Is there an easy way to know what you need to do each weekend without having to look it up?
Few domestic gardens need work every weekend – whisper it, but they’re quite good at looking after themselves. Broadly speaking: new growth on twiggy, brown (or woody) stems is a fair sign to prune old growth back to encourage the new growth into a neater, fuller shape; a shift to spring and summer signals a need to feed plants; if your plants are romping away, your weeds probably will be too – pulling them out while they’re small is easier – and planting or sowing things late is better than not at all. Mulch whenever you think about it. Alice Vincent
What is the difference between a perennial and an annual plant?
An annual lives out its entire life in a year. They grow fast and furious, and most need good light to do so. A perennial comes back every year and often dies back over winter, storing energy in its roots. As perennials have time on their side, they can take a number of years to get going, and many won’t flower from seed in their first or second year, and will take up to seven years to reach their full size. Alys Fowler
Should I sow seeds or plants?
Do both! Seeds are relatively cheap and have good environmental credentials. Plants tend to come in plastic pots, are too often grown in peat composts and have more transportation costs.
Seeds require a little more attention, but start adapting to your soils the minute they germinate. Plants, depending on their size, take more time to adapt. When you’re starting off, buying everything in as a plant seems easier and provides instant gratification, but it’s the stuff that you grow from seed that’s going to hook you in.
I’d never buy an annual grown in a pot because I can sow it just as easily at home. But a perennial – like a peony, say, that takes at least seven years to flower is worth spending money on to see that reward a little earlier. AF
Is there a rule of thumb for when to prune?
There isn’t a hard and fast rule. One way of thinking about it is that all plants that respond well to pruning have evolved around herbivore pressure: a deer, rabbit or giraffe eats it and, instead of that being the end of things, it re-sprouts. Roses respond really well to pruning; they also have thorns, which keep herbivores from destroying the plant. So thorns and lots of soft leaves suggest the plant can be pruned hard, even back to woody material. Plants with strong essential oils – rosemary, thyme, lavender – only really exhibit those oils in leafy material, rather than the woody parts, again to keep herbivores off. So you can prune the soft bits of these plants, but if you cut back into woody material, they don’t tend to re-sprout.
The RHS’s book Pruning and Training is the bible – it’s meticulous, easy to follow and you’ll be able to pick one up cheap secondhand. If it’s not in there, don’t prune it! AF
How do I know what kind of soil my garden has?
Dig a hole, fill a bucket with water, pour it into the hole and wait for it to drain away. Repeat, and if the water drains away in under 10 minutes, you have very free-draining soil; if the water takes 20 minutes or longer to drain, you have some clay. The more clay, the longer it will take to drain.
Now take a pinch of wet soil and rub between your fingers. If it feels gritty, it probably contains sand: if you look closely you’ll see the grains. If it feels smooth – a little silky, even – it’s clay. If there’s lots of dark, soft material, maybe bits of semi-rotting stuff, that’s organic matter and that’s what you want.
Whatever your soil type, it can be enhanced for good growing with compost, preferably homemade from your kitchen and garden waste scraps. Put it on the soil (do not dig it in), an inch or so thick, twice a year in early spring and autumn, and let the worms do the rest. Compost will feed and bulk out thin soils and help break down clay ones. AF
How do I know if something would be better in a pot or in the ground?
Anything you can grow in the ground you can grow in a pot, it’s your choice. Do you have the space, the pot, the compost? If the plant is going to grow big – a pumpkin, a tree, a rosemary (a mature rosemary is a huge bush) – it will need a big pot to be happy.
Plants with lots of large, soft leaves – tomatoes, runner beans, Colocasias (taro plants), bananas, cannas, dahlias – need a lot of watering if grown in a pot (morning and evening every day in summer). Do you have the time and will for that? If not, the soil might make more sense.
Conversely, fine, silver leaves are a sign the plant is adapted to a hot, dry climate and won’t need to be watered in a pot quite so often. Also, if you have sticky, deep clay and want to grow Mediterranean, free-draining plants such as rosemary or thyme, pots may be the answer, as you can create the right soil conditions. Likewise, if you have deep shade from, say, a huge evergreen tree, pots may be the one way to grow something at the base of them. AF
Smaller, delicate plants and flowers are easier to admire in pots, but many grow more vigorously in the ground. You may want to constrain some things intentionally, or you might want to fill a space. Once it’s in the ground you can always put it in a pot, and vice versa, ideally in autumn or spring. AV
What’s the difference between compost and mulch? And what about leaf mould, coffee grounds etc?
