July (and beyond) in the Kitchen Garden
You may be eagerly waiting to harvest your crops, but there are still a few things that you could plant in July and it’s a good time to get some…
Growing Tips and Advice
Tricks of the trade… more strawberries from your plants
As strawberry season hits the UK we thought we’d share this little strawberry secret with you…. you can cleverly grow on new strawberry plants from the runners that you’ll spot…
How often to water
During dry spells like this one, watering the plants in your veg patch is really important, and some plants need more water than others. Our advice to you is as…
Don’t scorch the leaves
It’s an easy mistake to make, (particularly if you let your children loose with the watering can!) but watering plants at the wrong time of day or in the wrong…
Tricks of the trade…Keep aphids away
Aphids can be a bit of a pain in the veg patch, but there are various ways of keeping them at bay. These are the three cunning methods that we…
How to harvest your artichokes
If you’ve been growing globe artichokes, then they are probably getting close to harvest time by now…and you want to make sure you harvest them at the perfect moment for…
Tricks of the trade: Prevent bolting
Broccoli, cabbage, oriental leaves, lettuces, spinach and a few others can sometimes “bolt” unexpectedly at this time of year. Rather than producing lots of lovely leaves, they suddenly decide to…
Weekly checks worth keeping on top of
As we head into the peak growing time there are a number of little things going on in the kitchen garden that you should keep an eye on. This is…
Tricks of the trade…growing raspberries
Raspberries must be one of the easiest fruits to grow here in the UK as they don’t mind a wet summer, or a slight nip in the air! You can easily…
The Rocket Guide to Pests & Diseases – Part 3: The Usual Suspects
If you’ve already read parts 1 and 2 of our guide to pests and diseases then you should hopefully have been able to identify the cause of whatever problem it is…
Make the most of your greenhouse
Some veg grow much better in a greenhouse or polytunnel than they do outside. These are the tender veggies like tomatoes, peppers, chillies, aubergines and okra. Basil grows well in…
Tricks of the Trade…growing great tomatoes
Tomatoes are one of the most enjoyable things to grow at home, but they require a little bit of TLC to get a reliably good crop from them. Here are our five top…