Search Results for:

All around the garden new growth is slow to emerge this year. Snowdrops are a good month later than we would normally expect to see them in flower and the daffodils are only just beginning to peek through the soil. In the Kitchen Garden overwintering crops are surviving under their cloches and fleece covers, but showing no sign of new growth.

Despite the beautiful spring weather we have been enjoying recently, the forecast is still for cold nights ahead. We always keeping a close eye on the weather forecast ready to apply fleece or cloches to vulnerable crops, such as salads.

The clocks are going back this weekend leaving us with less working daylight hours and the first air frost has chilled the garden. Our newly planted winter crops are snuggled under fleece and cloches and our tender plants have already been moved into the greenhouse where the heater is keeping them safe from the cold nights ahead.

The first cold spell of the Autumn has arrived in Stephanie's Kitchen Garden, with overnight temperatures dipping dangerously near to a frost. The forecast is for colder nights to come. Outside in the garden, we have been quick to cover our tender with fleece and cloches, but this week it is the turn of the greenhouse for some much needed attention.

September has seen the garden transform from the lush green opulence of summer to the soft golden decay of autumn. It never ceases to amaze me how the seasons change in a blink of an eye. One day we are experiencing gloriously hot sunny days and the next we are reaching for jumpers and wellingtons and reaching for cloches and fleece.

It is hard to believe that this time last year the Kitchen Garden was covered with a thick blanket of snow. The weather has certainly been milder this winter and it shows. The overwintering crops are enjoying the conditions and are well forward on last year. However, as all kitchen gardeners know only too well, the weather can change in a heartbeat, so the fleece and cloches are on hand just in case....

As I am writing this, the sun has briefly peeped through the clouds, an uncommon sight in the Kitchen Garden recently. We have been lucky enough to have escaped the latest load of snow, but a biting fierce easterly wind is dragging the temperatures down and we are suffering harsh night time frosts. Cloches and fleece have been our best friends in the Kitchen Garden, protecting our precious crops from the awful weather.

Looking for the perfect gift for the gardening enthusiast in your life? You’ve come to the right place! We’ve got everything from gardening accessories to decorative plant supports that are bound to put a smile on their face this Christmas!

At last we have had a taste of spring in the Kitchen Garden, with a few days of warm sunny weather arriving in East Anglia. It has been warm enough to leave the greenhouse door open allowing vital ventilation around the plants. The autovents on the greenhouse windows have even nudged the windows open in the warmth of the winter sunshine.

May started with refreshing rain but that did not last long. It was a hot and dry month, so much so that it was the driest since 1896!

Raised bed gardening is becoming more popular than ever before with increasing numbers of people opting to grow their own food and live a more sustainable lifestyle. With the variations in height, size, potential higher yield and aesthetic value, raised bed gardening should be on your mind for gardening success.

It has been another busy week in the kitchen garden. Peas that had been started in the greenhouse and then transferred to the cold frame, had grown sufficiently to be planted outside. These have been planted opposite the peas that were sown directly into the ground and are going to run up the vintage pea frame.

As we have not experienced any really hard weather here this year, the apricot tree 'Tomcot' is now in flower which is a lovely sight to see on a cold grey day. The peach and nectarine trees are also now in bud but no flowers yet. Once they start to flower they will be given a helping hand by pollinating with a paintbrush.

April has flown by in a blur of activity in Stephanie's Kitchen Garden. As always there is much to be getting on with at this time of year and the typical April weather of sunshine and showers has encouraged green shoots all around the garden. As I write this, we have just experienced two days of wintry showers and freezing winds which proves that it isn't time to cast the clout just yet.

Beetroot is a favourite with us at Stephanie's Kitchen Garden and we enjoy experimenting with different recipes. It has had bad press in the past and is often not very popular however it is one of the easiest vegetables to grow and ideal for anyone new to vegetable gardening

By far the nation's favourite grow your own vegetable. Carrots come in all different shapes, sizes and colours, from orange to the more unusual red, yellow and purple. By regular sowing you can have fresh carrots from mid May to March.

