John Bond

This one is going to get some pushback. If you've ever dug a nice hole, filled it with compost, then popped your plant in, you were following advice that's been standard for decades. And the science is out...it's a bit backwards. Amending a single planting hole with compost usually does more harm than good. Roots tend to stay inside the enriched hole rather than spreading into the soil around it, which stunts the plant's long-term growth. Whole garden beds are a different story, amending an...

If you've ever layered gravel or stones in the bottom of a pot for drainage, you were taught something that's been passed down for generations, in gardening books, by grandparents and in nursery advice handed over the counter. But your pots don't need gravel in the bottom and the science supports it. Here's why it was practised for so long. Gravel looks coarse, has gaps between each piece and it must therefore be easier for water to move through it than through dense soil. So the logic seemed...

You've probably been told that if your plants aren't thriving, you need more fertiliser. So that's what you do and still hardly anything changes. So you add some more, even a different brand. But whats actually going on could have little to do with the fertiliser and in fact more fertiliser might actually be why nothing's changing.