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Follow clear steps for everyday garden jobs. Know what to use, when to begin and what success looks like.

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Useful advice, organised around your next job

Garden jobs become easier when the timing and method are clear. These 357 practical guides explain which tools to use, when to start and what to check afterwards. Advice is organised for British seasons and conditions. Each page gives you a direct route through the task. Choose a common job below, or browse the newest step-by-step guides.

Recommended first

Start with a popular guide

Quick routes into the questions gardeners ask most often.

June Garden Jobs

A week-by-week task list for the early summer garden.

How to Prune Roses

Make clean cuts at the right time for healthier growth.

Hot Weather Watering

Put water where roots can use it during dry spells.

Make Comfrey Feed

Turn one productive plant into useful liquid feed.

Store Root Crops

Keep your harvest sound through the colder months.

From the library

The latest how-to guides

357 guides in this section

Autumn border with seedheads left standing, a thick compost mulch and a barrow of leafmould, inspired by Monty Don's tips

How To 21 October 2026 14 min read

Monty Don's 15 Best Gardening Tips, Ranked

Monty Don's best gardening tips in his own words, ranked: mulching, peat-free, leafmould, tulips, dahlias, long grass and more, with a month-by-month plan.

Row of plant pots in increasing sizes on a patio, from a small square module to a large black nursery pot

How To 18 July 2026 10 min read

Plant Pot Sizes: Litres to CM Made Simple

UK plant pot sizes explained: litres to cm, what P9 and C2 mean, which size pot each plant needs and why you should only pot on one or two sizes.

Seedlings in trays inside an open cold frame beside a flint cottage wall and veg beds in April

How To 18 July 2026 11 min read

What to Do in the Garden in April: Priorities

What to do in the garden in April, in order of priority. The jobs that can't wait, frost timing by region, hardening off and an easy two-weekend plan.

Northern allotment in February with bare beds, mulched soil and two cloches warming the ground

How To 18 July 2026 11 min read

What to Do in the Garden in February: Key Jobs

What to do in the garden in February in the UK. Chit potatoes, sow chillies under heat, prune clematis and dogwoods, and why sowing too early backfires.

Frosty garden at sunrise in January with bare apple trees, raised beds and hills beyond

How To 18 July 2026 12 min read

What to Do in the Garden in January: Key Jobs

What to do in the garden in January in the UK. Prune apples and wisteria, plant bare-root, force rhubarb, care for birds, and what not to touch yet.

Soil thermometer standing in a freshly raked raised bed in a suburban back garden in March

How To 18 July 2026 11 min read

What to Do in the Garden in March: Soil First

What to do in the garden in March, led by your soil rather than the calendar. When to sow, the first lawn cut, pruning roses and hydrangeas, and slugs.

Drip irrigation pipe running along raised beds of tomatoes on an allotment, with damp patches at each plant

How To 17 July 2026 11 min read

Best Drip Irrigation Kits for UK Gardens

Which drip irrigation kit suits your garden? Micro-drip for pots, dripline for rows, gravity kits for allotments, plus set-up, timers and winter care.

Young pineapple plant grown from a shop-bought top in a terracotta pot on a bright UK windowsill

How To 17 July 2026 10 min read

How to Grow a Pineapple From a Shop Top

How to grow a pineapple from a supermarket top: twist off the crown, root it in water or compost, keep it warm and bright, and maybe get a fruit.

Freshly laid hedge with upright stakes and twisted binders along a bare winter field edge

How To 17 July 2026 10 min read

Hedgelaying: How to Lay a Hedge by Hand

Hedgelaying made simple: how to cut and lay pleachers with a billhook, which hedges lay well, regional styles and when to lay a hedge in a UK winter.

Row of pleached hornbeam trees on bamboo frames beside a stone wall, with clear stems below flat panels of leaves

How To 17 July 2026 9 min read

Pleached Trees: How to Plant and Support

How to plant and support pleached trees in UK gardens: the best trees, spacing, staking, tying in and the twice-yearly trim that keeps panels flat.

Western red cedar hedge with flat sprays of scale-like leaves along a suburban back garden lawn

How To 17 July 2026 10 min read

Western Red Cedar Hedge: The Leylandii Fix

How to plant, trim and look after a western red cedar (Thuja plicata) hedge in the UK, and why it's a calmer, easier choice than leylandii.

