How to Design a Garden Layout (Step by Step)
A practical walkthrough of designing a garden layout from scratch. Satellite tracing, bed placement, plant spacing, and a 3D view of the finished result.
Learn with Leaftide
Practical guides on growing vegetables, fruit trees, and managing a home garden — based on real experience, backed by research.
Chill Hours for Blueberries — Variety Guide
Blueberries need specific chill hours to fruit well. Learn the chill requirements for Southern Highbush, Rabbiteye, Northern Highbush, and Half-High varieties.
Chill Hours for Peach Trees: A Practical Guide
Peach trees need a specific number of chill hours to fruit well. Learn what your variety needs, find your local chill hours, and pick the right peach for your climate.
How Far Apart to Plant Cucumbers
Cucumber spacing depends on whether you grow on the ground or up a trellis. Learn the right distances for rows, raised beds, and containers.
How Far Apart to Plant Onions for Best Results
Learn how far apart to plant onions from sets, seeds, and transplants. Spacing by type, multi-sowing tips, and raised bed advice from real experience.
How Far Apart to Plant Peppers
Learn how far apart to plant peppers for the best harvest. Spacing by type, method, and container size, from someone who learned by cramming them too close.
How Far Apart to Plant Strawberries
How far apart to plant strawberries depends on your growing system. Spacing for matted rows, hill systems, raised beds, containers, and more.
How Far Apart to Plant Tomatoes
The right tomato spacing for every type and growing method. Determinate, indeterminate, raised beds, containers, and rows.
Low Chill Peach Varieties: A Grower's Guide
The best low chill peach varieties for warm climates. Chill hours, flavour notes, harvest timing, and growing tips from a gardener who learned the hard way.
When to Plant Garlic for the Best Harvest
Learn when to plant garlic in your climate. Autumn planting produces bigger bulbs, but timing depends on frost dates, variety, and region.
When to Plant Onions: Timing by Type and Region
Learn when to plant onions from sets, seeds, and transplants. Timing by day length, frost dates, and region so your bulbs size up properly.
When to Plant Potatoes: Timing by Type & Region
When to plant potatoes depends on your frost dates and potato type. First earlies, second earlies, and maincrops each have different windows.
When to Plant Strawberries for the Best Harvest
When to plant strawberries depends on your climate, plant type, and whether you buy bare root or potted runners. Here is how to time it right.
When to Plant Tomatoes: Timing It Right
Know exactly when to plant tomatoes based on your frost date and soil temperature. Indoor seed starting, transplanting, and regional timing.
Common Garden Pests: Identification and Control
A practical guide to identifying the most common vegetable garden pests, what damage they cause, and organic methods to control them.
Companion Planting Guide: What to Grow Together
A practical companion planting guide covering the science behind plant pairings and the combinations to avoid. Plan smarter beds this season.
Composting Basics for Beginners
A practical guide to starting your first compost heap. Greens, browns, what to avoid, and how to turn kitchen scraps into garden gold.
Monthly Garden Checklist for the UK: Tasks by Month
A month-by-month guide to UK garden tasks. What to sow, plant, prune, and harvest from January to December in a British vegetable and fruit garden.
Plant Propagation Guide for Vegetable Gardens
How to multiply herbs and vegetables from cuttings, divisions, and runners. Practical propagation methods for edible gardens, with timing advice.
Seed Saving Guide for Home Gardeners
A practical guide to saving seeds from your garden. Which crops are easiest, how to process and store seeds, and why tracking what you grow matters.
Soil Preparation for Beginners
How to understand, test, and improve your garden soil before planting. A practical guide to building healthy soil from someone who started with heavy clay.
Crop Rotation Planning for Home Gardens
Crop rotation works even in a small veg patch. A simple four year plan keeps your soil healthy and breaks pest cycles before they take hold.
Espalier Fruit Tree Training: A Practical Guide
How to train espalier fruit trees against a wall or fence. Covers forms, pruning, and why tracking each session matters more than technique alone.
Fruit Tree Pollination Groups Explained
How pollination groups work, which fruit trees pollinate each other, and how to avoid planting a tree that will never set fruit.
Fruit Tree Rootstock Guide: What It Is and Why It Matters
Rootstock determines how big your fruit tree gets, how fast it fruits, and where you can plant it. Here is what you need to know before buying.
Garden Harvest Tracking and Yield Recording
Tracking what you harvest and how much changes how you plan next year. Here is the system I use to record yields without it becoming a chore.
Home Orchard Layout & Fruit Tree Spacing Guide
How far apart should you plant fruit trees? A practical guide to orchard layout, tree spacing by rootstock, and designing a home orchard that works.
Best Planting Calendar for Your Zone — Why Generic Schedules Miss the Mark
Find the best planting calendar for your zone. Generic monthly schedules miss your frost dates, soil temperature, and microclimate. Here is how to build one that actually fits your garden.
