Nature is Calling

Blagdon's listing photographs show the Clearview doing exactly what a leaf net is for: a brick-edged pond in clear water, then the same pond under a drift of fallen leaves with the fish still visible beneath. They also show the net lying on the water, which is what Blagdon's only published tensioning advice, written for its raised pools, tells you to lift it clear of. Three UK wildlife charities advise against netting a pond, and ARC names what else a fine net catches: grass snakes, frogs and hedgehogs.

Most people ask this in August, and August is almost always too early. Spring-sown parsnips are rarely worth lifting before the tops die back in October, and they taste better after a frost. Here is how to read the row.

Two stars because the end of the string was hiding; five stars because a sticker showed where it was. That is the spread on ANSIO's 101 m roll, and we read all 100 recent UK reviews to fill in the middle.

Cutting back perennials in the UK is not one decision with one date. Some plants need the old growth off before winter, some do better left standing until late February, and a few will rot or freeze if you cut them now. Here is how to tell them apart.

Frost, not the date, tells you when to lift dahlias in the UK. Here is what to look for on the plant, how it changes from Cornwall to Scotland, when leaving them in the ground is a fair choice, and how to dry and store the tubers so they come through to spring.

Autumn is when most people start asking, but a pond does not read a calendar. Here is the water temperature that settles it, the fish behaviour that confirms it, and what the job looks like from September to March.

Which? puts a 32cm machine squarely in the small-lawn band. The RHS says the moss on a small lawn can be taken out with a spring-tined rake. VonHaus says small to medium on Amazon and medium on its own website, and its manual names no size at all. Here is how a small-lawn buyer should read all of that, alongside the eight UK reviews Amazon shows.

One buyer titled his review “Doesn’t Work on Wet Leaves.” and then gave the machine four stars. Einhell's own operating instructions rule wet leaves out before any reviewer gets a word in, which is how both of those things are true at once.

Pelargoniums die at the first frost, so the job is picking a method that suits your space and moving before nights drop to 5C. The signals to check on the plant and the forecast, what to do from September to March, and which of four methods suits a windowsill, a porch, a greenhouse or a garage.

Daffodils go in a month or two before tulips. Here is the UK planting window, the soil signal that overrides the calendar, and what changes when the bulbs go into grass or a pot.

Two cuts, six months apart, and they do different jobs. Which buddleja you have decides the timing, and getting that wrong costs a whole year of flower.

Deciding when to sow broad beans for overwintering in the UK is less about the date than about what your ground is doing. Here is how to read your own plot, and when a February sowing beats a November one.