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The ComposTumbler uses a unique process which can make compost in as little as 14 days. You can make compost in 3 easy steps with a ComposTumbler.

Hot on the heels of my Master Composter course follows this press release, re-inforcing the importance of the initative and the role the partnership organisations play, along with publicising the fact that Harrod Horticultural now have a compost guru on board!

All is quiet in the kitchen garden at the moment and we are making the most of the good weather days to mulch the bare soil with well-rotted manure or home-made compost. Over the coming months this will be broken down by the worms and the cold weather ready for digging over in the Spring.

With Christmas over, and the annual trawl through the seed catalogues almost complete, the thoughts of most gardeners turn to sowing and growing once again - and that means peat free seed compost.

Being a Master Composter, you could say compost-wise I've seen it, done it and got the T-shirt - and now, quite literally, I have!

Here at Stephanie's Kitchen Garden this week we will be emptying our compost bins ready to begin filling them up again throughout the summer.

Success with composting depends on heat, biology and a good balance of ingredients in your compost bin. Adding in approximately 10cm. layers 'Green waste' (grass, border and hedge trimmings, snipped or shredded woody prunings) heats up steamily, starts to break down rapidly and can be stirred into layers below to speed everything up. 'Brown waste' (e.g. shredded paper, packaging and straw) should be added at regular intervals to counteract the wetness of the greenery and will rot down too

Seems I'm in good composting company, judging by this article I came across in the Daily Telegraph...

Many gardeners and allotment holders will be reviewing their composting activities and aiming to save money by producing more of the nutrient-rich home made stuff.

Home composting can seem overwhelming and mysterious, but in reality, it's a simple process that almost everyone can use effectively. With little more than fallen leaves and kitchen scraps you can make dark, nutrient-rich compost that will work wonders for your garden. What is more, you'll be helping the environment in the process too.

Despite the return of warm weather over the weekend, the cold nights we have had over the past week or so have had a definite autumnal effect on our summer crops. The tomato plants grown outside have finished their productive lives. They, along with their counterparts in the greenhouse which have also ceased fruiting, will be consigned to the compost bins this week.

The process of composting has been taking place ever since the earth was created, long before any of us were even thought of. Fast forward a few million years to today however, and your chance to learn all there is about compost as Norfolk County Council hold their latest course next month.

Composting is not just a big garden thing. We can all do it and convert our kitchen and garden waste and a lot more besides into usable compost for the garden and there is a method to suit everyone.

We have managed to combine performance with looks, and source a great range of effective compost bins, some of which have been designed and manufactured here in our own factory in Lowestoft all of which you will be proud to display in your garden.

We used one of our two-tier, 173cm greenhouse staging units and loaded it up with bags of compost. Two bags per module became three, then the lower tier came into play until finally...we ran out of compost! But thats not before we calculated that each module was supporting a heavyweight 77kg of compost, far in excess of any normal greenhouse load.

Two bags per module (the 173cm long unit consists of three modules) became three, then the lower tier came into play until finally...we ran out of compost! But that's not before we calculated that each module of staging was supporting a heavyweight 77kg of compost, far in excess of any normal greenhouse load.

For years, the art of making compost has been shrouded in mystery. Gardeners would regularly creep down to their heap in a neglected and forgotten corner of the garden, armed with old plant material, newspapers and other seemingly useless and unwanted items before the big day, months later, when they would emerge with a steaming wheelbarrow full of wonderful compost.

Remember back in February when I told you I was going to be a Master Composter? Well, I successfully completed the course, held in Swaffham, last week and now I'm well on the way to becoming a compost ambassador for Norfolk!

I'm going to be a Master Composter! As you must be aware by now, I'm responsible for the one-third of an acre Harrod Horticultural Kitchen Garden - fed with our own compost - which of course is an absolutely invaluable resource for a horticultural mail order company.

October has been a busy month in Stephanie's Kitchen Garden as we prepare the garden for the cold months ahead. The daylight hours are diminishing and the night-time temperatures are beginning to drop. This month has been a balance of tidying up for winter versus trying to keep crops going for as long as possible before consigning them to the compost bins.

The runner beans and the French beans have been cut down and the foliage sent to the compost heap. Both the pea and bean frames have been taken down and completely cleared of any plant debris and put away for another next year.

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...

