Spring Gardening

Quick Answer If you have inherited a garden or never quite got round to your own, start by assessing aspect, drainage and soil, then audit what is worth keeping before you remove anything. Spend on safety and soil first, learn your garden’s seasonal rhythm, and buy the handful of tools that actually earn their place. […]

Quick Answer Hostas need moist, fertile soil and partial to full shade, with spring or early autumn the best time to plant them. Water consistently through the growing season, mulch each spring with peat free compost, and protect young shoots from slugs in April and May, since that’s when the vast majority of hosta damage […]

Quick Answer No dig gardening means covering weeds or grass with cardboard and a thick compost mulch instead of digging or tilling the soil. You plant straight into the compost, top it up once a year, and let worms and soil life do the cultivating for you. It is quicker to start, kinder to your […]

Quick Answer Buy plants online from reputable, UK-based nurseries with detailed descriptions, clear real-life photographs, and genuine reviews. Check the plant’s exact size (plug, P9, 1 litre or larger) before ordering, avoid buying in extreme weather, and inspect roots and foliage as soon as the box arrives. A seller who won’t say where a plant […]

Quick Answer Yes, spent compost can be reused. Sieve out old roots, mix with fresh compost or well-rotted manure to boost nutrients, then use it to mulch borders, top dress lawns, help lawn seed germinate, boost a compost heap, or refill pots for a second season. Avoid reuse only if the previous plants showed disease. […]

Quick Answer The best ornamental grasses for UK gardens are clump-forming varieties like Stipa tenuissima for small spaces and Miscanthus or Calamagrostis for larger borders. Most need full sun and free-draining soil, need very little feeding, and want cutting back hard each February before dividing overcrowded clumps every three to four years in spring. I […]

Quick Answer To make a compost bin from pallets, stack three matching pallets into a U shape on level, free draining ground, then screw the corners together with decking screws and angle brackets for rigidity. Hinge a fourth pallet to the front to act as a door. Always choose pallets stamped HT rather than MB, […]

Quick Answer Lavender and roses feed bees brilliantly for a few weeks in midsummer, but pollinators are active in the UK from January through to November. Add early plants such as winter aconite, snowdrops, primrose, hellebores and mahonia for late winter, and late plants such as echinacea, sedum, asters, Japanese anemone and ivy for autumn, […]

Quick Answer Mulching means spreading a 5 to 7cm layer of organic material, such as compost, bark or leaf mould, over weed free, damp soil in April to May or September to October. Keep it clear of stems and trunks. Done properly, it cuts weeding by up to 80 percent, halves summer watering, and steadily […]

Quick Answer Peat compost is unsustainable because it is stripped from ancient peat bogs that take thousands of years to form, releasing stored carbon and destroying rare wetland habitats in the process. Good peat-free alternatives include homemade compost, wool and bracken compost, coir, bark and green waste blends. Each behaves a little differently to peat, […]