Celery can be very tricky to grow. It will need good soil conditions and a constant supply of water. The smallest check will affect the final crop. A lot of effort, but worth it if you succeed. An immensely satisfying crop.

To increase the success of your garden and vegetable growing it is important to protect your plants from adverse weather and wildlife.

Spring has finally sprung in Stephanie's Kitchen Garden. As I write this the sun is shining and the sowing season has begun in earnest. Whilst frosty weather still threatens, the days are getting longer and the darkest days of winter seem to be behind us.

Here at Stephanie's Kitchen Garden, we will be sowing seed outside this week. In our Superior Raised Beds, we will be sowing 'Amsterdam Forcing', an early variety of carrot. These will be given protection using a PVC cover and Hoops kit to keep them warm and snug whilst they germinate.

What a month we have had weather wise. It felt as if we had skipped spring and gone straight into summer. We had the hottest Valentines day in 21 years and on Thursday Kew Gardens recorded 21c. Because of this flowers and plants are growing when they should be dormant. It's lovely to see the bobbing heads of daffodils mingled amongst the snowdrops.

Here’s a question for you - what have a chart-topping 1990’s pop combo from Scotland and the previous month got in common? The answer? Wet, Wet, Wet!

It may feel early to think about Christmas, but if you’re dreaming of a festive dinner with homegrown vegetables and herbs, now is the time to get started.

There is nothing better than picking - and of course eating - fresh strawberries from your own garden and with Wimbledon approaching it is strawberries and cream all round!

Having just spent an enjoyable morning in shirt sleeves digging over the potato bed, it is hard to believe the weather warnings for sub-zero temperatures and snow that are forecast for our part of the UK over the coming weekend. The sun is watery today but it's providing some warmth and combined with the birdsong is giving the day a distinctively spring-like feel.

We have had numerous storms passing through, leaving a path of leaves and fallen branches everywhere. Because of the mild weather, bothersome insects are still present, white fly and gnats are the two I dislike the most. One is eating my cabbages and sprouts; the other is eating me!

This month there is hope - there are signs that Spring is approaching, bulbs are appearing and wildlife are waking up as the light levels and temperatures increase.

As we approach the longest day of the year, the extra light and warmth encourages the garden to put on an exuberant burst of growth, but this also means that weeds will sprout up from no where.

Runner beans have long been a favourite among gardeners and no veggie patch is complete without a delicious crop of these quintessential delights. These productive growers are among the easiest and most rewarding vegetables to grow.

It has been a short week after the long Easter bank holiday, a very different Easter to what we are use to as we are still in lockdown. As we still have not had any decent rain it meant this week a lot of watering especially in the kitchen garden.

May has been a busy month in Stephanie's Kitchen Garden. Lots of sowing and planting out has been done and the garden has gradually transformed from brown to green as the month has gone on. We are still waiting for the hot sunny days of spring to arrive in our part of East Anglia and the cold nights have caused us some problems, but our crops look healthy and the new harvesting year has begun.

With March signalling the arrival of spring, I had high expectations for the weather. However, mother nature had other ideas. Aside from three bright, warm days the rest of the month was cold.

May is always the busiest month in Stephanie's Kitchen Garden, and sometimes I have to force myself to stop and just look at how beautiful it looks. The apple blossom on the espaliers is here for such a brief time, that it's easy to miss it when you are focussed on the many jobs that need to be done. May, for me, is when the Kitchen Garden is at its most beautiful - full of lush green growth, blossom and the promise of what is to come.

This week I have started some seed sowing ready for next year. I have planted a couple of different varieties of sweet peas ready for a spring display and the greenhouse has had a couple of new additions.

Throughout November the kitchen garden has witnessed an array of weather conditions. Much like every other UK November, rain featured heavily. Not enough to put a stop to my monthly tasks, but enough to warrant several layers and a waterproof!

November is probably my least favourite month of the gardening year. No matter what your efforts, the garden always seems to look untidy; littered with fallen leaves and the skeletons of old crops. Spring and summer suddenly seem like a lifetime away and the short days seem to plunge us into constant darkness. It would be so easy to retire to the house and emerge again in the springtime. This, of course, never happens.