The clocks have gone back, the days are growing shorter and the big autumn tidy up is well under way. However the weather has been unseasonably mild which has meant some plants are still producing a crop at a time when they would normally have been consigned to the compost bin. We are still harvesting courgettes at the end of October in Stephanie?s Kitchen Garden.

The trees surrounding Stephanie's Kitchen Garden are now almost bare, so this week we will have more time to spend on jobs other than clearing up leaves. Our next big tidy up will be inside the greenhouse, where many plants have now gone over. Last week we harvested the last of our cucumbers and the plants are now ready for the compost bin.

We have long been an advocate of Remin's Volcanic Rock Dust - a soil and compost remineraliser proven to rejuvenate soils, helping boost soil fertility and plant growth.

Our greenhouse crops are coming to the end of their lives. The tomatoes have all been harvested and we will be clearing the old plants and consigning them to the compost heap. The pots, tomato towers, plant halos and slot and lock frame and will be brushed clean and set aside for scrubbing and cleaning during the winter months.

Here at Stephanie's Kitchen Garden this week we will be turning our attention to our rhubarb patch. Last year at this time we divided some of our existing plants to extend our crop and these grew well throughout the year putting on plenty of growth. At this time of year, the plants benefit from a generous mulch of well rotted manure or garden compost.

Here at Stephanie's Kitchen Garden this week we will be planting our potatoes. These have been chitting in trays for several weeks and have healthy shoots forming. The ground has already been prepared by digging in well rotted manure and some home made compost.

This week in Stephanie's Kitchen Garden we will be sowing parsnip seeds in our allotment raised beds. It's a little early in the season to sow them but with the mild conditions it is worth doing. We will make a successional sowing at the end of February. We always have great success with our parsnips in a raised bed. Year after year they reward us with big fat parsnips for our Christmas dinner. We will also be sowing broad beans, peas, chard, sweet peas and spinach under cover in the greenhouse.

The change in weather has meant that the summer vegetables in the kitchen garden are now nearing the end of growth. These will be lifted and composted and in their place the winter vegetables will be planted, spinach, pak choi and other spring brassicas.

This concise guide to the Planting Season is full of useful information on when to plant and why, some great ideas on planting throughout the year.

March has seen the Kitchen Garden emerge from the long winter into spring and the burst of growing activity that it brings. We have experienced a very dry month in Stephanie's Kitchen Garden with some lovely spells of sunshine. However the temperatures have struggled and it is only now, at the end of the month that the warmth of the sun is beginning to be felt.

Well this has been another month where we have been scanning the skies looking for any sign of rain and unfortunately, we have not really been rewarded with any sufficient quantities; the occasional down pour and half an hour of drizzle every now and then.

December has again been another month of mixed weather and varying temperatures, one day in double figures, the next in a single figure with a crisp frost. Parts of the country have seen inches of snow but here the nearest we have had is sleet and freezing rain.

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.

After a warm, sunny and very dry month, the rain has arrived at last in Stephanie's Kitchen Garden. The warm weather has been enjoyed by plants and gardeners alike and brought the garden on in leaps and bounds, but the lack of rain at a crucial time in the growing calendar has led to copious watering at a busy time. The welcome rainfall will restock the waterbutts and give the irrigation and watering cans a rest for a while.

Asparagus is a favourite crop in Stephanie's kitchen garden. It is such a delicious crop and is available for such a short period of time that it is a real treat. If you have the space, grow it!

The week began with the photo shoot in the kitchen garden and we were very fortunate with the weather with plenty of sunshine, no rain and a gentle wind.

The temperatures have dropped, the days are getting shorter, and the lawn is covered by a blanket of golden yellow and rich orange hues. Autumn has arrived. Now is the perfect time to prepare your garden for the cold, dark weather that lies ahead. Here's everything you should do to ensure your garden remains in tip-top condition ready for a vibrant spring

The big autumn tidy up continues this week in Stephanie's Kitchen Garden as we turn our attention to our bean supports. The bean plants have been shedding their leaves over the past few weeks and are now skeletons of the plants they once were.

Well this week has seen me clearing paths and borders of leaves after yet another storm has passed through. Though this storm brought snow and hail with temperatures plummeting to what they should be. Whilst I am raking large piles of leaves, I am always cautious of hibernating hedgehogs, I once found a hedgehog sleeping in the leaves of crocosmia.

Here are Ben Thornton's top tips for your allotment this month!

We caught up with Grow Your Own's Best Gardening Influencer of 2021, Ben Thornton to get some allotment advice for this month!