Row of hardwood cuttings in a slit trench on an allotment in winter, with a spade in the soil

How To 16 July 2026 10 min read

Hardwood Cuttings: The Slit Trench That Roots

How to take hardwood cuttings in the UK: when to cut, how to prepare them, the slit trench method, and the bud trick for currants and gooseberries.

A tray of homemade wildflower seed bombs drying on cardboard, one broken open to show the seed inside

How To 16 July 2026 9 min read

How to Make Seed Bombs: The 5:3:1 Recipe

How to make seed bombs that grow: the easy 5:3:1 compost, clay and seed recipe, slow drying, the best UK wildflower seed and where to throw them.

Bundles of lavender, rosemary and shrub cuttings on a potting bench with secateurs and terracotta pots

How To 16 July 2026 10 min read

Semi-Ripe Cuttings: When and How to Take Them

How to take semi-ripe cuttings of shrubs and herbs from July to September. How to tell the wood is ready, prepare and root cuttings, and overwinter them.

Gloved hands picking ripe red rose hips from a rugosa rose bush near the coast in autumn

How To 15 July 2026 10 min read

Roses from Seed: Why Yours Won't Be Peace

How to grow roses from seed in the UK: picking ripe hips, cleaning the seed, a winter chill in the fridge, sowing, and why seedlings never copy the parent.

Spent coffee grounds being tipped from a kitchen caddy onto a compost heap of cardboard and leaves

How To 13 July 2026 7 min read

Coffee Grounds in the Garden: The Truth

Are coffee grounds good for the garden? The truth about soil acidity, slugs, blueberries and mulching, plus how to compost used grounds the right way.

Bowl of white paperwhite narcissi flowering on a windowsill at Christmas in a UK home

How To 13 July 2026 9 min read

Grow Paperwhites Indoors for Christmas

How to grow paperwhite narcissi indoors for Christmas. No chilling, flowers in 4-6 weeks. When to pot, the right water level and how to stop flopping.

Finished lined garden pond with irises, a pebble beach and stone edging in a suburban garden

How To 13 July 2026 9 min read

How to Install a Pond Liner Step by Step

How to install a pond liner that won't leak. Work out the size, pick EPDM, butyl or PVC, lay underlay, fill to settle the folds and hide the edge neatly.

Leafy living willow dome with an arched doorway on a lawn beside a stone cottage garden

How To 13 July 2026 10 min read

How to Build a Living Willow Dome

How to build a living willow dome in a UK garden: when to plant, which willow to buy, how to weave the frame and how to care for it as it grows.

Gardener replanting a clump of snowdrops in leaf into damp soil under a bare tree in a UK garden

How To 13 July 2026 9 min read

Planting Bulbs 'In the Green' Explained

What planting bulbs in the green means, which bulbs it suits, and how to lift, split and replant snowdrops, bluebells and aconites in leaf.

Coppiced hazel stools sending up fresh green shoots along a woodland edge in spring

How To 13 July 2026 8 min read

Pollarding and Coppicing Made Simple

Pollarding and coppicing explained for UK gardens, with which trees to use, when and how low to cut, and how to keep a tree small for decades.

Large oak tree in the front garden of a brick semi-detached house on a suburban street

How To 13 July 2026 10 min read

Tree Preservation Orders: What You Can Do

Tree Preservation Orders for UK homeowners: how to check for a TPO, what work needs consent, conservation area trees, dead tree rules and replanting.

Avocado stone sprouting a green shoot and white roots in a glass of water on a UK kitchen windowsill

How To 9 July 2026 10 min read

Grow Avocado From Stone on a UK Windowsill

How to grow avocado from stone: sprout a supermarket pit in water or compost, pot it on, pinch it bushy and keep it happy through a UK winter.

Watering can pouring diluted fish fertiliser onto the soil of a raised bed of chard and brassicas

How To 9 July 2026 9 min read

Homemade Fish Fertiliser: Free Feed From Scraps

How to make homemade fish fertiliser from scraps: ferment fish with sugar in a lidded bucket, strain it, dilute it well and feed leafy crops for free.

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