Spring Gardening

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 […]

If you’ve ever wrestled with ground elder (Aegopodium podagraria), you’ll know just how tenacious this plant can be. One minute you spot a few innocent-looking leaves at the back of the border, and the next thing you know, it’s elbowing your perennials out of the way. Shoots appear seemingly everywhere across your flower beds, smothering […]

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 […]

What frustrates me about most “best secateurs” guides online is that they are written by people who borrowed a pair for a weekend or were sent them by a company in return for positive reviews. Worse still, some gardeners barely prune or have little expertise in using and maintaining secateurs. It means that when you […]

Quick Answer Scarify your lawn in early autumn (September to October) once the grass is growing well but weed pressure is falling. Mow short first, set blades 2 to 3mm into the soil, make two passes at 45 degrees to each other, then overseed immediately at 15 to 35 grams per square metre and water […]

April is the month where the garden stops waiting and starts delivering. This is the busiest sowing and planting month in the entire UK gardening calendar, and if you know what to do and when, you can set yourself up for an absolutely cracking summer. I genuinely love this month, Ninjas. The seed packets come […]