This week in Kitchen Garden we will be pruning our blackcurrant bushes; the plants are now beginning to shed their leaves and showing signs of dormancy so it is an ideal time to give them their annual haircut.

Broccoli has had a resurgence in popularity mainly due to it's high vitamin content and anti-cancer agents. It is a fast-growing and easy-to-grow crop, producing bluish-green heads that are harvested in the summer or autumn, depending on the time it is sown.

Sprouting broccoli is fairly easy to grow, quick to prepare and good to eat! It is very nutritious and full of vitamins too. The crop does occupy the land for a long time but on the upside it does provide a harvest from late winter to late spring when other vegetables are in short supply. Keep an eye out for pests & disease!

Brussel Sprouts are a must-grow crop in the Harrod Kitchen garden. It is highly nutritious vegetable and an essential ingredient in a good Christmas Dinner.

It's a busy time of year in the Kitchen Garden. Mother nature is winning the battle of the leaves and as fast as we clear the autumn debris, she litters the paths and beds again. Recent windy days have exacerbated the situation. But the sun is shining and still has some warmth to it, the leaves are dry making them easy to rake, and the end result of a tidy garden is worth the effort, however short-lived it is.

We have had some windy days this week with more challenging weather forecast for us for the weekend which will mean we will have a lot of debris to clean up next week.

Home composting is one of the real growth areas in grow your own gardening, and as a result there's an absolute myriad of composting products on the market - more than enough to baffle any would-be composter!

We sent our horticulturist Martin Fiddes off to the packed Norfolk Showground to appear as a Master Composter on the Norfolk County Council (NCC) stand at the Royal Norfolk Show recently

We sent our versatile and multi-skilled horticulturist Martin Fiddes off to the packed Norfolk Showground to appear as a Master Composter on the Norfolk County Council (NCC) stand at the Royal Norfolk Show recently - and by all accounts the day was a roaring success

I've been putting my Master Composter knowledge to good use recently with a visit to Sir John Leman High School in Beccles, Suffolk - where I extolled the virtues of composting in schools to 15 interested (at least I think they were interested!) teachers.

Composting is a great subject for the school curriculum. It embraces science, nature and really opens our eyes to the environment and the future - oh, and I forgot history as it's been around for quite a while!

Here's a copy of an article I've produced for my Master Composter post-course work...

Composting kitchen and garden waste is an environmentally friendly source of organic matter that helps to reduce landfill and won't cost you a penny.

This week has been a short one as we have enjoyed the last bank holiday before, dare I say it, Christmas. But there has been no let up in the warm weather if anything we suffered 4 days of constant hot dry conditions and 3 days of temperatures getting up to 30 degrees.

Who would of thought that a delivery of contaminated manure to an allotment site in Wakefield would hit the national headlines?

Removing weeds from the vegetable patch is easily the least glamorous and time consuming job of the lot. It's not all bad news as there are plenty of ways to make it easy on yourself so you can spend more time on the fun bits of growing your own!

Courgettes are easy to grow and will produce an abundance of fruits over Summer and into Autumn. Just one plant should produce 3 or 4 fruits a week. They do need a lot of space but smaller more compact varieties are available.

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

Practising crop rotation can be of great benefit to your allotment or kitchen garden helping to reduce disease and increase yields.

Crop rotation has been practiced in both agriculture and horticulture for centuries, but it doesn't hold the same importance in Raised Planters as it does in open soil beds,

The winter solstice has marked the turning point for winter gardeners and we know that the darkest point of the year has passed and the days will now begin to slowly lengthen over the months ahead.

Unfortunately, it's a fact of gardening life that your vegetable crops are not only a source of food for you and your family, but for a whole host of pests and diseases as well.

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 Harrod Horticultural we like to be leaders in the horticultural field, and to back this statement up, we're growing an early crop of tumbler tomatoes in our own Kitchen Garden.

Watering your garden and vegetable plot effectively is not just beneficial to your plants but can help the environment too. Hosepipe bans are becoming a regular occurrence so make the most of your water with our useful tips and advice.

Our fruit trees and bushes have all but shed their leaves and are entering the dormant stage of the growing year. Now is the time for us to give them some care and attention to prepare them for a productive season next year. This week we will be removing the old glue bands and replacing them with new ones and apply a winter tree wash.

There's an old saying "feed the soil, and the soil will feed your plants." It's so true because just as we humans need vitamins and minerals in our diet for long term health, plants have requirements of their own so that they can grow up big and strong.