Compost and mulch are essentially the same thing. Mulch tends to be made of large particles (think of bark mulch compared with a bag of compost) and takes longer to break down, so it’s better for paths or suppressing weeds. Compost is a catch-all term for rotted organic material. Manufactured compost is free from weeds and disease. Compost does not need peat in it: it’s bad for the planet and not necessary.
Leaf mould is a type of compost made entirely of rotted-down autumn leaves. It is magic stuff, but you can’t buy it and it takes a while to make, plus you don’t get much: an entire bin of leaves will rot down to less than an eighth of its initial volume. Leaf mould promotes fungi in the soil and thus is best used around plants that like fungal-dominated soils, woodland folk such as dog’s tooth lilies, erythroniums, trilliums, pulmonarias and soft fruit bushes. Coffee grounds are uncomposted material. They can go on the soil direct – there’s some evidence slugs don’t like caffeine, so you can spread the grounds around your precious seedlings – but equally they can go on the compost. AF
Should I be making my own compost? If so, how do I do it and what do I use it for?
I’d encourage everyone who has the space to compost. You need a balance of greens (leafy matter, food scraps, grass clippings – around 30-40%) and browns (woody material such as branches, twigs or cardboard, shredded into small pieces – around 60-70%). Make sure the organisms that decompose this material can access your bin: don’t put it on concrete, site it directly on to the soil. Claire Ratinon
Check out getcomposting.com for recycled plastic composters and useful tips. Matt Collins
What does ‘full sun’ mean for plants?
Light, and lack thereof, in a garden is actually defined by time, rather than space. If a spot gets more than six hours a day of direct sun at midsummer, you can safely consider it worthy of those full-sun-hungry plants. The sun is lower in winter – and there’s less of it – so you’re unlikely to get six hours in a day, but the same spot will still be a good choice for sun-worshippers. AV
What does partial shade mean? Surely everything is in the shade at some point?
Partial shade is a spot that gets less than six hours of sunlight at midsummer. Deep shade is very dark indeed; essentially, under a conifer. The good news is that most plants are pretty tolerant of some shade, but will probably benefit from being fed and watered accordingly. Shade can often be dry – because of a tree or a barrier that steals or shelters from rainfall – so you’ll need to mulch well putting a layer a few centimetres thick of well-rotted manure, leaf mould or garden compost around plants to feed them and protect them from drying out. AV
Do bulbs come back? Do they spread? What do you do with them when they die?
It depends on the flower and the growing conditions. Some gardeners lift and replace tulips every year, because they want bombastic flowers; others let them naturalise – or spread – in shadier areas where they pop up as more modest versions of their younger selves for decades. Reliable returnees include crocus, hyacinth and narcissus.
Some, like snowdrops, naturalise beautifully given a few years. Deadhead (remove flowers where they join the stem) once they have faded and shrivelled to push the energy into the bulb and let stems and leaves yellow to feed the bulb. Whether you lift and divide or store, or leave them until next year, is up to you. AV
Should I pick up slugs and throw them into next door’s garden? If not, what should I do?
What to do with slugs and snails is the question I’m asked most often, due to the damage they can do. But they are an important part of our ecosystem as decomposers and food sources for other wildlife. So, build a pond, plant hedges instead of fences for the hedgehogs, leave out nesting material like wool or pet fur for birds, and, hopefully, some balance will be established in your garden. Lobbing them over a fence won’t help as they will probably come back. CR
I have no garden. Can I grow vegetables on a windowsill?
Few edible plants will thrive without some outdoor space, but microgreens are an easy way to grow leafy veg on a sunny sill, indoors or out. Microgreens are sown fairly densely in a seed tray, and harvested as young plants, which have produced one set of true leaves. Any crop that is entirely edible can be grown as a microgreen. My favourites are rocket, mustard greens, peas and sunflower shoots. CR
When should you fertilise? And do all plants need it?
