Fruit and veg

Growing

Browse 348 guides Open Plant Finder

Grow useful crops in beds, pots or an allotment. Find the right variety, sowing window and harvest timing.

UK seasons Plain advice Free to read

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Useful advice, organised around your next job

British growing seasons are short, so variety choice and timing matter. These 348 guides cover fruit, vegetables and herbs for UK gardens. Each guide gives useful sowing windows, spacing and harvest advice. Start with the crop you want to grow. You can also browse by food type or check the month-by-month planting calendar.

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Start with a popular guide

Quick routes into the questions gardeners ask most often.

Growing Potatoes

Go from chitting to harvest across each crop type.

Growing Strawberries

Get a dependable fruit crop from beds or containers.

How to Grow Garlic

Plant in autumn and judge the right lifting time.

Best Tomato Varieties

Choose varieties that can ripen in British summers.

What to Plant in October

Use a productive sowing window before winter.

From the library

The latest growing guides

348 guides in this section

Fresh shelling peas, flat mangetout and plump sugar snap pea varieties beside a British vegetable plot

Growing 6 August 2026 11 min read

Best Pea Varieties for UK Gardens

Compare the best pea varieties for UK gardens, early crops, sweet shelling peas, mangetout, sugarsnaps and late disease resistance using trial evidence.

Productive red, white and pink-flowered runner bean varieties growing on a British allotment frame

Growing 6 August 2026 11 min read

Best Runner Bean Varieties for UK Gardens

Compare the best runner bean varieties for UK gardens, flavour, reliable pod set, containers and long harvests using Which? and Suttons evidence.

Cos, crisphead, red loose-leaf and winter lettuce varieties growing in a British kitchen garden

Growing 6 August 2026 10 min read

Best Lettuce Varieties for UK Gardens

Find the best lettuce varieties for UK gardens, summer heat, pots and winter harvests, based on current Which? and RHS growing trials.

Freshly lifted orange, purple, baby and maincrop carrot varieties on a British allotment bench

Growing 6 August 2026 11 min read

Best Carrot Varieties for UK Gardens

Compare the best carrot varieties for UK gardens, pots, flavour, winter storage and carrot-fly resistance using current British trial evidence.

Filler flowers in a UK cutting garden, lacy white Ammi majus and lime Bupleurum growing in rows on a Scottish Borders plot

Growing 18 July 2026 14 min read

Filler Flowers: 11 Best for UK Cutting Beds

The florist's focal, filler and foliage rule explained, plus 11 filler flowers for UK cutting gardens with sowing times, stem length and vase life.

Sweet alyssum in flower, a low white carpet of tiny four-petalled blooms spilling over a path edge in a Welsh valley garden

Growing 18 July 2026 13 min read

How to Grow Alyssum: Scent, Bees and a Rescue

How to grow alyssum in the UK: sow at 15 to 18C, plant 15cm apart, and shear back in July for a second flush of scented flower by August.

Amaranthus caudatus love-lies-bleeding in flower, long crimson rope-like tassels hanging from an upright plant in a

Growing 18 July 2026 13 min read

How to Grow Amaranthus: Tassels You Can Eat

How to grow amaranthus in the UK: sow at 20 to 22C under cover, plant out after the last frost, stake the tassels, then cut, dry or eat the crop.

Amarine Belladiva in flower against a stone wall, tall pink trumpet blooms on bare stems in an autumn UK garden

Growing 18 July 2026 13 min read

How to Grow Amarine: Autumn's Toughest Bulb

How to grow Amarine in the UK: plant bulbs in spring with the neck exposed, bake the base in sun, and get pink trumpets from September to November.

Ammi majus in flower, flat white lace-cap umbels on tall slender stems across a Lincolnshire cut-flower plot

Growing 18 July 2026 14 min read

How to Grow Ammi Majus: Autumn Sowing Wins

How to grow Ammi majus in the UK. Autumn sowing gives stems 30cm taller and three weeks earlier. Plus the sap warning nobody mentions.

Canterbury bells in flower in a UK border, tall spires of purple and white cup-shaped bells above a suburban garden fence

Growing 18 July 2026 13 min read

Canterbury Bells: The Two-Year Wait Explained

How to grow Canterbury bells in the UK. Sow May to June, plant out in autumn, flower the next June. Cup and Saucer forms, staking and winter losses.