Organic fertilisers come either as a 'compound' fertiliser which contains a mix of the three major nutrients (Nitrogen, Phosphate or Pottassium - NPK) in varying proportions, or as a 'straight' fertiliser which is only a major nutrient on its own.

Vine weevils can be one of the most destructive garden pests and as they wreak their havoc undetected underground, it can often be too late once you've eventually laid eyes on them

A fruit press and fruit crusher are invaluable if you're faced with an orchard full of apples and pears that you want to turn into fresh fruit juice or make into cider. Even if you don't have an orchard many of you have more than one fruit tree in the garden and on a good year they can produce more apples and pears than your family can comfortably eat.

Crushing and pressing fruit to extract juice is a process rich in history, with the production of apple juice and cider stretching back to Norman times. Things have moved on a bit since then, and today, pressing your own home-grown fruit could not be easier.

My latest horticultural jaunt was a short-haul journey through Suffolk to the fruit tree specialists at Crown Nursery, situated in the village of Ufford near Ipswich.

The Royal Horticultural Society's Lawrence Hall in London is the venue for the 2012 Garden Press Event which represents the perfect way to banish the winter gardening blues and get the lowdown on what's new in gardening. Visit Harrod Horticultural on stand H56 for a unique chance to see the most exciting and innovative developments to their extensive gardening range for 2012!

The Royal Horticultural Society's Lawrence Hall in London was the venue for the 2012 Garden Press Event - an annual event which represents the perfect way to banish the winter gardening blues and get the lowdown on what's new in gardening. Our horticulturist Martin Fiddes sends this report...

My first experience with raised beds was also my first time growing veg, some twenty years ago. At the time I lived in Hertfordshire and the soil in my garden comprised a charming mixture of clay, lumps of sandstone, iron ore and more clay. In short, it was rubbish.

A favourite crop in the Harrod Kitchen Garden, Garlic is easy to grow and occupies the ground during the quiet months over the Winter. The health benefits of this crop make it an essential vegetable to include in any garden. It is a great crop to grow in pots or raised beds if your space is limited.

The recent warm spell has seen one variety of garlic we planted in a raised planter which should still be dormant shown signs of early green shoots. If we do get a sudden cold snap, it may stop the garlic in its tracks.

The 2010 version of our pest control guide ran to reprints galore so we're expecting the 2011 tome - The Little Book of Least Wanted Pests - to be just as successful. The 24 pages are crammed with pest control solutions and advice from pest expert Julian Ives and you'll find the organic answers to problems from A (ants) to almost Z (whitefly), along with plenty of tips to make your plants stronger and more pest and disease resistant. It's a must-have guide to accompany you through the growing year

The Ultimate Guide to Wildlife Gardening - a guest blog from Green Gardens about the benefits of attracting wildlife to your garden and advice on planning a wildlife friendly garden

Stephanie's Kitchen Garden has been in the grip of dark, freezing conditions this month, but in the greenhouse tiny green shoots are already emerging: a little glimpse of spring in the depths of winter.

Often regarded as the ornamental flower garden, kitchen garden or vegetable patch nerve centre, the greenhouse can easily get cluttered, disorganised and generally become a mess without the provision of greenhouse staging – and that kind of chaos is bad news for gardeners but good news for pests!

This week we have given the greenhouse a good clean and tidy so it's ready for the less hardy plants to be overwintered and for some autumn seed sowing.

If you have a sunny patio you can easily grow an amazing variety of vegetables. You won't be self sufficient but you will soon make a good contribution to your home grown vegetables.

Growing in raised planters is a real boom area in gardening right now and it's little wonder when you realise just how easy it can be and how many delicious vegetables you can cram into such a small space. Let's take a look at how one of our attractive Manger Raised Planters - all 8ft of it - can transform a barren patio into a vegetable oasis.

Growing in vegetable planters you'll be surprised how many delicious vegetables you can cram into a small space and an attractive Manger Vegetable Planter can transform a barren patio into a vegetable oasis.

Work is continuing as normal in the kitchen garden despite the coronavirus. We do have the benefit of being quite isolated here and now is certainly a good time to be out in the garden and growing more of your own food.

If you have a sunny patio you can grow an amazing variety of fruit and vegetables in very little space. You won't be self sufficient but you can certainly make a good contribution to your kitchen table.

