Growing

Grow your own fruit, vegetables, and herbs. Real advice for real UK growing conditions.

British growing seasons are short and the weather rarely cooperates, so variety choice and sowing dates matter more than anything you can buy. These 285 guides cover fruit, veg, and herbs that earn their space in a UK garden, with sowing windows, spacings, and harvest timings tested against real seasons rather than packet promises.

Start here. The five crops and questions readers come back to most:

Growing Potatoes — chitting to harvest, first earlies to maincrop
Growing Strawberries — the easiest fruit win in a UK garden
How to Grow Garlic — plant in autumn, lift in July
Best Tomato Varieties — which ones actually ripen outdoors here
What to Plant in October — the sowing window most people miss

Browse

Vegetables

Tomatoes, potatoes, beans, and every veg for UK gardens.

Browse

Fruit

Strawberries, raspberries, apple trees, and soft fruit.

Browse

Herbs

Basil, rosemary, mint, thyme, and kitchen herb guides.

Browse

Planting Calendar

Month-by-month sowing guides and planting schedules.

Black buckets full of lush green potato foliage on a sunny UK patio

Growing 1 July 2026 13 min read

Grow Potatoes in Buckets and Containers

How to grow potatoes in buckets and containers in the UK. Drainage holes, 30-40L buckets, chitting, earthing up and watering for 1-1.5kg per bucket.

A large clump of bergenia elephant's ears with glossy leaves and pink flower spikes in a UK garden

Growing 1 July 2026 13 min read

How to Grow Bergenia (Elephant's Ears)

How to grow bergenia (elephant's ears) in the UK. This tough evergreen ground cover thrives in dry shade, spaces 45cm apart and flowers Feb to April.

Blue and pink scabious pincushion flowers in a sunny UK cottage garden border

Growing 1 July 2026 13 min read

Grow Scabious for Months of Cut Flowers

How to grow scabious in the UK. Full sun, sharp drainage and relentless deadheading give pincushion flowers for bees from June to October.

Tomato sideshoot cutting held by hand beside a jar of cuttings rooting in water on a UK windowsill

Growing 1 July 2026 13 min read

Free Tomato Plants From Sideshoot Cuttings

Take tomato cuttings from pinched-out sideshoots for free plants. Root them in water in 7-10 days, but take them by mid-July in the UK to get fruit.

A species-rich UK wildflower meadow with yellow rattle and ox-eye daisies in full summer flower

Growing 1 July 2026 13 min read

Yellow Rattle, the Wildflower Meadow Maker

Grow yellow rattle (Rhinanthus minor) to weaken vigorous grass and turn a lawn into a wildflower meadow. Sow fresh seed August to November on bare soil.

Aeonium succulents in terracotta pots on a sunny UK patio, including green and dark-purple rosettes

Growing 25 June 2026 14 min read

How to Grow Aeonium Including Pink Witch

Grow Aeonium succulents in the UK including Pink Witch and Schwarzkopf. Why they grow in winter, watering, light, overwintering and propagation.

Gardenia in full white bloom on a bright windowsill in a UK home

Growing 25 June 2026 14 min read

How to Grow Gardenia in the UK Climate

How to grow gardenia in the UK. Ericaceous compost, rainwater, 50% humidity and stable warmth stop bud drop and yellow leaves on this fussy shrub.

Close-up of red and green kangaroo paw flowers in a UK garden border

Growing 25 June 2026 13 min read

How to Grow Kangaroo Paw in the UK

Grow kangaroo paw (Anigozanthos) in the UK with our container guide: free-draining mix, full sun, low-phosphorus feed and frost-free overwintering.

A clump of orange and red kniphofia red hot pokers flowering in a sunny UK gravel garden

Growing 25 June 2026 14 min read

Growing Red Hot Pokers (Kniphofia) in UK

Grow red hot pokers (Kniphofia) in the UK: variety choices, free-draining soil, planting depth, dividing, deadheading, and winter crown protection.

Grey oyster mushrooms fruiting from a drilled bucket of straw in a UK garden shed

Growing 25 June 2026 15 min read

How to Grow Oyster Mushrooms at Home

Grow oyster mushrooms at home in the UK using the bucket and straw method. Covers spawn, substrate, pasteurisation, fruiting and yields.

A glass jar of fresh alfalfa sprouts with a muslin lid draining at an angle on a bright UK kitchen windowsill

Growing 24 June 2026 12 min read

Jar Grown Sprouts: A UK Windowsill Guide

Grow sprouts on a windowsill the jar way: alfalfa, mung and lentil, rinse twice daily, harvest in 3 to 6 days. Tested in a Staffordshire kitchen.

A flat lay of UK seed packets and a half-filled seed tray on a potting bench, F1 hybrid tomato packets beside open-pollinated heirloom packets

Growing 23 June 2026 10 min read

F1 Hybrid vs Open-Pollinated Seeds UK

F1 hybrid vs open-pollinated seeds compared for UK gardeners: vigour, uniformity, cost and seed-saving, tested over 9 growing seasons in Staffordshire.

A UK allotment onion bed in June with several plants sending up tall round flower stalks, the classic sign of onions bolting

Growing 23 June 2026 9 min read

Stop Onions Bolting: UK Prevention Guide

Stop onions bolting: a Staffordshire grower's prevention plan. Set size, planting timing, bolt-resistant varieties, and what to do the moment one flowers.