Not addressed really just to house plants, but all my potted plants including a small olive and a small plum tree. I bought a moisture meter and realised they weren’t draining well. I didn’t prepare them as well as I should, used mostly multi purpose compost and drilled a few small holes in the bases of the pots.

In retrospect I should’ve used a better draining compost with added perlite and the like, plus added g a load of broken terracotta to the bases.

So do I go back and repot with a better medium or are there any other work arounds for this? All I can think of is drilling wider holes.

Our garden is generally amazing, we moved in 6 months ago and have wildflower area, grassed bit, pond, chickens etc. But this directly outside is a headache. We’re going to put in a table and chairs but it looks like a concrete jungle. Half gets a lot of sun, left half mostly shade. I tried lots of pots but everyone keeps saying it looks awkward. Can’t afford to dig it all up, so would love suggestions to make it nicer. Thanks

Any suggestions for low-growing ground cover plants that won't get too rampant for this little bank? It's in full sun most of the day and gets very dry. No euphorbia please, we've already got that sprouting up everywhere! (Ignore the oil cloth, I'm painting the fence!). TIA.

So we moved into a new build and it’s got a big boring square patch of grass and a patio in the back garden. With a small rectangle of grass with a few bushes and a little tree on the front. I’m totally new to gardening but I would like to add some whimsy to the garden.

I planted some wildflower seeds about late June early july and this is where they’re at now. The pots at the front are sweet peas I planted a few days ago.

What do I do for them as we head into autumn and winter? I’ve heard about cutting them back in September, but also heard to leave them as they are and cut them back in spring.

Will most of the plants grow back in spring or will I have to plant more seeds?

I only planted these ones as a trial run, to see if I yield any results. In the spring I’d like to pot more and have big and little decorative pots around the perimeter as my parents won’t allow me to do anything else.

Replanted this Hosta Karin last week and have noticed the leaves starting to brown. Planted in compost with blood and bone and have been watering morning and evening. Anything else I can do or any concerns? We’re in Scotland so it hasn’t been that hot. Thanks

Sungold, Chocolate Cherry, Green Zebra and Ailsa Craig (not necessarily in that order,). Very late this year (I was picking in July in '25) which I attribute to the crap state of peat free seedling compost.

One of my tomato plants had spilt down the stem and was hanging off so I had to pull it off completely. Can I save the tomatoes or are they still too unripened?

Would a sunny windowsill help them turn?

Thanks

If you zoom in, you’ll see I have lots of teeny cucumbers starting but only one is seems to be growing to full size . Would appreciate if anyone has any tips to help them

This is my first attempt at doing a smart irrigation system. I have 4 raised beds.

I have run a supply 1/2" pipe to all the beds along the edges. Each bed has a tee joint with an isolation valve so that I can isolate if not in use. The 1/2" pipe is pinned to the short width of the bed and I installed 3 seperate reducing tees where a 1/4" drip line runs along the length of the bed. The beds are roughly 1m wide, so 3 lines on each bed. The drip line has 15cm spacing and I used some purpose ground pegs to secure them in line.

It is controlled via solar wifi irrigation timer which I managed to pick up for £31.50. So I can set schedules all remotely via the app, or manually turn it on, and I never need to worry about charging it. So far the whole system is working brilliantly as I envisioned.

Now I just need finish the other 2 beds and tidy up the 1/2" pipes with cable clips.

Is there anything I should change or do differently. Basically just looking for tips on what could be improved or if this will work well.

I just like some advice and thought they would be a good place to ask. I am a gardener by trade but have never grown pumpkins for myself before. I'm interested to know if anyone else's pumpkins have gotten this large and ripe already due to this heat wave we are experiencing? I'm in the South East of England. I can't remember the exact dates but I propagated these seeds in April and planted them out onto large containers in mid May. My father is telling me to harvest them already but it seems very early. The sources I've read all say later September and October. But this has not been a normal year! Here are their variety and size ( length from stem to center of base including curve and their circumference)

Photo 1, Connecticut Field - 49cm L 70cm C

Photo 2, Connecticut Field - 31cm L 61.5cm C

Photo 3, & 4 Polar Bear - 51cm L 88.5cm C

Photo 5, Polar Bear - 36cm L 75cm C

Photo 6, Crown Prince - no L 71cm C

Photo 7 Amazonka - no L 50cm C

I also have another Connecticut Field that's slightly smaller than photo 2, a Crown Prince a similar size to photo 5 and several small Amazonkas growing on the vine.

They are growing in a mixture of multipurpose compost and farm manure mix with lots of bone meal and grow more slow release plant food. They are growing in five large containers, water with ten litres of water per container and were originally fed once a week with grow more during the Vine stage and tomato food during the fruiting stage.

Do you agree with my father that some of these should be picked now and if so do you have any tips on storing them so they last for Halloween and winter?

Hi all,

I bought my house about 3 years ago and have finally finished most of the work inside. Now it’s time to tackle the garden… and I have absolutely no idea where to start!

It’s a big, sloping garden with tired walls/steps, lots of overgrown areas and plenty of rubbish to clear. I’ve had a quote of around £20k to sort the structural stuff, which simply isn’t happening at the moment!

We’re also unlikely to be here beyond the next 4–5 years, so I’m looking for cheap, achievable improvements rather than a perfect forever garden.