There's a real buzz about Harrod Horticultural today as page 62 of the Daily Express carries an article on growing your own vegetables - and our very own horticulturist Martin Fiddes has his vegetable seed sowing tips in print too!

We are currently harvesting some lovely rocket, grown in the greenhouse over the winter months and thankfully, not reliant on the weather conditions abroad. The milder weather has brought with it a flurry of activity in Stephanie's Kitchen Garden, and from the forecast it would appear that next week will be much the same.

We've just harvested our first strawberries and there are many more ripening. This week we?ll make sure we have some organic cream ready in the fridge to enjoy them at their best.

They’re a great help in the garden, are both endearing and lovable, they’ve been mentioned in works of Shakespeare and far too many perish under the wheels of a car – all good reasons why we should be helping the hedgehog this winter.

I've found time this month to flick through the pages of June's BBC Gardener's World magazine, and amongst the beautiful photography and gripping features, one small news item stuck out - Anthea Turner and composting!

Peonies do like a sunny location with well-drained soil and good air circulation around the plant is important. Peony plant supports should be put in place early on in the growing season. Once the plant is in full bloom, it is much harder to set up an effective support system and the damage may have already been done.

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!

Summer so far has been a hot one to say the least. That being said, here's a few tips and tricks to water your garden effectively in the heat...

Most of the month has been grey, windy and wet with only the occasional sunny crisp day to lift the mood. It would be so easy to hibernate indoors and leave the gardening jobs until fairer weather, but work done around the garden now will pay us back later in the year when spare time is more precious

It never ceases to amaze me just how much and how quickly the kitchen garden changes at this time of year. Crops seem to grow at an incredible rate, whilst we gardeners are too busy with the many little jobs that need to doing, to notice. It's not until the occasional lull in activity that I stand, coffee in hand, and marvel at the wonders that nature provides.

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.

The new year has brought with it icy arctic weather which has hung around for most of the month. We've had our first snowfall of the winter transforming the garden into a beautiful winter wonderland.

Considered the least favourite gardening month by many, January was a month of two halves. It started cold and frosty with regular wintry showers and developed into far milder conditions with regular bursts of winter sun. A welcome break from the constant rain showers we were dealt in December.

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.

Depending on where you live in the country, Spring has usually arrived by mid-March. The milder weather means it's time to get busy sowing seeds, cutting back winter shrubs and generally tidying up around the garden preparing for the busy season ahead.

June has certainly lived up to its 'flaming' reputation this year and has thrown many challenges at us with its extreme heat, wall-to-wall sunshine and three-week drought. The garden and the gardeners have wilted at times, but we have survived and, as I write this, we have at last had some much-needed rainfall.

Fifteen years ago our garden was a very large grassy area with the soil full of flint and clay. I had little knowledge of gardening at the time, but had been told that if I wanted to grow a healthy and happy garden I should pay very special attention to the soil.

If you're familiar with the Harrod Horticultural Kitchen Garden, you'll be well aware that I produce an update of just what Sharon and I have been sowing, growing harvesting and composting in the garden each month.

This week in Stephanie's Kitchen Garden we have sown our autumn planting garlic gloves and onions sets into modules in the greenhouse. They can be planted straight into the ground if required, but our resident pigeon population would soon have them 'unplanted' again!

This week In Stephanie's Kitchen Garden we have been sowing Mizuna, Mustard Greens, Winter salads and spinach in the greenhouse. We already have these growing in our mangers and raised beds, however we want to make the most of our heater and grow some in the greenhouse border where the tomato plants will soon be removed.

This week in Stephanie?s Kitchen Garden we have been pruning our asparagus plants down to the ground. The fronds have begun turning yellow and dying off so it is the perfect time to tidy up.

This week In Stephanie's Kitchen Garden we will be pruning our blackcurrant bushes. The plants are now beginning to shed their leaves and have begun dormancy so it is an ideal time to give them their annual haircut.

This week In Stephanie's Kitchen Garden we will be sowing crops such as spring cabbage, turnips, pak choi, autumn carrots and winter salads.

This week In Stephanie's Kitchen Garden we will be turning on the heater in the greenhouse. We have had some cold nights forecast and our pepper and aubergines are currently bearing lots of ripening fruits. A cold night could set them back and jeopardise the harvest. Our heater is on a thermostat that we will set at 15 degrees. This will keep our crops comfortable for the remainder of the growing season.

