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Quick answer: Get ahead of bumper crops by separating apples as they come off the tree and use windfalls and bruised fruit first. Turn a glut into apple sauce, chutney or apple butter within a few days of picking, or freeze prepared slices for later. Unblemished apples wrapped individually in newspaper and stored somewhere cool, […]

Quick Answer Most UK garden plums are ready to pick from the second week of August through to mid September, with Victoria plums typically hitting their peak in the third week of August. A ripe plum will have full colour, a faint powdery bloom, a slight give when gently squeezed and will twist away from […]

Quick Answer Prune a plum tree in September, straight after harvest, and never in winter. Plums belong to the Prunus family alongside cherries, and a winter cut leaves the wound open to silver leaf disease and bacterial canker for months in cold, damp weather. Remove dead or crossing wood first, thin any congested growth, and […]

Quick Answer Crop rotation means growing a different plant family in each bed every year, usually on a three to four year cycle, rather than growing the same crops in the same spot repeatedly. It stops pests and diseases building up in the soil, keeps nutrients balanced, and improves yields. Group vegetables into families such […]

Quick Answer A hedge witch is a solitary practitioner of folk magic who works with the plants, trees and rhythms of their own garden and local land rather than through a coven or a formal Wiccan structure. The name comes from the old English wisewoman or wiseman who lived at the edge of the village, […]

🌿 Quick Answer Winter pruning happens while plants are dormant and encourages vigorous new growth, so it suits apples, roses, wisteria and gooseberries. Summer pruning happens while plants are in leaf and restricts growth while boosting flowers and fruit, so it suits plums, cherries, forsythia and trained fruit trees. Get the season wrong on a […]

Sowing seeds is an activity that brings joy and smiles all around to gardeners. Each year, gardeners and allotment holders around the country eagerly sow seeds of both flowers and vegetables to grow in their gardens. Sowing seeds is really cost-effective and offers gardeners an unbelievable variety of plants that you simply can’t buy from […]

Every year, right around the time the weather turns and clients start ringing me about getting their hedges sorted for summer, I have some version of the same conversation. Someone wants a hedge cut back hard, right now, and I have to explain why we’re either waiting a few weeks or checking very carefully first. […]

Quick Answer The best plants for full sun in the UK are hardy perennials that flower for months with little help, such as Lavender, Nepeta ‘Walker’s Low’, Geranium ‘Rozanne’, Echinacea, Rudbeckia ‘Goldsturm’, Achillea, Salvia, Sedum, Eryngium and Phlomis. Give them at least six hours of direct sun and free-draining soil, skip the rich feed, and […]

Quick Answer No, don’t water an established lawn during a heatwave or hosepipe ban. Browning grass is dormant, not dead, and recovers naturally once rain returns. With nine water companies under Temporary Use Bans across England in the summer of 2026 and more than half the country in drought, save your watering can for containers, […]