Mild, damp autumn nights keep UK slugs feeding on broad beans, sweet peas and winter salads long after summer ends. Here is how to protect autumn seedlings now and cut next spring's slug pressure at the same time.
Clouds of flies around your compost bin mean exposed scraps and a wet mix, not a lost cause. Five practical steps for UK gardeners: identify the fly, bury and cover, rebalance and turn, trap the adults, then fly-proof the setup for good.
Most leaking hose connectors need nothing more than a fresh washer, a new O-ring or a re-cut hose end. This step-by-step UK guide shows how to find the leak point and fix it for good.
Cloudy hot tub water usually traces back to the filter, the sanitiser, the chemistry or water that is simply worn out. Here is the order to fix them in, and the routine that keeps a UK tub clear into autumn.
A full pre-winter service for UK garden tools: scrub off soil and sap, disinfect and sharpen blades, oil metal and wooden handles, sort batteries and petrol, and store everything dry until spring.
Turn a wet autumn carpet of leaves into the best free soil conditioner in the garden. Six steps from collecting and sorting through to bagging, keeping it damp, and knowing what one year and two year leaf mould are each good for.
A step by step autumn clean for UK greenhouses, in the order that saves the most work: empty it, sweep it dry, wash the glazing, disinfect the frame and staging, then clear the gutters, floor and water butt before the frosts arrive.
A step-by-step autumn plan for clearing lawn moss in the UK: kill it with iron sulphate, scarify it out, aerate, overseed and fix the conditions that invited it in.
Cutting a mophead hydrangea back in September removes next summer's flowers before they open. Here is how to tell which type you have, why the faded heads stay on until spring, and what to do instead.
September is when most people go looking for this, and in much of the UK it is a fortnight early. Here is the real planting window, the signals that confirm it, and the spring fallback.
Tulips are the one spring bulb that should stay in the bag in September. Here is the UK planting window, the signals that confirm the ground is ready, and what to do if you are running late.
Heavy clay is where cheap bulb planters bend, stick or simply stop. An all welded steel tube with a foot plate should be the answer, so why does one five-star buyer warn you off using it on dry ground?
