How do I tie a plant to a stake without damaging it?
The figure-of-eight tie that keeps stem and stake apart, why a tight loop girdles a plant within a season, and the check that has to happen twice a year.
beginner10 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
How long is my growing season and what does it decide?
How to work out the frost-free days you actually have, why it decides which long-season crops are realistic, and how to make it longer at both ends.
beginner12 min3 min readWhat are thrips, and how do I know if I have them?
Silvered leaves with tiny black specks and flecked, distorted flowers — the two symptoms that identify thrips, and why they are so hard to see.
intermediate18 min4 min readWhen and how do I prune a camellia?
The short window straight after flowering, why camellias need far less pruning than people give them, and how to reduce a large one without ending up with a green wall of leaves.
beginner45 min4 min readWhy is sap or liquid oozing from my tree's bark?
Amber gum on stone fruit, dark bleeding on mature trees and frothy slime flux are three different things — how to tell them apart and which need a professional.
intermediate18 min4 min readShould I water the leaves or the soil?
Why watering foliage wastes most of what you apply and spreads disease, the handful of cases where wetting leaves genuinely helps, and how to deliver water at the base without washing the soil away.
beginner8 min3 min readWhy does frost only form on clear, still nights?
The three conditions that decide whether a given temperature produces frost — the sky, the wind and the moisture — and why the same forecast number means frost one night and nothing the next.
beginner8 min3 min readWhy have my plant's leaves gone purple or red?
Cold roots, phosphorus lockout, stress and simple genetics all turn leaves purple — how to tell which, and why most cases fix themselves.
beginner12 min4 min readHow do I mulch a crown to protect a plant over winter?
How to build a mulch collar over a crown so it insulates without rotting the plant — depth, width, the hollow at the neck, and the grit underneath that matters more than the mulch on top.
beginner20 min4 min readIs biochar worth using in a garden?
What biochar genuinely does, why raw biochar makes a garden worse for a season, and an honest reading of where the evidence is strong and where it is not.
advanced20 min4 min readShould I quarantine a new plant before putting it with the others?
Where a new plant's pests actually come from, the two-week check that catches them, and the specific things to look for before it joins anything else.
beginner15 min3 min readWhat are the strange lumps and growths on my plant?
Galls, burrs, crown gall and root nodules — the growths on plants that look alarming, and the short list that actually matters.
beginner15 min4 min readWhat does a wet summer do to a garden and what should I change?
The specific problems a wet summer produces — disease, slugs, split fruit, poor pollination, leached nutrients and unworkable soil — and the adjustments that genuinely help.
intermediate45 min5 min readWhat can I grow in a spot that is wet in winter and dry in summer?
Why this is the hardest planting situation in a British garden, the plant characteristics that survive both extremes, and the soil work that narrows the swing.
intermediate30 min4 min readWhat should I do about a hosepipe ban and a new lawn?
A newly laid lawn is the one thing that genuinely cannot survive a dry spell unwatered — and there are exemptions, alternatives and a delay option, in that order.
beginner30 min5 min readWhen should I take winter protection off my plants?
Why leaving protection on too long does as much damage as taking it off too early, the signals to watch for, and how to uncover in stages instead of all at once.
beginner20 min4 min readWhy is my garden weeks behind my neighbour's?
The site differences that put two gardens on the same street a fortnight apart — aspect, cold air drainage, soil type, shade and shelter — and which of them you can actually change.
beginner15 min4 min readWhy is my plant only growing on one side?
Lopsided plants are answering something — light, wind, a wall, a root obstruction or a pruning cut — and the fix depends which.
beginner15 min4 min readWhy is there a white crust on my pots and compost?
Fertiliser salts and hard-water minerals accumulate in containers — how to tell the harmful deposit from the harmless one, and how to flush a pot properly.
beginner12 min4 min readHow do I get water from a butt to the far end of the garden?
Why a water butt tap gives almost no pressure, the four ways to move stored water where you need it, and how to choose between gravity, a siphon, a pump and simply carrying it.
intermediate1 hr5 min readShould I disinfect my secateurs between plants?
When tool hygiene genuinely stops disease spreading, when it is theatre, and what actually works on a blade in a garden.
beginner10 min3 min readWhat are the tiny white insects on my plant's roots?
Root aphid and root mealybug produce a plant that declines with nothing visible above the compost — how to find them and what actually clears them.
intermediate18 min4 min readWhat does a mild winter do to a garden?
Why a winter without a proper frost causes more problems than it solves — pests carrying through, plants that need chilling, growth brought forward into the frost window, and ground that never dries — and what to do differently.
beginner12 min5 min readWinters seem milder — should I be sowing earlier?
Why a warmer average does not shorten the frost risk in any given year, what a mild winter genuinely does change, and where sowing earlier is justified and where it is a gamble.
intermediate12 min3 min read