October has been a busy and very wet month in Stephanie's Kitchen Garden. With the days getting shorter and autumn making its appearance known, tidying has been at the top of the agenda this month, particularly the past week

Experts predict that this will be the worst ever year on record for the slimy garden pests due to a particularly warm winter, with above average temperatures recorded for December and January.

It has been a tricky time for us in Stephanie's Kitchen Garden this month. The weather has certainly been providing us with some interesting challenges! Tender crops have been slow to get going and have needed some extra care and attention. However, as the month draws to a close, it looks as though the summer may well have arrived here at last. Let's hope it's here to stay.

At last the snow has gone and the garden has returned to normal. Following a week of suspended animation, both the plants and gardeners are making up for the growing time that we lost. Green shoots are appearing everywhere and it is almost as if the big freeze gave our plants a boost; certainly the spring sunshine and warmer temperatures of the past few days have helped spur on new growth.

This week we are bracing ourselves for the Beast from the East weather system that is expected to hit us in the next few days. As we are situated just a few miles from the East coast, the biting winds will hit us hard and peg back the temperatures.

Crop protection is vital in any garden if you are to grow successful fruit and vegetables or your prized dahlias, whether you are protecting from pests and wildlife or from the cold weather both can be equally destructive if adequate protection is not put into place.

It has been another busy week in the kitchen garden planting out all the brassicas in our newly built cage, with sprouts, broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower all being planted out.

Raised beds have had a boom in popularity recently and are a great way for gardeners at all levels to successfully grow their own fruit and vegetables in otherwise unsuitable soil or locations. Also popular as stylish flower planters, raised beds really can make gardening eaiser being at a more user friendly height and are less prone to soil borne diseases and pests.

The seasonality of gardening and understanding what needs to be done throughout the seasons is key to a successful garden.

Whether you have the luxury of a greenhouse or prefer to grow in a more rudimentary fashion, sowing seeds is fundamentally the same. The recipe for success is simple; provide them with warmth and moisture and the result is a home-grown dish of tasty fruit and vegetables.

September has been unseasonably warm in Stephanie's Kitchen Garden. For most of the month we have been experiencing heatwave conditions, with temperatures only returning to normal within the last week. The garden has loved it and sun loving crops such as sweet potatoes have thrived. Here on the East coast we have had very little rainfall; plenty being forecast but never actually reaching us.

Enjoying something of a salad revival, Spinach is probably most well-known for allegedly giving Popeye super-human strength - but it's the vitamin C and calcium contained in the dark green leaves which is proving popular with vegetable gardeners once again.

April has seen spring arrive in Stephanie's Kitchen Garden at last, although the last few days of the month winter has returned with cold north winds and gales, just a week after the hottest April days on record!

It has been a lovely spring like week in the kitchen garden with lots of sunshine and it is really starting to feel that the warmer days are on the way.

The arrival of Spring should now be in evidence, with daffodils in flower and blossom adorning the trees. Frequent sunnier days and rising temperatures make it perfect gardening weather but expect to be caught out by the inevitable ‘April showers’.

It never rains but it pours! The word drought conjours up images of parched land and wilting crops but that's far from the case - and although the coldest, wettest April for decades delayed many of our Kitchen Garden planting plans, at least it topped up our numerous water butts. Find out how we've been coping with the 165% above average monthly rainfall and much more in our April edition of Stephanie's Kitchen Garden Diary...

Mid April and finally the sun has cut through the misty grey East Anglian sea haze which can hang so close it feels like I am wearing a cold and damp blanket across my shoulders.

We're still waiting for winter to arrive in Stephanie's Kitchen Garden! Although it's nice to work in this unseasonably mild weather, there's a nagging suspicision that something nasty weatherwise is lurking around the corner. We'll worry about that when it happens though and in the meantime, you can find out how our plans for 2012 are progressing and plenty more

With fingers burning from icy damp and numb toes I grapple with the monthly chores in the Kitchen Garden. All sense of decorum is lost in the scrabble to stay warm

February in Stephanie's Kitchen Garden can be likened to a ticking time bomb - everything is primed and ready to go for the March seed sowing and growing explosion!

