More and more of us are becoming green-fingered and growing our own. But if you’re a gardening novice, how do you know when to trim your hedges or plant your veggie seeds? What’s the best way to prune a rose bush or an apple tree? What’s the best soil for a hydrangea, and do heathers prefer light or shade?
Fortunately, these days there are loads of useful websites packed with information to help you turn your patch into whatever kind of garden you most desire, whether it’s grass, produce or flowers.
Try these gardening websites – they’re some of the best!
- Royal Horticultural Society - The RHS can help you find plants and grow them. Its website has plenty of gardening tips and advice, as well as information on garden design and inspiration for kids.
- BBC: Gardening - The BBC is well known for its gardening shows and here it collects all that useful information into one easy-to-use website.
- UK Gardening - A simple-to-use website packed with advice on every gardening scenario you can imagine.
- garden health.com - Produced by a garden products manufacturer but still useful with lots of great ‘how to’ tips.
- The Gardening Website - A one-stop shop for anything and everything you could possibly want for your garden.
- Thompson & Morgan - A highlight of any gardener’s year is poring over the Thompson & Morgan plant catalogue. Here it is online.
- Peter Beales Roses Ltd - Nearly 1,200 different classic roses to choose from.
- National Vegetable Society - Full of tips on getting the best veggies from your plot.
- Garden Organic - Charity website with lots of tips and factsheets on growing organically.
- Allotment Vegetable Growing - Great site for info on growing not only veg but also fruit and herbs. There are even some cooking suggestions.
- NGS - If you like visiting gardens, here on the National Garden Scheme website you can search for those open (for charity) near you, all of which are listed in the annual Yellow Book print directory.
Siobhan O’Neill is an experienced freelance writer living in Surrey.
Updated June 2023