Home & garden

Small changes that make a home and garden work harder

Practical ideas for the house and the plot around it — vertical planting and climbers, storage and furniture that earns its space, and the everyday upgrades worth making.

PracticalIdeas you can do
Practical, not aspirationalIdeas you can actually do.
House and gardenPlanting, storage, furniture and fixes.
Free to readNo sign-up, no paywall.
Plainly explainedWhat works, and why.

Latest ideas

View all articles →
Home & Garden

Types of Vertical Landscaping

Landscaping the space with climbing plants. That's basically what «vertical gardening» Which is usually talked about in the landscape design. This type…

Free tool · runs in your browser

The raised-bed soil calculator

Enter the length, width and depth of a raised bed or planter and it tells you how much soil or compost to buy — in litres, cubic metres and standard bags, with a bit extra for settling.

Open the calculator

What you’ll get

Volume to fill in litres and cubic metres
How many bags to buy, at your bag size
A settling allowance so you don't come up short
Runs in your browser — nothing is stored

Suggestions & corrections

Have an idea, or a fix that worked for you?

We are always after practical, tested ideas for the house and garden. If something here could be clearer, or you have a fix worth sharing, tell the editors.

Email the editors [email protected] We reply within a few working days.