Gardening in Britain and northern Europe is shaped by a mild, damp climate, a long growing season and frosts that can arrive at any time from October to May. Most of what succeeds depends on working with those conditions: improving the soil with compost, choosing plants suited to the site and watering only where it counts.
The practice has changed since the early 2000s. Many garden chemicals have been withdrawn, peat is being phased out of compost, and gardens are increasingly valued as habitat for pollinators, birds and hedgehogs as well as for flowers, vegetables and lawns.