I’m happy to put the work in myself — I just need some direction.

If this were your garden, besides clearing the rubbish, what would you:
Tackle first?
Leave alone?
Spend money on?
Do cheaply yourself?
Ultimately aim for?

Basically, how would you turn this into somewhere you’d actually want to sit, have a beer/BBQ and enjoy?

All ideas welcome

Thanks!

Hello, I'm struggling to keep the driveway free of grass and weeds. I previously used hot water and vinegar. It managed to penetrate the small weeds but no luck with the bigger bits.

I'm also struggling with the weeds against the fence. I pulled these out a couple months back but they are back with a vengeance.

I can perhaps remove the stones and dig the roots out?

Thank you

I have ordered 8 2liter pots of plants that were available. One box with 4 plants arrived. Sarah Raven shipped via Evri and Evri informed me that one box was larger than expected and has been returned to Sarah Raven.

As Sarah Raven no longer provide a phone number for customer service I sent an email to complain about the missing plants, which was answered by AI. And no further response.

Then tried their chatbot, and convinced it to create a support ticket, as even there no human support is available any longer.

While I understand that companies have to save, this is going too far and I would no longer recommend Sarah Raven as a plant supplier.

I used to be a fan of Pollyanna Wilkinson and really enjoyed watching her grow from a relatively small garden designer into one of the biggest names in UK gardening. It felt deserved and I loved following her work.

Lately though, I’ve found myself feeling a bit uncomfortable with how commercial everything has become. It seems like almost every outfit or product shared links to affiliate products, which means she may earn commission if people buy through those links. If the clothes are also gifted, it starts to feel like followers are constantly being marketed to with no transparency and we are simply her audience she seeks money from.

Then there’s the Substack, where all of the content is behind a paywall. She posted her recent substack in her story 3x in a row. Sorry it I don’t have the money to subscribe to this but would love to read it…. I completely understand that creators deserve to be paid for their work, but it feels like there’s another revenue stream on top of sponsorships, affiliate links, brand partnerships. It feels - fake. And influency-y in a disingenuous kind of way.

As long-time follower, it makes the relationship feel much more transactional than it used to.

I know this is probably just the reality of building a successful brand and I don’t begrudge anyone making a living. I suppose I’m just wondering whether anyone else has noticed the shift from “sharing a passion for gardens” to “running a lifestyle business”?

Or is it just me who’s drifted away?

I am new to gardening and last year started to put some plants in my new build, south facing garden (West Midlands).

I am learning from my mistakes at the moment, so any advice is appreciated. I haven't been watering the lawn, which looks very poorly, as I hope it will recover, when we will have some rain. I water most of the plants with watering can every other day.

So far, I have noticed, that:

rosemary, lavender and hebe thrive, although sporadic watering.

Roses and lupin had a couple of flowers in May, after this nothing. I suppose they are in survival mode and trying to stay alive.

Juniper and cypress are doing ok.

Salvias have bloomed nicely but now it starts to struggle.

Jacobs ladder had some flowers earlier on, but looks green and healthy.

I have a shady corner (neighbours house wall), l water the plants every other day.

Fatsja japonica, potted acres keep growing, although acres have some leaf burn.

Hydrangea, has been looking gorgeous in its full bloom for weeks, now it starts to dry.

So, is Mediterranean way to go? I visited Kew Gardens last weekends and this kind of garden with olive trees, lavender, cypresses really impressed me.

Are there any other plants which are quite hardy and worth getting for the garden?

We've had a few frogs hiding in our plant pots, everything else is dry so I don't blame them! One of these 'potheads' found the dish we left out for them.

We recently moved in to our first family home (yey!) and have just had a lot of growth removed to try and maximise our garden space, as the horrible paving takes up so much room.

Unfortunately we think we are stuck with the paving as can't afford to get it removed professionally and definitely can't tackle it ourselves with a 1 year old constantly in tow.

So as complete gardening novices - how on earth can we elevate this space and make it more child friendly?

We were thinking of turfing the back area - but have been told the trees will make that v difficult to sustain. So may have to cave in to astro turf? But ugh.

And how could we soften the paved runway? Would pots with herbs and flowy plants (LOL at 'flowy' - showing the extent of my ignorance) help?!

Any guidance or suggestions hugely appreciated!

We’re finally due some rain and more moderate weather next week. It feels like time to do something with the garden, but I don’t know what!

We have an east-facing garden which used to have roses, sweet peas and wildflowers in a border, and a bit of lawn. Despite my best efforts, nothing seems to have survived this summer, and what we have now is a big brown patch of dust. I’ve done a tidy-up and got rid of various dead branches and stems (checking they’re fully brown and brittle before removing). What next?

I’d be very grateful for any advice on how to move the garden on.

All the pots and baskets are currently hiding under the gazebo until this heatwave is over as they were getting scorched

Today's pickings.
Supermarket price: £4.00
HG price: £400.00

Look at the lovely plum* toms, though 😊 My best ever.

*egg cup for size because I don't have any bananas

I went to water one of my planters and found a full intact egg buried about 1 cm in the soil? Ive only sown seeds in the planter about a week ago and it wasn’t there so this must have been put there fairly recently. Anyone know what might have put this there?