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
What to do for a mature tree fern, banana, olive, tender shrub or large specimen that no amount of fleece will cover — protect the part that matters, warm the ground, and accept the rest.
Which plants genuinely need shading and which do not, what materials give useful shade without killing the light, and how temporary shade differs from a permanent siting decision.
Cuckoo spit is a froghopper nymph hiding in bubbles it made itself — harmless in a garden, but worth reporting because of what the insect can carry.
The five reasons plants flower out of season — mild weather, stress, pruning at the wrong moment, a second flush and simple normality — and which of them are worth doing anything about.
The four situations where plants genuinely dry out in a British winter despite the rain, how to tell which of yours are at risk, and how to water without doing harm.
Why a narrow gap between buildings accelerates wind rather than sheltering from it, what that does to plants, and how to break the flow without creating turbulence that is worse.
How to build permanently moist ground deliberately — with a lined basin and a controlled leak, or by working with a wet corner you already have — and what to plant in it.
The five shots that let a knowledgeable person identify a plant problem remotely, and why a close-up of one leaf almost never does it.
Blind shoots on roses, bulbs and shrubs — what causes a shoot to grow strongly and produce no bud, and the cut that gets a flower out of it.
The three separate ways polythene laid on a plant does more damage than no cover at all, and the one arrangement in which plastic genuinely helps.
Why snow is a mechanical problem rather than a cold one, which plants need clearing and which are better left, and how to clear without snapping frozen wood.
The three things that happen to the sun in winter — it gets lower, its arc gets shorter and its light gets weaker — and why a border that is sunny in July is in shade all day in January.
How to recognise de-icing salt damage from its position and timing, why it appears in spring rather than in winter, and what genuinely helps — plus what to plant where it keeps happening.
The handful of things worth writing down — frost dates, first and last events, what failed and when — and the recording habit that survives past February.
Why hail damage looks far worse than it is, the small number of things worth doing afterwards, and how to tell hail from the pest and disease damage it is mistaken for.