Ideally we wouldn’t ever need to feed our plants, and if you’re growing in soil and mulching annually, you probably don’t. Sometimes feeding is helpful, even necessary – when you’re growing hungry crops (tomatoes, say) in containers, or if your plants are not thriving as you’d hope and you suspect they don’t have the nutrients they need to flourish. CR
What does ‘dividing’ plants mean?
This is where you take a mature plant and remove parts of it to create new plants. Some plants produce plantlets (like strawberry runners with small new plants at the end) that can be easily removed and put elsewhere – just plant their roots in the ground. Others (like chives) can be divided by gently pulling apart sections before replanting them. A rhubarb, for example, must be entirely unearthed during winter, while dormant, before being chopped into sections (each with an intact bud, where the new growth is coming from) using a spade or bread knife to create new rhubarb crowns. Then you can replant both bits. CR
I would love to grow my own vegetables, but don’t know where to start. Which ones are the easiest?
Begin with a plant that you’re excited about eating. Tomatoes are a grow-your-own classic as they’re fairly straightforward, and satisfying to nurture and harvest. Start with a young plant from a nursery or garden centre (the time for starting from seed, which is a bit tricky, has passed), and place your plant in your sunniest spot, where pollinators will find its flowers. If all goes to plan, you should get a crop this summer. If you don’t have access to soil, you can grow tomatoes in growbags, but they’ll probably need more generous watering.
Tomatoes apart, the most straightforward crops to grow are leafy vegetables – lettuce, kale and chard – and herbs like parsley, chives and dill. Any plant that can be eaten at any stage, from seedling to full maturity, can be relied on to provide a harvest, even if a small one. Leafy crops can tolerate some shade and aren’t as nutrient-hungry or thirsty as ones that bear fruit. CR
How do I know if my plant needs repotting, and how do I do it?
The distress signal of the ill-accommodated plant takes numerous forms (although a few can be symptomatic of inadequate light levels and root rot), and include wilt, quick-drying soil and roots creeping out from the drainage hole, if your pot has one. Yellowing may also occur when insufficient or “tired” compost leads to a lack of available nutrients. To repot, edge around the pot with a trowel before transplanting into a larger container preprepared with fresh compost. A good rule is to bump up pot sizes incrementally: a small plant in a large container leads more quickly to rot, with soil remaining soggy where roots cannot yet reach it. MC
How do I know which plants are weeds – and do I always have to pull them up?
These days, “weed” is a wonderfully fluid term, and, no, you certainly don’t have to pull them up! Wild (or “unintended”) plants can benefit a border just as much as an astrantia or aster. My advice: purchase a wildflower guide and get familiar with the flora local to your region – recognising “weeds’ by their leaves will help you decipher which to let romp and which to halt.
You may wish to stem prolific self-seeders like bittercress, willowherb or sowthistle, for example, but leave the herb robert; similarly, dock or alkanet will occupy valuable space, whereas knapweed can jostle with the perennials. Creeping thistle and bindweed are best removed before they spread, whereas early wildflowers like dandelion provide vital forage for pollinators. Jack Wallington’s Wild About Weeds (2019) is a great resource. MC
How do you keep grass looking nice?
Lawns have their place, if only to provide passage between plantings and amenities, or a space for children or chickens (chickens love a lawn). That said, a grass monoculture offers little value for wildlife and often requires unsustainable watering levels during hot summers. So there is always merit in reducing lawn size. Nonetheless, to keep grass looking good, mow regularly during the growing season and do your repair work in mid-spring: scratch back areas of poor/thatchy growth with a leaf rake and reseed; use a fork to prod and aerate heavy soil; remove large weeds by hand. But do ask yourself: is it really worth the faff? MC
I’ve read about meadow gardens. Are they realistic? Where would I put garden furniture?
