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The plants on this list are the ones I return to again and again in my own garden designs because they deliver season after season with minimal intervention from you. Besides, once you’ve bossed these specimens, you’ll be relishing more challenging plants in future years and thats where the gardening magic really happens! Quick Answer […]

The reason vine weevils catch so many gardeners off guard is that almost all the damage occurs underground and at night. The adult beetle is nocturnal and hides expertly during the day. The larvae live entirely within the compost or soil, feeding on roots for months before the plant shows any above-ground symptoms. By the time […]

I have grown camellias in my gardens for decades and have answered hundreds of camellia problems on this forum and on BBC Garden Rescue. The good news is that most camellia problems are completely fixable once you identify the correct cause. The bad news is that several different problems produce identical-looking symptoms, which is why […]

Quick Answer Ground elder (Aegopodium podagraria) is a rhizomatous perennial weed that spreads via underground stems. The most effective removal method is careful hand digging with a hori hori or Japanese hand weeder to extract the full root system. Even a fingernail-sized fragment of root can regenerate, so persistence over several seasons is essential. Avoid […]

Lavender dying or looking poorly is genuinely one of the most misdiagnosed plant problems in UK gardening, because the symptoms of almost every possible cause look identical. Brown, drooping, wilting foliage can mean overwatering, root rot, too much shade, wrong soil, overly woody growth, or simply old age. The good news is that once you […]

The critical point with hydrangeas not flowering is that different causes require completely different solutions. The fix for wrong pruning timing is not the same as the fix for frost damage, which is not the same as the fix for too much shade or too much nitrogen. Reaching for a general-purpose fertiliser and hoping for […]

I’ve been working as a professional garden designer and presenter on BBC Garden Rescue for over 20 years, and choosing the right trees has always been the first element I consider in any new design. Get the tree right and everything else falls into place around it. The common fear is that trees are only […]

After twenty years of designing gardens professionally and working on everything from inner-city courtyard lawns to large estate turf, I have seen every cause of yellow and patchy grass the UK climate can throw at a lawn. This guide runs through all of them, shows you how to identify which one is affecting your lawn, […]

Planting a tree is one of the most rewarding things you can do in a garden. In over 20 years as a professional garden designer and presenter on the BBC’s Garden Rescue, I have planted hundreds of trees across all manner of spaces: tiny urban courtyards, sprawling country gardens, and everything in between. The single […]

BBC Garden Rescue designer Lee Burkhill explains how to get rid of garden weeds organically — which tools work, why homemade remedies fail, and how to stop weeds coming back.