Pests & Problems

Identify and treat common garden pests, diseases, and problems with practical, organic-first solutions.

Most garden problems get worse while you wonder what they are, so identification comes first in every one of these 180 guides. Each shows what the pest or disease looks like, what confirms it, and the treatment order that works: cultural fixes first, chemicals last, always within current UK pesticide rules.

Start here. The four problems readers look up most:

How to Get Rid of Slugs — what works, what is folklore
Common Garden Plant Diseases — identify mildew, rust, botrytis, and blight
Black Bean Aphid — the blackfly that hits broad beans every May
Mammal and Bird Pests — pigeons, squirrels, rabbits, and deer

Tomato plants with ferny, twisted leaves from aminopyralid contaminated manure in a UK raised bed

Pests & Problems 17 July 2026 13 min read

Aminopyralid: The Weedkiller in Your Manure

Aminopyralid contaminated manure and compost cause ferny, twisted growth on tomatoes, beans and potatoes. How to spot, test for and clear it in UK gardens.

Damping off in a seed tray, with young seedlings toppled and collapsed at the soil line on a UK greenhouse bench

Pests & Problems 17 July 2026 14 min read

Damping Off: Why Seedlings Collapse UK

Damping off collapses UK seedlings at the soil line overnight. Learn to spot the fungus, stop it, and fix the other common seed-sowing failures.

Phytophthora root rot killing a rhododendron, drooping dull leaves and dieback above standing water in a walled garden

Pests & Problems 17 July 2026 13 min read

Phytophthora Root Rot: The UK Shrub Killer

Phytophthora root rot kills shrubs and trees in wet UK soil. Spot the dark stain at the base, tell it from honey fungus, and stop the spread.

Russian vine smothering a suburban fence with foamy white flower sprays over heart-shaped leaves in a UK garden

Pests & Problems 17 July 2026 13 min read

Russian Vine: Grow, Control or Kill It

Russian vine is not Japanese knotweed. Learn to tell them apart, grow it as fast screening, prune it hard, or dig and kill it for good.

Dense carpet of sycamore seedlings with strap cotyledons and young palmate leaves across a suburban border in spring

Pests & Problems 17 July 2026 13 min read

Sycamore Seedlings: How to Get Rid of Them

Sycamore seedlings taking over? Learn how to get rid of them, from hoeing young ones to cut-stump treatment on established self-sown saplings.

Tomato leaves curling upward on a greenhouse cordon plant in a UK garden, lower leaves rolled but fruit healthy

Pests & Problems 17 July 2026 13 min read

Tomato Leaves Curling? Causes and Fixes

Tomato leaves curling? Learn why they curl up or down, from harmless leaf roll to herbicide, virus and mite damage, and the fix for each UK cause.

Witches' broom in a silver birch, a dense twiggy mass like a bird's nest high in the bare winter crown of a UK tree

Pests & Problems 17 July 2026 12 min read

Witches' Broom on Trees: Harmless or Not?

Witches' broom in trees is a dense twiggy mass, usually caused by Taphrina fungus. Learn what it is, whether it harms your tree, and when to prune.

Grey squirrel digging in a freshly planted bulb bed in a UK garden, scattering soil and tulip bulbs

Pests & Problems 16 July 2026 13 min read

Stop Squirrels Digging Up Bulbs: What Works

Stop squirrels digging up bulbs with methods ranked by measured effectiveness: mesh aperture, planting depth, bulb choice, and the deterrents that fail.

Mature elm in a Staffordshire hedgerow with yellowed flagging branches, the first sign of Dutch elm disease

Pests & Problems 15 July 2026 14 min read

Dutch Elm Disease: The Ring That Confirms It

Dutch elm disease symptoms for UK gardeners: summer flagging, the brown sapwood ring test, elm bark beetle spread and the resistant elms worth planting.

Cloud of midges swarming in golden evening light above a Scottish loch shore with hills behind

Pests & Problems 15 July 2026 15 min read

Midges in the Garden: What Actually Works

Midges ruin UK summer evenings. What repels them, what is folklore, and why a 7mph breeze beats every product you can buy. Evidence-first UK guide.

Glasshouse thrips damage showing silvery bleached stippling across the upper surface of a greenhouse plant leaf

Pests & Problems 15 July 2026 14 min read

Glasshouse Thrips: Why Sprays Keep Failing

Glasshouse thrips leave silver stippling and black specks. Why leaf sprays fail, the 13-day lifecycle, and the predator mites that actually clear them.

Border collie lying on thin patchy grass in shade under a silver birch in a north-facing UK back garden

Pests & Problems 15 July 2026 15 min read

Grass in Shade: What Grows and What Won't

Which grass really grows in shade in UK gardens. Fine fescues vs marketing claims, light thresholds in hours and lux, and when dry shade is unwinnable.

Pear rust on a pear leaf in a UK garden, showing bright orange spots across the upper leaf surface in August

Pests & Problems 15 July 2026 13 min read

Pear Rust: Why Your Neighbour's Juniper Did It

Pear rust identification and treatment in UK gardens: bright orange leaf spots, the fringed aecia underneath, and why the cure is a juniper, not your pear.