There is room even in a small domestic garden for a little “meadow magic” – even a few square metres will suffice. You might call it an area of “wildflowers” or a “glade”. Choose a part of the garden that gets a little sunshine and isn’t often disturbed; select a wildflower seed mix to suit your conditions (soil and aspect), and sow on exposed soil in spring. Emorsgate Seeds is a useful resource. Cut or mow a path within it and plonk down your deckchair. MC
Keep your lawn if you like sitting on it, but you could also share the space. Long grass remains cooler in hot summers and offers space for all sorts of insects to hide, so you could let the grass grow long under your seats, and leave another section a different height so the daisies could bloom. You could even get some plug plants (young plants grown in individual modules) of wild types: selfheal, cowslips, creeping speedwell, germander speedwell, bird’s foot trefoil and eyebright are all low growing and will flower under the highest setting on your lawnmower. AF
How do I know when a plant is ‘established’? Labels often say, ‘Feed well until established.’
A plant is considered established once its roots have “bedded in” and you see a flush of new leaves. For most perennials and shrubs this means one to two years (two to three years for a tree), during which time additional watering will be necessary, particularly in summer. If a woody plant continues to depend on supplementary watering, it might be in too dry or too sunny a position for its species. MC
I am a lazy and uncommitted gardener – what are the minimum tasks to stop the garden from running riot?
You’re in luck: under-pampered gardens are all the rage. All the same, for minimum input, maximum impact, I’d suggest planting shrubs: hard-wearing, low-maintenance varieties that require little attention once established – the likes of skimmia, cistus, potentilla and philadelphus. Woody shrubs will outcompete weeds and grass; they will provide flowers and contrasting foliage, and they will create habitat for your local wildlife. Water well in their first couple of years and watch for the two weeds that are their kryptonite: bindweed and bramble. MC
Edge your borders with shears regularly – you can get away with murder if the lines are neat. And mulch well in spring to help keep down weeds (not the beastly perennial ones, alas; docks, brambles and nettles will all grow however much you dump on top of them), and repeat in autumn. AF
How did people garden before Google?
Observation: why is this plant bigger than that one? What is different: more sun, warmer soil, wetter soil? If a plant is sick, are the older leaves turning yellow or the younger ones? Are the roots damaged (rock the plant a little and see)? Note what you see, go back to see if things change. If you water more or less, does it make a difference?
You don’t need to know the names of plants; you just need to pay attention to them. It takes time, but nature can teach you everything. Also, ask an older person, preferably one with a spade; they’ll have spent a long time looking at things. Oh, and charity shops are full to the brim of gardening books. AF
What does ‘bright, indirect sunlight’ indoors actually mean?
Bright indirect light refers to the reflection of intense direct sunlight. It’s typically found in areas adjacent to windows receiving direct sunlight; for instance, the spaces along the walls neighbouring a window with bright, direct exposure. House plants in these areas receive adequate sunlight without the harsh intensity of direct sunlight. Gynelle Leon
How do I tell how bright the light in my room is?
Light is affected not only by the direction your window faces, but also by location and distance from the window. One trick is to use shadow to determine what type of sunlight your room has. When the sun is brightest during the day, stand in the desired place for your plant. Hardly any shadow means it is low light. A shadow with some definition but still not very dark is partial/medium light. A dark, well-defined shadow means direct full exposure. GL
Is there an easy way to know which houseplants need a lot of water?
There’s no foolproof method: cacti and succulents thrive in arid conditions; their spines or fleshy leaves serve as water reservoirs for extended dry periods. Tropical plants with broad foliage, such as the swiss cheese plant or peace lily, are used to moist rainforests, and need more watering.
To determine when to water your plants, insert your finger into the soil. If the top inch feels dry, it’s usually time to water. If cacti or succulents appear wrinkled or shrivelled, it indicates dehydration, so water immediately. GL
How do I keep an orchid alive?
Many of us write orchids off as dead after the flowers drop, but they are probably entering a rest period before blooming again. Other reasons for flowers dropping include lack of sunlight, underwatering, overwatering and excessive sun exposure.
But you can help your orchid thrive. Position it in a location that receives bright, indirect light, ideally east-facing. Water weekly with tepid water, ensuring that the roots are thoroughly moistened but not waterlogged. Fertilise once a month from March to November, using a balanced orchid fertiliser.
When the flowers begin to fade, don’t despair! Pruning the orchid correctly can encourage future blooms. You can either trim the flower stalk a few centimetres above the leaves, which typically results in reblooming within a year, or you can cut the stem just above the first node. This method can prompt the orchid to reflower within a shorter time frame, typically eight to 12 weeks. GL