Spot the problem

Pests & Problems

Browse 191 guides Open Plant Finder

Identify the cause before choosing a treatment. Follow practical, organic-first advice for common garden problems.

UK seasons Plain advice Free to read

Choose where to begin

Useful advice, organised around your next job

Correct identification is the first step towards solving a garden problem. These 191 guides show the signs to check before you act. They cover common pests, diseases and damage found in UK gardens. Cultural and physical controls come first where suitable. Use the recommended guides below, then browse the full problem library if you need another diagnosis.

Recommended first

Start with a popular guide

Quick routes into the questions gardeners ask most often.

How to Get Rid of Slugs

Separate useful control methods from common folklore.

Common Plant Diseases

Identify mildew, rust, botrytis and blight.

Black Bean Aphid

Recognise and manage blackfly on broad beans.

Mammal and Bird Pests

Protect plants from pigeons, squirrels, rabbits and deer.

From the library

The latest problem guides

191 guides in this section

Greater plantain with broad ribbed leaves and narrow flower spikes in a worn UK lawn

Pests & Problems 21 August 2026 13 min read

Greater Plantain in Lawns: Fix the Cause

Greater plantain survives mowing and favours worn turf. Identify it, remove the crown, and repair the compaction beneath your lawn.

Hairy bittercress Cardamine hirsuta with a small rosette, tiny white flowers and slender seed pods in a pot

Pests & Problems 20 August 2026 12 min read

Hairy Bittercress: The Exploding Weed

Hairy bittercress fires seeds across nearby pots. Identify this fast weed, control it before pods explode, and use clean leaves as peppery cress.

Common ragwort Jacobaea vulgaris with flat-topped clusters of bright yellow flowers in a UK field

Pests & Problems 20 August 2026 13 min read

Ragwort: Identify and Remove It Safely

Ragwort is toxic to grazing animals but valuable for wildlife. Identify it, remove it safely before seed, and understand the law.

Broad-leaved dock Rumex obtusifolius with large oval leaves and a rusty-red seed spike in a UK garden

Pests & Problems 19 August 2026 13 min read

Broad-Leaved Dock: Control and Uses

Broad-leaved dock has a deep tap root and seeds that last decades. How to dig it out properly, stop it seeding, and use it on nettle stings.

Creeping thistle Cirsium arvense with lilac-purple flower heads and spiny leaves in a UK garden

Pests & Problems 19 August 2026 13 min read

Creeping Thistle: Identify and Control

Creeping thistle spreads by brittle roots and wind-blown seed. Identify it, control it by cutting before it seeds, and know the legal duty.

Tulips distorted and scorched with brown spots and grey mould from tulip fire in a UK spring border

Pests & Problems 13 August 2026 13 min read

Tulip Fire: Spot and Beat Botrytis

Tulip fire scorches, twists and spots tulips each spring. Spot the grey-mould primaries, rogue them out fast, and break the cycle with a three-year gap.

Gooseberry bush with white powdery American gooseberry mildew coating the shoot tips and berries in a UK garden

Pests & Problems 12 August 2026 13 min read

American Gooseberry Mildew: Stop the Felt

American gooseberry mildew coats shoots and berries in white felt. Beat it with open pruning, less nitrogen and resistant varieties like Invicta.

Allotment potato rows with foliage collapsing from potato blight under a humid grey UK sky

Pests & Problems 12 August 2026 14 min read

Potato Blight: Stop It Before It Spreads

Potato blight can strip an allotment in a week. Use blight alerts, the earlies-escape trick, haulm cutting and Sarpo varieties to save your crop.

Amber gum oozing from a sunken bacterial canker lesion on the bark of a UK cherry tree

Pests & Problems 11 August 2026 11 min read

Bacterial Canker on Cherry and Plum Trees

Bacterial canker on cherry and plum trees: spot the amber gum and shot-hole, prune at the right time, and choose resistant Prunus for UK gardens.

Fan-trained peach against a brick wall showing red blistered curled leaves from peach leaf curl in spring

Pests & Problems 11 August 2026 13 min read

Peach Leaf Curl: Prevent and Cure It

Peach leaf curl blisters and reddens new peach leaves each spring. Learn why a rain shelter beats every spray and the resistant variety that dodges it.

Rose leaves showing bright orange rust pustules on the undersides in a UK garden border

Pests & Problems 11 August 2026 13 min read

Rose Rust: Spot It Early and Stop It

Rose rust brings bright orange pustules under the leaves from May. Tell it from black spot and break the cycle with autumn leaf clearance and potash.

