Install a Water Butt: The DIY Weekend Job
How to install a water butt in the UK. Fit a diverter kit, raise the tap on a plinth, and collect free rainwater from any house or shed downpipe.
Step-by-step guides for every garden task, from pruning roses to building a compost bin.
Every guide in this section comes from a job done on a real plot, written the way you would do it: which tool, which month, and what it should look like when you finish. There are 325 guides here. Most garden jobs in Britain are timing jobs. Done in the right month, they take half the effort and the plant recovers faster.
Start here. These five cover the jobs readers ask about most:
How to install a water butt in the UK. Fit a diverter kit, raise the tap on a plinth, and collect free rainwater from any house or shed downpipe.
Build a vertical strawberry tower for balconies and patios. A perforated watering core stops the top drying out, the number-one reason towers fail.
Best hand creams for gardeners: lanolin, urea and beeswax barrier balms that repair cracked, sore hands, ranked by a Staffordshire grower of 18 years.
Are flower pot heaters safe? A Staffordshire gardener tests the viral tealight-and-pot trick: the physics, the real fire and CO risks, what to use instead.
How to clean and protect garden furniture in the UK: teak, rattan, metal, plastic and cushions, tested over 8 summers in a Staffordshire garden.
How to grow bacopa (Sutera cordata) in UK baskets: watering, weekly feed, sun, and the white, blue and pink trailing forms, tested over 6 summers.
Grow lion's mane mushrooms (Hericium erinaceus) in the UK: kits vs blocks vs logs, fruiting at 18-24C and 90% humidity, harvest timing, tested results.
How to grow pussy willow (Salix) in the UK: planting, easy hardwood cuttings, pruning for catkins, and 'Kilmarnock' for small plots.
How to grow string of hearts (Ceropegia woodii) in the UK: light, succulent watering, gritty mix and easy propagation, tested in Staffordshire.
How to make soil more acidic in the UK: sulphur chips dosed by pH drop, ericaceous beds and pots, rainwater, and the myths that waste your time.
How to keep hydrangeas blue in the UK: acid soil, aluminium sulphate dose rates and timing, tested in Staffordshire over 6 seasons by Lawrie Ashfield.
When you can legally mow your lawn in the UK: no fixed hours, the statutory nuisance test and neighbour-safe windows from a 30-year gardener.
Learn how to hybridise fuchsias step by step, from emasculating the seed parent to sowing seed at 18-20C and selecting seedlings over three years.
Remove large tree branches safely with the three-cut method. Covers tools, timing by tree type, the branch collar, TPO law and when to call an arborist.
Sterilise or pasteurise garden soil and compost at home in the UK. Oven, steam, microwave and solarisation methods compared with temperatures and times.
Root prune pot-bound plants to revive them without potting up. Tested on 40+ UK containers: timing, how much root to cut and which plants love it.
Make your own peat-free potting compost. Exact ratio recipes for seed, potting-on and ericaceous mixes, John Innes formulas, and home-blend trial results.
Prune boundary trees for privacy and light. Crown lift to 2-3m, thin under 30%, reduce by a third, plus UK timing, TPO law and a species table.
How to get rid of daisies in a lawn the UK way. Hand-weeding, mowing height, feeding and weed treatments, plus the case for leaving some for bees.
Community composting in the UK: how to set up a shared scheme on an allotment or estate, choose a system, handle the rules, and make compost together.
Sow hardy annuals direct in UK borders: prepare a fine seedbed, sow cornflowers, calendula and nigella in drifts, then thin to the right spacing.
How many bulbs to plant per square metre, by type. A clear UK density chart for tulips, daffodils, crocus and alliums, plus spacing, depth and pot rates.
How to store flower bulbs over winter: which to lift, how to dry and clean them, the right conditions, and how to keep bought bulbs until planting time.
Set your mower to the right cutting height by season and grass type. Covers the one-third rule, scalping damage, and summer vs spring heights in mm.