A compendium of advice from across the globe. We’ve divided this up into categories: caring for your soil, composting, companion planting, containers, fruit, gardening with children, growing from seed, flowers, pruning, vegetables, watering, weeds, pests & diseases, what to do when and wildlife. To go to the section you want, just click on the picture.
Anything you’d like to add to this page? Please let us know – email us at website@growchiswick.org.
Caring for your soil
Garden Organic Factsheet – Function of plant nutrients
Garden Organic Factsheet – Testing soil and improving fertility
Garden Organic Factsheet – Surveying the soil on a growing site
Garden Organic Factsheet –A practical guide to green manures
Garden Organic Factsheet – Know your soil
Garden Organic Factsheet – Soil Health
Garden Organic Factsheet – Soil Improvers – what to apply and when to apply it
Garden Organic Factsheet – Managing your soil
Composting
Making your own compost is a great way of putting back into the soil what your produce takes out. And it’s cheap and easy – as long as you follow a few simple rules.
My tip – when composting food waste, using the paper bags from sandwich shops is an easy way of getting the right balance between “greens” and “browns”.
If you haven’t got room in your garden for a compost bin, why not consider a wormery? Less compost, but loads of liquid fertiliser.
Garden Organic Home Composting website
Making Compost – Wildlife Trusts
Companion planting
Certain plant combinations are nature’s way of attracting beneficial insects (eg planting poached egg plant to attract hover flies, whose larvae eat aphids) or repelling pests (eg interplanting carrots and onions to confuse carrot fly & onion fly).
Thompson & Morgan guide to companion planting
Containers
If you don’t have a garden, you can still garden.
RHS on growing your own in containers
Fruit
Garden Organic Fruit Growing Manual
Gardening with children
eartheasy resources on gardening with children
BBC gardening resources & project ideas
HomeAdvisor on gardening with children
The Kids’ Garden – helping kids enjoy creative gardening
RHS on gardening for schools and families
Growing from seed
RHS vegetable seed sowing video
Pruning
RHS on winter pruning of wisteria
RHS on pruning roses
British Clematis society on pruning clematis
Vegetables
RHS vegetable A-Z
Robert Dyas Vegetable Growing Chart
Watering
All plants needs water to grow. Reducing the need to water during dry periods is good for everyone – less hard work for us, better for our plants, as rainwater is better for them than tap.
Remember – frequent, shallow watering encourages shallow roots and increases dependence on regular watering. Less frequent, thorough watering encourages deep roots, which strengthens plants’ ability to cope with dry periods.
In order to get water straight to the roots, plant a pot next to plants likely to need watering, and pour the water into it. Mulching also helps, by preventing evaporation.
Allotment watering tips from Love 2 learn Allotmenting
Environment Agency – Water-efficient Gardening
advice on watering crops – dry season
Weeds, pests & diseases
The RHS on biological pest control
What to do when
RHS month by month guide – an invaluable checklist for both fruit & vegetables, covering sowing and planting, pruning & training and harvesting.
Wildlife
London Wildlife Trust wildlife gardening guides
Butterfly Conservation – gardening for butterflies
Butterfly Conservation – 100 best butterfly nectar plants