Summer Gardening

Whilst the weather here in the UK can be a bit temperamental, the summer often feels like a two-week affair before it disappears again. You would be surprised just how favourable our climate actually is for growing some truly awesome plants. If your garden is lucky enough to be in full sun, this list of […]

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, […]

Quick Answer To build your own fire pit, dig a circle in the lawn or lift paving, lay a fireproof gravel base over weed membrane, arrange reclaimed stone or bricks around a steel fire bowl, and dress with decorative gravel. The whole project takes a day, costs as little as £30 using salvaged materials, and […]

Quick Answer Mare’s tail, also called horsetail, cannot be eradicated in a single season. The most reliable organic approach is cutting or pulling shoots every one to two weeks to exhaust the root reserves, combined with smothering under cardboard or heavy duty membrane for at least a full growing season. Standard glyphosate struggles against the […]

QUICK ANSWER A dying ceanothus is usually down to waterlogged roots, frost or wind damage, hard pruning into old wood, or simply old age, since most varieties live only ten to fifteen years. Scratch a stem with your thumbnail: green tissue underneath means the plant can likely be saved, brown and dry means it has […]

Quick Answer Box hedges die or deteriorate mainly from two causes: box blight, a fungal disease causing brown leaves, black stem streaks, and bare patches in damp conditions; or box tree moth caterpillar, a pest that strips foliage and leaves distinctive white webbing. Both can kill established plants if left untreated. Correct diagnosis is essential […]

Quick Answer Flamingo trees usually die from overwatering rather than neglect. Standing water around the roots, especially in pots without enough drainage, causes root rot far more often than drought does. Too much intense afternoon sun can scorch the variegated leaves, and a pot that is too small will leave roots circling and starved of […]

Quick Answer Cut hedges with sharp, clean tools working from the bottom upwards in a sweeping motion, keeping the sides slightly narrower at the top so light reaches the base. Most hedges need trimming twice a year, in spring and late summer, and UK law protects nesting birds, so always check the hedge for nests […]

Quick Answer The best hedges for windy and exposed UK sites are tough, dense growers that filter wind rather than block it. Hawthorn, blackthorn and field maple make unbeatable native windbreak hedges, hornbeam and beech are the strongest formal deciduous options, yew is the classic formal evergreen, and Escallonia, Griselinia, Elaeagnus and Portuguese laurel handle […]

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.