What's new, what's growing, what we're learning. Updates, guides and stories for people who take their garden seriously.
Cirrus, halo, thunderstorm tower, falling pressure, low hunting swallows and daisies that shut at three: what genuinely holds up, and why your look at the sky beats the app over the next two hours.
The Ice Saints are ten days off, the Seven Sleepers rule hits 60 to 70 per cent of years in southern Germany, and sheep's cold has the best physics behind it yet keeps happening less often. An honest reckoning with the old weather sayings and what climate change is doing to them.
Wet snow, frost cracks and hungry hares put trees and shrubs to the test in winter. Here is how to protect your woody plants from CW 48 to CW 8 with a few simple moves.
Kale, Brussels sprouts, corn salad and parsnip stand in the bed all winter and taste even sweeter after frost. Here is how to harvest fresh from the snow without the leaves turning to mush.
Winter-ready does not mean stripped bare. What to do from CW 40 onward, why leaves stay put, and how to make water, pots and tools frost-proof, week by week.
Drought and heavy rain are two sides of the same coin. Here is how to ready your garden for both extremes: humus-rich soil that acts like a sponge, keeping rain on site, and drought-proof planting.
Less often but deeper, early in the morning and always at the root: that is how you get through high summer on half a watering can. Plus mulch, a rain barrel and the simple finger test.
Fallen leaves are not waste, they are the best free soil improver of the year. Here is how to turn them into leaf mould, winter mulch and a shelter for hedgehogs and beneficial insects.
Lay the fleece on only when frost is forecast, air it out during the day, stand pots on wood: a few simple moves carry your beds and potted plants safely through the cold nights.
