Garden planner

Sowing and orchard calendars for the plots: find a crop or fruit down the side and read across to see what to do, month by month. Timings suit our Bristol climate (last frost mid-May, first frost mid-October). Adapted from Charles Dowding's no-dig sowing timeline and standard UK fruit care.

Vegetables & herbs

Each row stacks the bars in legend order, top to bottom. Tender crops (tomatoes, courgettes, cucumbers, sweetcorn, basil, etc.) need a heated propagator for their early under-cover sowings. Dates are for sowing seed, not planting out; in a cold spring, hold off a week or two.

Orchard & soft fruit

Pome fruit (apples, pears, quince, medlar) are pruned in winter while dormant; stone fruit (plums, cherries, peaches) are pruned in summer growth to avoid silver leaf and canker. Hang wasp traps as fruit ripens; an earlier set in spring helps catch queens.