Polemonium caeruleum in flower in a UK border, blue bell-shaped flowers above ladder-like pinnate foliage

Growing 18 July 2026 13 min read

Polemonium: Jacob's Ladder That Behaves

How to grow Polemonium in UK gardens: the best Jacob's ladder cultivars, division timing, stopping runaway self-seeding and beating powdery mildew.

Solomon's seal arching stems with paired oval leaves and hanging white green-tipped bell flowers in a shady UK garden

Growing 18 July 2026 13 min read

Solomon's Seal: Beat the June Sawfly

Grow Solomon's seal in UK shade: rhizome planting depth, the best Polygonatum for dry shade, and how to stop sawfly stripping the leaves in June.

Welsh onions growing as a dense perennial clump of hollow blue-green leaves on a Birmingham allotment bed

Growing 18 July 2026 13 min read

Welsh Onions: The Onion You Plant Once

Welsh onions are perennial bunching onions, not spring onions. Sow at 12C, harvest cut-and-come-again all year, and divide the clumps every three years.

Electric-blue Corydalis flexuosa flowering in a cool damp woodland shade border in a UK garden

Growing 17 July 2026 14 min read

How to Grow Corydalis in Dry Shade

How to grow corydalis in the UK: cool moist shade for the electric-blue types, and why they vanish in July. Plus the tough self-seeding yellows.

Gaillardia blanket flower daisies in red and yellow flowering across a sunny Midlands cottage border

Growing 17 July 2026 13 min read

How to Grow Gaillardia: Months of Flower

How to grow gaillardia, the blanket flower: full sun, sharp drainage and hard deadheading keep this short-lived perennial flowering from June to frost.

Coral and pink hardy Garvinea gerberas flowering in a sunny free-draining border in a suburban UK garden in July

Growing 17 July 2026 14 min read

How to Grow Gerberas Outdoors: Hardy Types

How to grow gerberas outdoors in the UK: hardy Garvinea survives to -8C, while tender florist gerberas need a windowsill. Full guide to both types.

Crimson flag lily Hesperantha coccinea in full red flower along a moist pond edge in an autumn UK garden

Growing 17 July 2026 13 min read

How to Grow Hesperantha: Autumn's Last Flower

How to grow hesperantha, the crimson flag lily once known as Schizostylis: plant in moist soil and full sun for red and pink autumn flowers.

Tall purple liatris blazing star flower spikes in full bloom among grasses in a sunny UK prairie-style border

Growing 17 July 2026 13 min read

How to Grow Liatris: The Top-Down Spike

How to grow liatris (blazing star) in the UK: plant corms 8-10cm deep in spring, in full sun and sharp drainage. A pollinator magnet that flowers top-down.

Streptocarpus Cape primrose in full flower with purple trumpet blooms above quilted strap leaves on a bright UK windowsill

Growing 17 July 2026 13 min read

How to Grow Streptocarpus on a Windowsill

How to grow streptocarpus, the Cape primrose: bright indirect light, let the compost dry between waterings, high-potash feed and a cool winter rest.

Kalanchoe Flaming Katy in full flower with clusters of red blooms and glossy scalloped leaves on a bright UK windowsill

Growing 17 July 2026 13 min read

Kalanchoe Care: Make Flaming Katy Rebloom

Kalanchoe care made simple: water the Flaming Katy dry, keep it above 10C, and force it to rebloom with 14 hours of darkness for six weeks.

Chaos Gardening: What Works and What Does Not

Growing 16 July 2026 14 min read

Chaos Gardening: What Works and What Does Not

UK guide to Chaos Gardening: What Works and What Does Not, with timing, setup, care, common problems and useful next steps for British gardens.

A hotbed gardening frame built over fresh horse manure with early salad seedlings under a glass light in January

Growing 16 July 2026 14 min read

Hotbed Gardening: 65C of Free Winter Heat

UK guide to Hotbed Gardening: 65C of Free Winter Heat, with timing, setup, care, common problems and useful next steps for British gardens.

A hugelkultur raised bed mound planted with squash and beans in a British allotment in late summer

Growing 16 July 2026 14 min read

Hugelkultur in the UK: Where It Actually Fails

UK guide to Hugelkultur in the UK: Where It Actually Fails, with timing, setup, care, common problems and useful next steps for British gardens.

Two cherry trees in full white blossom in a UK suburban garden with a collie lying in the grass beneath

Growing 15 July 2026 14 min read

Cherry Pollination Groups: Why Two Trees Fail

Cherry pollination groups explained: flowering groups 1-5, the S-allele incompatibility trap, and why two cherry trees still set no fruit.

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