt so quickly?
The heat and stress triggers that send lettuce to seed, and the sowing, siting and variety choices that give a summer-long supply.
beginner20 min3 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
Why does my plum tree flower but never fruit?
Plums flower early and heavily, which makes frost the usual culprit, but pollination groups, biennial cropping, aphids and a shy young tree all account for their share.
intermediate30 min4 min readWhy does my water butt smell and go green?
Why stored rainwater goes green and sour, whether it is still usable, and the four changes that keep a butt clean all season.
beginner1 hr5 min readWhy has my clematis suddenly wilted and died back?
Telling clematis wilt from drought and from slug damage, why a wilted plant usually recovers, and the planting depth that makes it survivable.
beginner25 min3 min readWhy has my lawn gone pink and reddish in patches?
Red thread — what the pink threads actually are, why it is telling you the lawn is hungry rather than diseased in any serious sense, and why fungicide is the wrong response.
beginner30 min4 min readWhy has my tree not come into leaf this spring?
The scratch test that tells you in ten seconds whether it is alive, the species that are simply late, and the six causes of genuine spring failure.
beginner30 min5 min readWhy is my camellia dropping its buds without flowering?
Bud drop, brown flowers and no buds at all are three different problems — separating them, and the summer watering that fixes the most common one.
beginner20 min3 min readWhy is my rosemary dying?
Why rosemary dies of wet feet rather than cold, the beetle that strips it, and the drainage and pruning that keep a plant going for years.
beginner20 min3 min readWhy is there grey fuzzy mould on my plant?
Botrytis takes hold on dead and damaged tissue and then moves into healthy tissue — why it is really a ventilation problem, and the cuts that stop it.
beginner15 min4 min readAre robot lawnmowers any good for a British garden?
What a robot mower genuinely does well, the UK-specific problems — wet grass, slopes, leaves, moss — and the wildlife issue nobody mentions in the brochure.
beginner30 min4 min readCan I root cuttings in a jar of water?
Which plants root readily in water, why water roots are not the same as compost roots, and the transfer stage that kills most of them.
beginner20 min4 min readDo sand, gypsum and clay breakers actually improve clay soil?
Four popular clay treatments assessed honestly: what each one physically does, the one situation where gypsum is genuinely right, and why sand is worse than doing nothing.
intermediate20 min4 min readHow do I get a garden ready for people?
A short list of jobs that make the largest visual and practical difference, done in the right order.
beginner2 hr2 min readHow do I look after garden tools?
Cleaning, sharpening and storage that make tools last decades and work better while they do.
beginner1 hr2 min readHow do I repot a shrub or tree that is too big to lift out of its pot?
Getting a root-bound shrub, olive or bay out of a container without breaking either — the knife cut, the tip-and-roll, the two-person slide, and when to break the pot instead.
intermediate1 hr4 min readLiquid feed or slow-release granules — which should I use?
How each type behaves in a pot and in the ground, what happens to them in rain, and the combination most container growers should actually use.
beginner15 min5 min readWhat are the brown bumps on my plant's stems and leaves?
Scale insects hide under a waxy shield that no contact spray penetrates — why physical removal is the treatment and when the one vulnerable stage occurs.
intermediate20 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 are toadstools growing in my lawn?
What toadstools in a lawn are actually feeding on, why they appear in autumn, and the difference between harmless ones and a fairy ring.
beginner20 min3 min readWhy do my greenhouse crops get worse every year in the same border?
Greenhouse soil sickness — what actually accumulates in a border grown with the same crop, how to recognise it against the things it is mistaken for, and the four real remedies.
intermediate2 hr4 min readWhy does the same plant keep dying in the same spot?
Replant disease, soil-borne pathogens, buried obstructions and the ordinary site problems behind a place in the garden that kills whatever you plant there.
intermediate30 min4 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 readCan I compost diseased plants, or does it spread the problem?
Which plant diseases a home compost heap destroys, which ones it happily preserves for next year, and where the rest should go.
beginner12 min4 min readCan I grow grapes outdoors in the UK?
Which grapes actually ripen outdoors in Britain, the south wall that makes the difference, and the bunch thinning and leaf removal that turn a mass of small sour berries into fruit worth eating.
intermediate2 hr4 min read