It's the calm before the seed sowing storm in the Kitchen Garden this month with preparations for arguably the busiest gardening month of the year well underway. Lynn's been busy grappling with bags of horse manure, we've had frozen seed potatoes to deal with and the greenhouse is starting to fill up already. Find out more about February in the Kitchen Garden along with what we've got planned for March below

After the season's festivities I was itching to get back in the garden, breathing fresh air and away from the television and sofa, alas I was thwarted by the unrelenting cold spell we endured.

The start of a new year is an exciting time and that's very much the case in the Kitchen Garden. We've got big plans for 2012 and although we're busy making improvements to the garden during January, it won't be long before the seed sowing season is here. Find out more about how tree surgeons are improving the light levels in our garden, how our sweet peas and spuds are progressing and what we intend to do in February - it's all here

March in the kitchen garden has been a meterelogical puzzle; find out how we coped with inclement weather, started planting potatoes, took care of our early crops

Pricking out Tomatoes is one job that seems to take such a long time, I try to save such jobs for more the more inclement days, those frosty mornings just keep coming.

There's been a seed sowing frenzy in Stephanie's Kitchen Garden this month as our horticultural trainee Courtney gets set for the season. She's taken a break from her seed trays, propagator and vermiculite to plant out potatoes and set some horseradish roots

Spring strolls into the Kitchen Garden armed with the deadly combination of warm, sunny days and cold, frosty nights - just the kind of extremes of conditions the trays and trays of seedlings in the greenhouse don't want. And it's the greenhouse where 90% of our March garden time has been spent, with a few trips outside to weed, feed and plant. Find out more about how we've coped with spring in the Kitchen Garden below...

Lady May arrives in the garden, whirling her skirts in mischievous east coast winds. Contrary she blows hot and cold, catching unfortunate gardeners unawares. This is the time to be on your guard; armed with fleece, cloche and hoe we try to tame her. With plant food, string and supports we struggle to keep up with her.

This month, I've got the feedback from Chelsea and another RHS show date for your diary; aphids are proving a pest and I'll tell you why my runner beans are sure to be a success this year - all in Stephanie's Kitchen Garden Diary ...

Arguably the busiest month of the gardening year, May in Stephanie's Kitchen Garden is no exception. Dropped in at the vegetable growing deep end is Lynn, our new horticultural advisor and you can read about what she's been up to in her first couple of weeks at the helm! And with aubergine-keen slugs and snails to battle with and the preparations for the RHS Chelsea Show, there's never a dull moment...

Winter has well and truly arrived at the Kitchen Garden but as all good gardeners know, there's still plenty to keep us occupied through the bleakest months of the year. Leaf clearing continues apace, we've compost to tend to and mice to battle with as well as harvesting and preparing all those lovely winter root veg - find out more below...

Time for Courtney to make her literary bow as my Kitchen Garden trainee takes you through the final two months of the year.

It's the season of leaves in the Kitchen Garden but our vegetable growing activities run alongside sweeping up; we've been building a carrot clamp, unearthing our parsnips and trying to coax our sprouts into a pre-Xmas growth spurt. With garlic to plant and beans and peas popping into rootrainers under glass for an early 2012 crop, October has been another busy month in the Kitchen Garden...

You can certainly feel the chill of the autumnal air now and the leaves on the trees are starting to change colour and fall, you could begin to think that there is not much to do in the kitchen now but don't be fooled by the change of season as September was a busy month in the garden with a flurry of seed sowing, harvesting and general jobs to do before the chilly weather sets in. Read on to see what Lynn has been up to this month in Stephanie's Kitchen Garden.

