What's new, what's growing, what we're learning. Updates, guides and stories for people who take their garden seriously.
Ladybirds, lacewings and hoverflies keep aphids in check on their own. How to bring them into your garden for good with flowering islands, hiding places and a poison-free bed, instead of buying and releasing them at cost.
Two diseases, one confusing name: how to tell powdery from downy mildew with a glance at the leaf underside, why one needs fine weather and the other wetness, and how to prevent both with robust varieties and an airy stand.
One pathogen, two hosts: why late blight jumps from the potato to the tomato, how to recognise it on leaf, fruit and tuber, and how to get ahead of it with dry foliage, a roof and robust varieties.
Maggots in cherries need not be. Why early varieties out-ripen the cherry fruit fly, how yellow traps and a net help, and how to break the cycle in the soil.
The sour cherry bears on one-year-old wood and goes bare without pruning. How to divert the spent whips onto young shoots after the harvest, and why it differs from the sweet cherry.
Why the winter cut drives growth and the summer cut slows it, how to get rid of water sprouts and bring light to the fruit, and why cherries are a special case.
Hardy into the bed, Mediterranean into the container: why the variety name decides frost hardiness, how the fig forms two harvests, and when it is truly ripe.
Sown direct, child-simple and a feast for bees and birds. Which sunflower suits the bed, the vase or the kitchen, how to support it, and when the seeds are ripe.
Peppery, quick and harvested many times over: how to grow rocket and Asian salad greens cut-and-come-again, why they bolt in summer, and how to keep the flea beetle off.
