Tomato blight is a fast-moving disease that turns healthy plants into brown, collapsing mush within days, usually striking outdoor tomatoes in the warm, wet weather of July and August. The hard truth first, because it is the thing everyone searching for a cure needs to hear: once late blight has taken hold there is no … Read more
The best place to buy seeds in the UK depends on what you are buying. For sheer range and reliability, Thompson and Morgan is the company I order from most. For rock-bottom prices on everyday vegetables, no-frills online packet sellers and the seasonal seed racks in discount stores beat everyone. For unusual varieties worth paying … Read more
How to grow gooseberries in the UK, plant a bare-root bush between November and March, or a potted one at any time of year, in a sunny sheltered spot with moist but well-drained soil. Space bushes 1.2 to 1.5m apart, prune to an open goblet shape each winter, and watch for sawfly larvae from late … Read more
No dig gardening means exactly what it says: instead of digging or forking the soil over, you spread a layer of compost on the surface each year and plant straight into it, letting worms and soil life do the mixing. To start a bed, lay plain cardboard over the ground, even over grass and weeds, … Read more
Broad beans are sown in two windows in the UK: October to November for an overwintered crop that picks in late May, or February to April for a summer harvest six weeks or so later. Sow the big seeds 5cm deep and about 20cm apart in double rows, give the plants a simple string support … Read more
To grow blueberries in the UK you need one thing above all: acid soil, with a pH between 4.5 and 5.5. Most British gardens do not have it, which is why the most reliable way to grow blueberries here is in a large pot of ericaceous compost, watered with rainwater rather than tap water. Plant … Read more
The main jobs in the garden in August in the UK are keeping everything watered and fed through the driest weeks of the year, harvesting daily so crops keep producing, summer pruning fruit and trimming hedges and lavender, deadheading flowers, and sowing the salads, spinach and spring cabbage that carry you into autumn. It is … Read more
By the time August arrives, the allotment has usually stopped feeling like a race. The beans are climbing, the courgettes are out of control, and most of the spring panic about getting things in on time has passed. So a lot of people assume the sowing is over. It isn’t, not by a long way. … Read more
One of the most confusing things for home gardeners is knowing what to feed — and when. Part of the Soil & Compost series:Soil Health for UK Gardens — start here for the foundations of healthy soil.Should You Dig Your Garden Soil or Not? — how soil structure affects growth long term. Garden centres are … Read more
Few gardening topics create as much confusion as digging. Some advice insists digging is essential. Other advice claims digging ruins soil completely. Beginners are often left feeling that whichever choice they make, they’re doing something wrong. The reality, especially in UK home gardens, is far more balanced. Digging is neither always good nor always bad. … Read more