Gardener lifting a rhubarb crown rotted at the base with a fork on a Staffordshire allotment

Pests & Problems 15 July 2026 15 min read

Rhubarb Problems: Rot, Bolting and Pests

Diagnose rhubarb problems fast. Crown rot, honey fungus, leaf spot, viruses, slugs, bolting and thin stalks, plus the drainage fix that ends rot for good.

Runner beans in full red flower on a cane frame with no pods setting while a grower checks a truss

Pests & Problems 15 July 2026 15 min read

Runner Beans Not Setting? It's Not the Flowers

Runner bean flowers but no beans? The real causes ranked: dry soil at the root, night temperatures over 16C, pollinators and birds. Plus why misting fails.

Waterlogged lawn on a UK new-build estate with standing water across thin turf after heavy winter rain

Pests & Problems 15 July 2026 15 min read

Waterlogged Lawn: Diagnose Before You Dig

Waterlogged lawn? Find the real cause first: compaction, a clay pan, builder's subsoil, a high water table or thatch. Ranked fixes and what each cannot do.

Lesser celandine carpeting a damp woodland floor with glossy yellow star-shaped flowers in early spring

Pests & Problems 13 July 2026 14 min read

Lesser Celandine: Wildflower or Weed?

Lesser celandine: identify this spring wildflower, tell it from buttercup, and control or tolerate it in UK gardens. Tested in Staffordshire.

Chafer grubs curled in a C-shape in the soil under a lifted flap of lawn turf

Pests & Problems 9 July 2026 14 min read

Chafer Grubs in Lawns: How to Stop the Damage

Chafer grubs wreck UK lawns via birds, badgers and foxes. Identify the C-shaped larvae, time nematodes right, and repair the turf that gets ripped up.

Giant hogweed towering four metres tall with huge white flower heads on a UK riverbank in July

Pests & Problems 8 July 2026 14 min read

Giant Hogweed: The UK Weed That Burns Skin

Giant hogweed identification and safe removal in the UK: spot the 5m plant, treat phototoxic sap burns, tell it from cow parsley, and clear it legally.

Giant gunnera plant with leaves up to two metres across beside a pond in a large UK garden

Pests & Problems 8 July 2026 13 min read

Gunnera Ban: Is Your Giant Rhubarb Illegal?

Gunnera is banned in the UK: keep an established plant but never sell, share or let it spread. Plus 4 legal big-leaf alternatives to plant instead.

A mature English oak in parkland with a dark weeping stem bleed running down the trunk

Pests & Problems 6 July 2026 15 min read

Acute Oak Decline: Bleeding Stem Signs

Acute oak decline: spot the four stem-bleeding signs on mature oaks, tell it apart from harmless bleeds, and learn what to report and do next.

A knobbly cluster of burr knots on the bark of a dwarf apple tree trunk in a UK garden

Pests & Problems 6 July 2026 15 min read

Apple Burr Knots: Should You Worry?

Apple burr knots are aerial root initials, not a disease. Learn what causes the knobbly clusters, which rootstocks are prone, and when to act.

Close-up of blackened aucuba spotted laurel leaves with dark patches spreading from the leaf tips in a shady UK garden

Pests & Problems 6 July 2026 15 min read

Aucuba Turning Black? Causes & Cures

Aucuba blackening in the UK is almost always root stress, not disease. Diagnose waterlogging, drought, frost or scorch and rescue your spotted laurel.

Small unripe cherries fallen on the ground beneath a sweet cherry tree in a UK back garden

Pests & Problems 6 July 2026 15 min read

Cherry Fruit Drop: Causes & Fixes

Cherry fruit drop explained: why UK cherries fall before ripening, from pollination failure and June drop to drought and blackfly, with fixes that work.

Pests & Problems

Aminopyralid: The Weedkiller in Your Manure

Damping Off: Why Seedlings Collapse UK

Phytophthora Root Rot: The UK Shrub Killer

Russian Vine: Grow, Control or Kill It

Sycamore Seedlings: How to Get Rid of Them

Tomato Leaves Curling? Causes and Fixes

Witches' Broom on Trees: Harmless or Not?

Stop Squirrels Digging Up Bulbs: What Works

Dutch Elm Disease: The Ring That Confirms It

Midges in the Garden: What Actually Works

Glasshouse Thrips: Why Sprays Keep Failing

Grass in Shade: What Grows and What Won't

Pear Rust: Why Your Neighbour's Juniper Did It

Rhubarb Problems: Rot, Bolting and Pests

Runner Beans Not Setting? It's Not the Flowers

Waterlogged Lawn: Diagnose Before You Dig

Lesser Celandine: Wildflower or Weed?

Chafer Grubs in Lawns: How to Stop the Damage

Giant Hogweed: The UK Weed That Burns Skin

Gunnera Ban: Is Your Giant Rhubarb Illegal?

Acute Oak Decline: Bleeding Stem Signs

Apple Burr Knots: Should You Worry?

Aucuba Turning Black? Causes & Cures

Cherry Fruit Drop: Causes & Fixes

All pest and problem guides A–Z