Tips and articles

• Identifying trees in winter: Without their leaves, you can still recognise trees by their buds, bark, silhouette and the fruit that stays on the branches. These features will get you started.
• Invasive non-native plants in your garden: how to recognise and replace them: Some popular garden plants spread into the wild and crowd out the native plants there. How to recognise them, and some good alternatives.
• Planting a tree: how to do it properly: The right tree in the right place, the best planting season, the planting hole, staking and watering in the first few years. This is how your new tree grows into a healthy old one.
• Pruning fruit trees: apple, pear, cherry and plum: Prune apples and pears in winter, cherries and plums in summer. How to prune a young fruit tree and an old one, and how to avoid silver leaf and gummosis.
• Shrubs and trees for birds and bees: With the right shrubs and trees, your garden will be in flower from March to October and birds will find berries until deep into winter. How to choose plants for a garden full of life.
• When should you cut your hedge? The nesting season and the best times: Most hedges are trimmed twice a year, at the end of June and the end of August. How to take nesting birds into account, and when to trim each type of hedge.
• Which hedge should you choose? Hedging plants compared: Evergreen or not, fast or slow, for sun or shade, and good for birds? How to choose the right hedging plant, with the pros and cons of the best-known species.