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Pests & Problems

Browse 191 guides Open Plant Finder

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

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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.

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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 9 min read

Greater Plantain in Lawns: Fix the Cause

Greater plantain in your lawn is a sign of trodden, compacted turf. How to spot it, dig out the crown and repair the soil so it doesn't come back.

Hairy bittercress with a small leafy rosette, tiny white flowers and thin seed pods growing in a terracotta pot

Pests & Problems 20 August 2026 8 min read

Hairy Bittercress: The Exploding Weed

Hairy bittercress flings its seeds across pots, gravel and greenhouse staging. How to spot it, stop it before the pods pop, and eat the peppery leaves.

Common ragwort with flat-topped clusters of bright yellow flowers on a field edge

Pests & Problems 20 August 2026 8 min read

Ragwort: Identify and Remove It Safely

Ragwort is poisonous to horses and cattle but great for wildlife. Learn to identify it, when you need to remove it, and how to do it safely.

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

Pests & Problems 19 August 2026 9 min read

Broad-Leaved Dock: Control and Uses

How to get rid of broad-leaved dock for good: dig out the whole tap root, stop it seeding, and when a dock leaf is handy for a nettle sting.

Patch of creeping thistle with small lilac-purple flower heads and spiny leaves in a garden border

Pests & Problems 19 August 2026 9 min read

Creeping Thistle: Identify and Control

Creeping thistle spreads by brittle roots and wind-blown seed. Learn to identify it and starve it out by cutting before it seeds, plus what the law says.

Tulips in a spring border with scorched, spotted leaves and withered flowers from tulip fire

Pests & Problems 13 August 2026 7 min read

Tulip Fire: Spot and Beat Botrytis

Tulips twisted, scorched or spotted with grey mould? Learn to spot tulip fire, pull out the culprits fast and keep it out of next year's display.

Gooseberry branch with grey-white mildew on the berries and distorted, felted shoot tips

Pests & Problems 12 August 2026 8 min read

American Gooseberry Mildew: Stop the Felt

American gooseberry mildew coats shoots and berries in white felt. Learn to spot it and beat it with pruning, potash and resistant varieties like Invicta.

Rows of potato plants with blackened, collapsing leaves from blight on an allotment under a grey sky

Pests & Problems 12 August 2026 8 min read

Potato Blight: How to Save Your Potato Crop

Potato blight can flatten a row in days. Save your spuds with blight alerts, early varieties, cutting the tops and blight-resistant Sarpo potatoes.

Amber gum oozing from a sunken patch of dead bark on a cherry tree trunk

Pests & Problems 11 August 2026 7 min read

Bacterial Canker on Cherry and Plum Trees

Gum oozing from your cherry or plum? Spot bacterial canker by its sticky gum and shot-holed leaves, prune it out in summer and stop it coming back.

Fan-trained peach on a brick wall with red, blistered, curled leaves from peach leaf curl in spring

Pests & Problems 11 August 2026 8 min read

Peach Leaf Curl: Prevent and Cure It

Peach leaf curl blisters and reddens new peach leaves each spring. Why a simple rain shelter beats any spray, and the resistant variety that dodges it.

Rose leaves speckled with orange rose rust in a summer border with hardy geraniums behind

Pests & Problems 11 August 2026 8 min read

Rose Rust: Spot It Early and Stop It

Rose rust shows as orange spots under rose leaves from late spring. Tell it from black spot and break the cycle with simple autumn and spring jobs.

Young tomato plants with thin, ferny, twisted leaves in an allotment raised bed after contaminated manure

Pests & Problems 17 July 2026 9 min read

Aminopyralid: The Weedkiller in Your Manure

Aminopyralid in manure or compost makes tomatoes, beans and potatoes grow ferny and twisted. How to spot it, test for it and fix the bed.

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

Pests & Problems 17 July 2026 10 min read

Damping Off: Why Seedlings Suddenly Collapse

Damping off topples seedlings at the soil line overnight. Learn how to spot it, why cold wet trays cause it, and how to stop it hitting your next sowing.

Rhododendron with drooping dull leaves and brown dieback standing in a puddle in a wet garden border

Pests & Problems 17 July 2026 9 min read

Phytophthora Root Rot: The UK Shrub Killer

Phytophthora root rot kills shrubs and trees in wet UK soil. Learn to spot the stain at the base, tell it from honey fungus, and replant safely.

Russian vine smothering a suburban fence with sprays of creamy white flowers over green leaves

Pests & Problems 17 July 2026 9 min read

Russian Vine: Grow, Control or Kill It

Russian vine is not Japanese knotweed. Learn to tell them apart, use it as a fast screen, prune it hard to keep it in check, or get rid of it for good.

Dense carpet of young sycamore seedlings with long seed leaves and first maple-shaped leaves in a border

Pests & Problems 17 July 2026 10 min read

Sycamore Seedlings: How to Get Rid of Them

Sycamore seedlings taking over? How to hoe the spring flush, clear lawns, gravel and gutters, dig out saplings and keep horses safe from the seeds.

Tomato plant in a greenhouse with lower leaves rolled upwards and green and ripening fruit on the trusses

Pests & Problems 17 July 2026 9 min read

Tomato Leaves Curling? Causes and Fixes

Tomato leaves curling? Learn why they roll up or cup down, from harmless leaf roll and heat to weedkiller-tainted manure, viruses and pests.

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

Pests & Problems 17 July 2026 8 min read

Witches' Broom on Trees: Harmless or Not?

Spotted a twiggy bird's nest in your birch or cherry? Learn what witches' broom is, how to tell it from mistletoe and whether it's worth pruning out.

Grey squirrel digging in a freshly planted bulb bed in autumn, with a dug-up bulb lying on the soil

Pests & Problems 16 July 2026 9 min read

Stop Squirrels Digging Up Bulbs: What Works

How to stop squirrels digging up bulbs: pegged wire mesh, bulbs they leave alone, planting tips for pots and borders, and the deterrents to skip.

Mature elm in a hedgerow with patches of yellowed, flagging branches, an early sign of Dutch elm disease

Pests & Problems 15 July 2026 11 min read

Dutch Elm Disease: The Ring That Confirms It

Dutch elm disease symptoms for UK gardeners: summer flagging, the brown ring twig test, how bark beetles spread it and the resistant elms worth planting.

A cloud of midges swarming in evening light over reeds at the edge of a Scottish loch

Pests & Problems 15 July 2026 9 min read

Midges in the Garden: What Actually Works

Biting midges ruining summer evenings in the garden? Which midges bite, why a breeze beats gadgets, the repellents that work and the myths to skip.

A pepper leaf in a greenhouse covered in silvery thrips damage, with more plants on the staging behind

Pests & Problems 15 July 2026 9 min read

Glasshouse Thrips: Why Sprays Keep Failing

Silvery leaves with tiny black specks under glass? That's thrips. Why sprays miss them and how predatory mites, nematodes and hygiene keep them down.

Border collie lying on thin, patchy grass in the shade of a silver birch in a UK back garden

Pests & Problems 15 July 2026 11 min read

Grass in Shade: What Grows and What Won't

Which grass grows in shade in UK gardens, why lawns fail under trees, and how to tell when to stop sowing and plant shade-loving ground cover instead.

Pear leaf with bright orange pear rust spots across the upper surface in late summer

Pests & Problems 15 July 2026 9 min read

Pear Rust: Why Your Neighbour's Juniper Did It

Bright orange spots on pear leaves? That's pear rust, and it comes from a juniper, not your pear. How to spot it, find the source and what really helps.

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