Tomato plants with ferny, twisted leaves from aminopyralid contaminated manure in a UK raised bed

Pests & Problems 17 July 2026 13 min read

Aminopyralid: The Weedkiller in Your Manure

Aminopyralid contaminated manure and compost cause ferny, twisted growth on tomatoes, beans and potatoes. How to spot, test for and clear it in UK gardens.

Damping off in a seed tray, with young seedlings toppled and collapsed at the soil line on a UK greenhouse bench

Pests & Problems 17 July 2026 14 min read

Damping Off: Why Seedlings Collapse UK

Damping off collapses UK seedlings at the soil line overnight. Learn to spot the fungus, stop it, and fix the other common seed-sowing failures.

Phytophthora root rot killing a rhododendron, drooping dull leaves and dieback above standing water in a walled garden

Pests & Problems 17 July 2026 13 min read

Phytophthora Root Rot: The UK Shrub Killer

Phytophthora root rot kills shrubs and trees in wet UK soil. Spot the dark stain at the base, tell it from honey fungus, and stop the spread.

Russian vine smothering a suburban fence with foamy white flower sprays over heart-shaped leaves in a UK garden

Pests & Problems 17 July 2026 13 min read

Russian Vine: Grow, Control or Kill It

Russian vine is not Japanese knotweed. Learn to tell them apart, grow it as fast screening, prune it hard, or dig and kill it for good.

Dense carpet of sycamore seedlings with strap cotyledons and young palmate leaves across a suburban border in spring

Pests & Problems 17 July 2026 13 min read

Sycamore Seedlings: How to Get Rid of Them

Sycamore seedlings taking over? Learn how to get rid of them, from hoeing young ones to cut-stump treatment on established self-sown saplings.

Tomato leaves curling upward on a greenhouse cordon plant in a UK garden, lower leaves rolled but fruit healthy

Pests & Problems 17 July 2026 13 min read

Tomato Leaves Curling? Causes and Fixes

Tomato leaves curling? Learn why they curl up or down, from harmless leaf roll to herbicide, virus and mite damage, and the fix for each UK cause.

Witches' broom in a silver birch, a dense twiggy mass like a bird's nest high in the bare winter crown of a UK tree

Pests & Problems 17 July 2026 12 min read

Witches' Broom on Trees: Harmless or Not?

Witches' broom in trees is a dense twiggy mass, usually caused by Taphrina fungus. Learn what it is, whether it harms your tree, and when to prune.

Grey squirrel digging in a freshly planted bulb bed in a UK garden, scattering soil and tulip bulbs

Pests & Problems 16 July 2026 13 min read

Stop Squirrels Digging Up Bulbs: What Works

Stop squirrels digging up bulbs with methods ranked by measured effectiveness: mesh aperture, planting depth, bulb choice, and the deterrents that fail.

Mature elm in a Staffordshire hedgerow with yellowed flagging branches, the first sign of Dutch elm disease

Pests & Problems 15 July 2026 14 min read

Dutch Elm Disease: The Ring That Confirms It

Dutch elm disease symptoms for UK gardeners: summer flagging, the brown sapwood ring test, elm bark beetle spread and the resistant elms worth planting.

Cloud of midges swarming in golden evening light above a Scottish loch shore with hills behind

Pests & Problems 15 July 2026 15 min read

Midges in the Garden: What Actually Works

Midges ruin UK summer evenings. What repels them, what is folklore, and why a 7mph breeze beats every product you can buy. Evidence-first UK guide.

Glasshouse thrips damage showing silvery bleached stippling across the upper surface of a greenhouse plant leaf

Pests & Problems 15 July 2026 14 min read

Glasshouse Thrips: Why Sprays Keep Failing

Glasshouse thrips leave silver stippling and black specks. Why leaf sprays fail, the 13-day lifecycle, and the predator mites that actually clear them.

Border collie lying on thin patchy grass in shade under a silver birch in a north-facing UK back garden

Pests & Problems 15 July 2026 15 min read

Grass in Shade: What Grows and What Won't

Which grass really grows in shade in UK gardens. Fine fescues vs marketing claims, light thresholds in hours and lux, and when dry shade is unwinnable.

Pear rust on a pear leaf in a UK garden, showing bright orange spots across the upper leaf surface in August

Pests & Problems 15 July 2026 13 min read

Pear Rust: Why Your Neighbour's Juniper Did It

Pear rust identification and treatment in UK gardens: bright orange leaf spots, the fringed aecia underneath, and why the cure is a juniper, not your pear.

Full index

All guides A–Z