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Quick Answer Rhododendrons need very little pruning. The main tasks are deadheading spent flowers immediately after blooming, removing dead or diseased wood at any time of year, and light shaping after flowering in May or June. Hard renovation pruning to reduce an overgrown plant is best done in late winter between January and March, accepting […]

Quick Answer Most conifers cannot regenerate from old brown wood, which means once they outgrow their space, your options are limited to careful staged reduction, acceptance and maintenance, or removal. Unlike deciduous hedges and shrubs, conifers cannot be cut back to bare wood and expected to recover. Understanding this biological reality before deciding how to […]

Quick Answer Roses fail to flower for eight main reasons: not enough sun, wrong pruning time or technique, too much nitrogen fertiliser, lack of deadheading, drought or waterlogging stress, pest and disease pressure, blind shoots, or the plant being too newly planted to flower freely. Most of these are simple to diagnose and straightforward to […]

Quick Answer In July you can plant container-grown dahlias, hydrangeas and buddleja for instant summer colour, sow biennial flowers like foxgloves and wallflowers for next spring, and get autumn-flowering bulbs like nerines and colchicums into the ground. In the kitchen garden, July is your last chance to sow French beans, carrots and radishes for an […]

Real small garden makeover breakdown: £4,500-£9,000 costs, design decisions that actually work, and the specific mistakes I see repeated on every compact garden project. Honest advice from a BBC Garden Rescue designer.

Quick Answer Clematis most commonly dies back from clematis wilt, a fungal disease that causes sudden stem collapse, but the majority of cases blamed on wilt are actually caused by slug damage, physical stem injury, waterlogging, or drought stress. Cut all affected stems back to ground level, dispose of the material without composting it, and […]

Having a formal front garden is a statement piece, and ideally, it should match the style of the property it will sit with. Period properties, townhouses and turn-of-the-century properties lend themselves really well to a formal garden design. New build houses can also be excellent candidates for a formal garden layout, especially with the trend […]

Quick Answer The fastest growing hedges in the UK include hawthorn, blackthorn, privet, cherry laurel and photinia, all growing 40 to 60cm per year. For the best long-term results however, a mixed native hedge of hawthorn, blackthorn, hazel, field maple and dog rose will grow just as fast, requires far less maintenance, supports far more […]

I built my first wildlife pond when I was eleven years old. It was a biner liner pond into a corner of my parents’ back garden in Lancashire, filled with tap water and whatever aquatic plants I could find at the local garden centre. Within a fortnight, there were pond skaters on the surface and […]

Why Is My Laurel Hedge Dying? Complete UK Diagnosis GuideWhy Is My Laurel Hedge Dying? Complete UK Diagnosis Guide Quick Answer A dying laurel hedge is most commonly caused by waterlogged or compacted soil, drought stress, shot hole disease, frost damage or incorrect pruning technique. In most cases the hedge can be rescued by improving […]