Plant garlic at the right moment, not the first cold morning.
Give cloves six weeks to root before the ground freezes. Here is how to find the date for your garden.
Right now in the garden — September
The jobs that are genuinely time-sensitive this month. Everything else can wait for a dry Saturday.
Lift and cure onions and shallots
Give them two dry weeks under cover before moving them into cool storage.
Sow spinach and mâche for winter
Both germinate in cool soil and will sit under cover until early spring.
Plant daffodils and alliums
Set each bulb three times its own height, with the pointed end facing up.
Start with three good decisions.
No equipment list and no jargon. These short guides establish the only foundations a first garden really needs.
Practical guides for the week ahead.
Direct answers, seasonal timing and techniques you can repeat without specialist equipment.
Daffodil depth: the rule of three
Three times the bulb's height, pointed end up, with room for clumps to multiply.
Four tools worth buying, and twelve you can skip
Spend on a hand pruner and a comfortable digging tool; borrow the rest until you need it often.
The autumn leaf pile that becomes spring compost
Three simple layers and green waste are all you need for useful spring compost.
Spinach that survives winter: a row cover setup that works
Two layers of fleece over low hoops kept a Zone 5 bed cropping until February.
When to plant garlic — and why almost everyone does it too early
Cloves need six weeks of root growth before the ground freezes, and no more. Here is how to find the date for your zone.
Why your pothos is leggy, and the ten-minute fix
Long bare stems mean the plant is stretching for light, not asking for more fertilizer.
Browse by garden.
Follow one plant from sowing to harvest, or solve the job directly in front of you.