Raised Bed Garden Layout Planning
How to plan a raised bed layout that actually works. Bed sizing, orientation, path widths, and planting arrangements from someone who got it wrong first.
Seed Starting Indoors Schedule: When to Start What
A practical indoor seed starting schedule built around your last frost date. Know exactly when to sow tomatoes, peppers, and brassicas indoors.
Succession Planting Schedule: How to Harvest All Season
A practical guide to succession planting. Learn how to stagger sowings so you harvest fresh vegetables for months, not all at once.
I Tested 10 Garden Planning Apps — Here's What Actually Works (2026)
Hands-on comparison of GrowVeg, Planter, Seedtime, and more. Which app handles fruit trees, raised beds, and real climate data — not just generic zones?
Chill Hours by Zip Code — A Grower's Guide
Your fruit trees need winter cold to fruit properly. Learn how to find chill hours by zip code, what the numbers mean, and which varieties match your climate.
Last Frost Date Guide — Find & Use Yours
Frost dates are the backbone of every planting schedule — but they're averages, not guarantees. Here's how to find yours and actually use them.
Plant Spacing Guide for Vegetables & Hedges
Spacing mistakes cost you harvests. Learn the right distances for vegetables, herbs, and hedges — plus when to break the rules.
When to Prune Fig Trees: Timing Guide
Fig trees fruit on both old and new wood, which makes pruning timing tricky. Here's when to prune figs in every climate, from mild winters to zone 5 cold.
When to Prune Apple Trees: Timing Guide
Learn when to prune apple trees for your climate. Winter dormant pruning, summer pruning for trained forms, and what biological signals to watch for.
When to Prune Cherry Trees: Timing Guide
Cherry trees must be pruned in summer, not winter. Learn when to prune sweet and sour cherries, why winter pruning causes silver leaf, and a calendar.
When to Prune Peach Trees: Timing Guide
Peach trees need spring pruning, not winter. Learn the right timing window, why peaches differ from apples, and how to avoid peach leaf curl.
When to Prune Pear Trees: Timing Guide
Pear trees are pruned in winter like apples, but their upright growth and spur-bearing habit mean a different approach. Learn the timing and key differences.
When to Prune Plum Trees: Timing Guide
Plum trees should be pruned in summer to prevent silver leaf. Learn the right timing, how plums differ from apples, and tips for Victoria plum owners.
How to Track Berry Bushes and Soft Fruit
Berry bushes benefit from tracking, but most gardeners neglect them. Here is what to record for raspberries, blueberries, currants, and more.
Digital vs Paper Garden Journal
Paper journals feel wonderful. Digital journals actually get used. Here's how to decide which is right for you — or whether to use both.
First Year Fruit Tree Care: What to Do
The first year determines whether your fruit tree thrives for decades. Here is exactly what to do, and why recording it from day one pays off for years.
How to Plan and Track a Food Forest
Food forests are 20-year projects. This guide explains how to keep records that remain useful a decade from now, so you do not forget what you planted where.
How to Keep a Fruit Tree Pruning Log
Most pruning guides tell you how to cut. This one tells you how to record what you did, so you actually learn what works for your trees.
Garden Mistakes Worth Recording
The most valuable entries in your garden journal are not the successes — they are the failures. Here is what to record when things go wrong, and why it matters.
Home Orchard Record Keeping Made Simple
Commercial orchard software is overkill for home growers. Here's a practical system for tracking your fruit trees without the complexity.
How to Track Perennial Plants in Your Garden
Perennials come back every year — but do you remember what's where? Here's how to keep records that survive winter better than your memory.
What to Track in Your Garden Journal
Most garden journals fail because they track the wrong things. Here's exactly what to record to actually improve your garden year after year.
When to Prune Roses in the UK
Rose pruning timing for every UK region. When and how to prune Hybrid Teas, Floribundas, Climbers, Ramblers, with RHS and David Austin techniques.
When will my tomatoes actually be ready?
I used to wonder if I could book a holiday in August or miss the harvest. Now I see predicted harvest dates based on my climate, not a seed packet guess.
How I finally know what is in my garden
I kept meaning to document my garden but never did. Now I have a place to record every permanent plant, when it was planted, and what has happened since.
The Garden Reminder That Changed Everything
I used to walk past the same beds every day without seeing them. Then a nudge asked if my tomatoes had started flowering, and I noticed everything.
Climate-Based Sowing Dates for Your Garden
Seed packets said sow between March and June, but that never matched my garden. I wanted real dates based on my climate and how choices shift the season.
How I Actually Remember What I Did in the Garden
I used to lose track of what I planted and harvested. Now every event is logged with a date, and over time that history reveals patterns I never noticed.
Is it too late? How to actually know
Stop googling 'is it too late to plant tomatoes' every spring. Learn how climate-aware sowing windows give you a definitive answer for your garden.