At last Spring has arrived here in the Kitchen Garden. The sunshine has arrived in force and, despite some chilly nights lingering on, everything is starting to grow. With the first half of April being so cold, the Kitchen Garden is behind on where we would normally expect our vegetables to be at this time of year, but the recent warm weather has given us the chance to start growing in earnest.

Wow! What a month it's been. As the New Year came in we were basking in mild weather and now, as I write this, we have eight inches of snow! One minute we are opening the greenhouse door to ventilate it and then next we are covering everything in fleece to protect it from the extreme low temperatures. It's certainly a month for keeping an eye on the weather forecast.

November has been a cold and miserable month in the Kitchen Garden. The sun has put in a few brief appearances, but on the whole it has been damp and grey. However, whatever the weather, there is always plenty of work to be done. When the rain is pouring down, I head into the greenhouse and shed to catch up with the Big Winter Tidy Up.

Happy Halloween everyone! Congratulations if you have grown some great pumpkins this year, with the weather we've had to contend with this summer you have done very well! Now Autumn is upon us or maybe Winter has arrived early? The shorter and darker days are here too so less gardening time for all those keen gardeners out there. All I know is that it's been very chilly of late and everything is looking decidedly messy in Stephanie's Kitchen Garden, all the rain and the falling leaves have kick started our Autumn clean up with a vengeance. Read on to see what else we've been up to this month in Stephanie's Kitchen Garden we hope you will find some inspiration to get out there and get stuck in!

September has been a busy month with the harvest in full swing in the Kitchen Garden. We've also had a taste of Winter weather which was quite a shock after the long hot summer. But at last some rain, so our waterbutts are full again and the garden is looking refreshed.

September has seen Autumn sneak slowly in to Stephanie's Kitchen Garden. The days have still been warm and sunny, but the nights have turned cold and the effects are being shown all around the garden. Leaves are beginning to change colour and it won't be long before the Great British Rake Off begins!

Strawberries are easy to grow and even a few plants can give a plentiful supply of sweet fruits in the summer months which are appreciated by children.

For the past week the garden has been suspended in frozen animation by the Beast from the East Siberian weather system. Somewhere under the inches of snow and ice are the green shoots of spring that had just begun to peep through the soil, and hopefully they will have survived the extreme subzero temperatures. It's a timely reminder to us all that the true Head Gardener on all our plots is Mother Nature.

This week in the Kitchen Garden, we will be planting out peas. We have been growing Pea 'Norli?' in root trainers in the cold frame and they are now at a really good size to be planted out. We will be training them up an obelisk.

With no decent rainfall and higher than average temperatures across the last week, the main job has been watering, watering and more watering!

Despite meteorological spring being only days away, we are still very much in the throes of winter in Stephanie's Kitchen Garden. As I write, heavy snow is falling and the temperature is -1C. A blast of arctic weather is keeping the garden chilled and covered in snow. It has been a long winter in the garden and it's not over yet.

This week In Stephanie's Kitchen Garden we will be planting out our sweetcorn. The plants have spent the past couple of week in our cold frame waiting for the temperatures to warm up and hardening off. They are now big enough to survive outside. We will be covering them with cloches just in case a cold night threatens. These will be removed in a few weeks time.

Here at Stephanie's Kitchen Garden this week we will be pricking out some of our new little seedlings in the greenhouse. The heated propagator is a hive of activity and some of the tomatoes, aubergines and peppers are ready to be transferred to small pots.

The days are getting colder and the trees are shedding their leaves (continuously), but this is no time to let your veggie patch deteriorate. Though you should be reaping the rewards of an abundant harvest from the warmer months, sometimes we just long for something fresh and crunchy.

The runner bean trench has now been dug, we have had to dig this quite deep as we have lots of tree roots invading the ground and we want to make sure we get them all out. This also means we have a nice deep trench to fill with lovely manure and water retaining mediums.

Winter is slowly creeping in and now is the time to start preparing your garden for next year!

Apart from the occasional sharp frost, the winter is now a distant memory and the growing season is in full swing in Stephanie's Kitchen Garden. Everywhere you look green shoots are emerging and we are working at full speed to keep up with the sowing, pricking out and planting.