Can I put cardboard down on my soil?
Which cardboard is safe, what the inks and glues actually are, how long it lasts, and the two jobs it does better than anything you could buy.
beginner45 min4 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
Do those small plastic mini greenhouses actually work?
What a four-shelf plastic frame genuinely does, the two things it fails at, and the modifications that turn a twenty-pound cover into something actually useful.
beginner20 min3 min readDoes my apple tree fruit on spurs or on the tips?
Why shortening every shoot in winter improves one apple tree and removes the entire crop from another, how to tell the two apart in winter, and how each should be pruned.
intermediate20 min4 min readEnglish or French lavender — which should I plant?
The three lavenders sold in the UK, how to tell them apart at a glance, and why the hardiness difference between them is the reason so many lavenders fail to reappear in spring.
beginner15 min4 min readHow do I disinfect a greenhouse after a disease outbreak?
What survives the winter in a greenhouse and where it hides, what disinfection can and cannot achieve, and the order of work that gives you a genuinely clean start.
intermediate4 hr4 min readHow do I garden on chalky, alkaline soil?
Recognising thin soil over chalk, the deficiencies it causes, and the substantial list of plants that positively prefer it.
beginner1 hr 30 min3 min readHow do I get figs to ripen in the UK?
Restricting the roots, keeping the pea-sized embryo figs and removing the rest, and the wall warmth that decides whether a fig tree is productive or purely ornamental.
intermediate1 hr 30 min4 min readHow do I get more flowers from my dahlias, for longer?
Pinching out the growing tip, telling a spent flower from a bud so you deadhead the right thing, and the feeding and staking that carry a dahlia from July to the first frost.
beginner30 min4 min readHow do I grow apples as a cordon?
Building the wire structure, planting single-stem trees at 45 degrees, and the August pruning that turns a whip into a fruiting column — the fastest way to get many varieties into a short run.
intermediate3 hr5 min readHow do I keep deer and rabbits out of a garden?
Identifying which animal is doing the damage from the cut, the fencing heights that actually work, and the plants each tends to leave alone.
intermediate4 hr3 min readHow do I layer bulbs in a pot to flower three times?
The three-layer bulb pot, which bulbs go at which depth and why the shoots are not blocked, and the aftercare that decides whether it is worth keeping for a second year.
beginner45 min4 min readHow do I look after a laurel hedge?
Why a trimmer ruins a laurel hedge, the shot-hole and yellowing problems that look alarming and mostly are not, and the renovation laurel will happily take.
beginner2 hr4 min readHow do I look after an olive tree in the UK?
What an olive actually needs in a British climate, why winter wet kills more of them than winter cold, and whether you will ever get olives.
beginner45 min3 min readHow do I look after garden tools?
Cleaning, sharpening and storing garden tools so they last decades rather than seasons.
beginner1 hr2 min readHow do I make a garden or balcony usable in winter?
Shelter, warmth and light — the three things that determine whether outdoor space gets used in cold months.
beginner1 hr 30 min2 min readHow do I make plant feed from comfrey or nettles?
Two free liquid feeds with genuinely different profiles: nettle for leafy growth in spring, comfrey for flowers and fruit from midsummer — plus the concentrate method that avoids the smell.
beginner40 min4 min readHow do I mix two-stroke fuel correctly?
What the ratio actually means, how to get it right without guessing, and why the wrong mix destroys an engine in either direction.
beginner15 min4 min readHow do I net fruit without trapping birds?
Mesh size, tension and a frame are the three things that decide whether netting protects fruit or kills wildlife — plus what to do when you find something caught.
beginner1 hr 30 min4 min readHow do I pinch out plants to make them bushier?
What removing the growing tip actually does to a plant, exactly where and when to do it, which plants benefit and the ones that must never be pinched.
beginner15 min4 min readHow do I plant a bare-root rose?
Soaking, hole preparation and the one detail that decides everything afterwards — how deep the graft union sits — plus what to do if the ground is frozen when the parcel arrives.
beginner45 min5 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 prune gooseberries and redcurrants?
Both fruit on spurs on old wood, so both are pruned to a permanent open goblet with sideshoots cut to two buds in winter and five leaves in summer.
intermediate1 hr4 min readHow do I put a lawnmower away for the winter?
Draining the fuel system, dealing with the oil and the blade now rather than in March, and where the machine should actually be stored.
beginner1 hr5 min readHow do I repair a broken lawn edge?
The turn-the-turf-around trick that repairs a crumbling edge with no new turf, and how to keep the edge from breaking again.
beginner45 min3 min read