Veg Patch Benchmarking
This season more than any other, most of my conversations with other local gardeners have been centred around “How are your beans doing? Mine are really late”, or “My courgettes…
Rocket Blog
Pickling for Beginners
Pickling is a very handy culinary skill for the kitchen gardener, and it is very simple and straightforward to do. It’s a great way to preserve some of the gluts…
Currants in the Summer
Most currants will be producing fruit by now, so we thought it was a good time to take a quick look at harvesting and caring for your currant plants. Pests…
How to use Comfrey
Comfrey is an incredibly useful plant to have in the garden, both boosting soil fertility and providing attractive flowers for bees and pollinators. It regrows very quickly, so you can…
Self seeders to watch out for
You may find some of your veg, herb and edible flowers running to seed now, especially with the hot, dry weather! Some are very good at self seeding, so will…
Are your Winter Squashes behind?
The cold start to the summer has meant that many people’s winter squashes are only now beginning to grow, and the plants are still very small for this time of…
Are your plants thirsty, or are they ok for now?
During dry spells like this one, it can be easy to overwater the veg patch (and thus waste precious resources). This article gives some tell tale signs to look out…
Storing carrots, beetroot, onions & potatoes
You may be harvesting quite a lot of beets, carrots and onions around about now, and hopefully maincrop potatoes will be next. Storing these underground delights properly will give you…
The best potatoes ever!
I have just harvested the first of my potatoes and I have to say they are the best variety I’ve ever grown! The variety? Pink Fir Apple. This is a…
A 3-in-1 approach to growing squashes
I have previously planted my squashes through black weed prevention fabric and had great results – the weeds are suppressed and and the squashes don’t end up sitting on soggy…
Planting now for an autumn crop
As we move further into July, and enjoy a very welcome heatwave, freshly harvested potatoes, broad beans, beetroot and carrots can make room for new crops to be planted, and…
Pest of the Month: Blackfly
We’re definitely experiencing more blackly infestations than normal around here, probably something to do with the cold spring and natural predators not being in such abundance as they normally are….