As gardeners decide what to grow vegetable plots and allotment this year, I am looking at a trend in gardening that reflects a growing interest in reducing our carbon footprint and preserving wildlife: namely, growing permanent or perennial vegetables. This saves growing from seed or buying plants each year and also, as they are no-dig plants, saves on effort and...
Growing Herbs Indoors: 7 Experts Share their Tips! I was recently delighted to be one of seven gardening experts from US, Singapore & UK who contributed to a feature about Growing Herbs Indoors published on the Chef's Pencil site. This informative article covers the 'soup to nuts' of herb growing at home, helping you to choose herbs to grow, get started with seeds and...
With Spring in sight many gardeners’ thoughts turn to sowing seeds for this summer’s annual flower and vegetable crops and very little beats the excitement of seeing those tiny green shoots emerge. Here are my tips for success: I recommend that you make a list of what you need and have space for before shopping for seeds whether online or at...
October is a month when we see the last of the summer flowers and vegetable harvests and start to think about preparing the garden for next year. This is particularly true of a vegetable plot or allotment where the traditional autumn activity is to dig over the empty ground. Older gardening books will even recommend double digging - which is...
January is over, early Daffodils are in flower and tradition has it that birds start to nest on February 14th so many gardeners may be tempted to think that we are nearing Spring. But remember that there are two full months to go where the night time temperature can fall below freezing and it is common to have frost and...
Succession sowing and inter-cropping The month of May sees the height of sowing and planting for the summer vegetables and succession sowing and inter-cropping are two different ways to get the maximum vegetable harvest from your space and delivering a steady flow of produce to the kitchen through the summer. Succession sowing simply means that you do not sow all your seeds...
Grow Your Own rotating vegetables If you grow vegetables, whether in a small veg plot at home or on a larger scale on an allotment, you will have come across the term ‘crop rotation’. There are good reasons for moving your veggies around each year and it need not be complicated once you understand the principles. The key point is that...
Growing your own fruit and especially annual vegetables seems to have taken the UK by storm in the last couple of years. For those who only have a small garden or even a patio, the good news is that you do not need a huge vegetable patch nor an unnatural commitment to digging to grow the archetypal vegetable: potatoes. You...
As gardeners we know that gardening is good for you. Here are just a few of the benefits that you get from gardening. Share with friends and family who are so busy looking after their wellbeing that they think that they do not have time for gardening and let’s convert a few more people! Whether allotment, garden or balcony gardening takes...