Well the week started with the clean up from last weeks gales and heavy rain, there were pine needles, branches and leaves everywhere. Armed with my wheelbarrow, spring tine rake and garden vac the gardens have now started to look much tidier. I never realised how deadly an unopened pine cone could be until I stood on one and found myself sliding to where I didn?t want to be.

There's no escaping the fact that in the garden, a large part of the autumn is spent clearing up fallen leaves, but there's an upside to all your hard work - leaf mould.

Leeks are a must grow crop in the Harrod Kitchen Garden. Not only do they look amazing, they keep us supplied with delicious veg during the long winter months and help to fill thhe hungry gap.

These delicious Mediterranean fruits have grown in popularity and are now widely found in many kitchens across the UK. Despite the challenges, aubergines are definitely worth the effort and make for a delicious addition in curries, lasagne, bakes and risottos.

Butternut squash is one of the most popular squashes to grow in your home garden. The pear-shaped fruits are widely celebrated for their sweet, nutty flavours and incredible versatility.

In the past, cauliflower was often overlooked, ranking low on the list of veggie favourites and relegated mainly to frozen vegetable medleys or crudite platters. But these days, the mild but delicious white vegetable is growing in popularity, thanks to its versatility.

An abundant garlic harvest doesn’t take much expertise, even beginners can easily grow these nutritious homegrown treats which have a multitude of culinary uses!

For many, Autumn is a season synonymous with pumpkins. Come October, people go wild for the squash, which has become a big part of Halloween associated traditions worldwide...

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.

You can not beat the flavour of delicious home-grown tomatoes eaten straight from the vine. Once you taste tomatoes harvested fresh from your own patch, you?ll never again be satisfied with the supermarket imposters.

If space is limited it doesn't have to stop you Growing Your Own - even just a sunny windowsill can be ideal for growing salad leaves and herbs.

This week in Stephanie's Kitchen Garden, we will be trying to make some much needed space in our cold frame. At the moment it is bursting at the seams with shallots, broad beans and peas to name but a few

With the soaring popularity in growing your own vegetables and gardening in general, it's hardly suprising that manure is a most sought after commodity!

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.

We have veered from extreme arctic weather and deep snow to gardening in our shirtsleeves in the sunshine. Gardeners and garden have both been exposed to some interesting conditions for the time of year - and survived!

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.

January is mulching month in the Kitchen Garden and this week it will be the turn of the blueberries to get a fresh, nutritious top dressing. Most of our blueberry plants are grown in pots standing in our fruit cage. Despite the fact that we have acid soil which blueberries like, the bushes prefer to grow in pots, and this is evident every year here as the pot grown plants always fruit better than those grown in the soil.

With the remainder of the brussels sprouts now harvested, there has been lots of tidying and composting going on to get ready for another gardening year!

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

Onions are one of the most popular vegetables being used daily in the kitchen, they are well worth growing especially from small bulbs called sets which were grown from seed the year before.

Whether it's a small vegetable plot in your back garden or your own allotment, growing on open ground can be challenging and also very rewarding.

We were fortunate enough to catch up with the wonderful Anna Greenland. Anna is based in Suffolk and after retiring her role within the fashion industry, Anna has since become an organic grower and has worked in a number of prestigious venues around the country.

It has been a busy month of taking out the old and putting in the new, with summer crops finishing and new winter and spring varieties being planted.

Parsnips are a sweet tasting root vegetable, easy to grow and delicious roasted to accompany your roast dinner!

The patio can be an ideal area for growing your own fruit and vegetables with a wide range of planters available to grow everything from salad to spuds on the patio!

Following on in our recent series of Kitchen Garden overflow news, Sharon has advised me she's been busy planting artichokes.

It's time to plant out our onions and garlic in the Kitchen Garden. Back at the end of September we sowed the sets into trays and set them onto the greenhouse shelves to start them off. We prefer to sow them to modules initially as the local bird population like to pull them out of the ground when sowed direct into the soil.

This week in the Kitchen Garden, we will be planting out our leeks. Every year around this time, I walk around the garden trying to figure out where I will put the leeks that have been growing in cells in the cold frame as well as in neat rows in a seed bed

I made the most of Easter weekend and put my autumn sown sweet peas in the ground. I sowed the seeds for these way back on 16 October and once they were a few inches high I moved them outside to get them hardened off...

Potatoes are a very rewarding crop to grow and the fresh flavour of newly dug potatoes really is hard to beat. A hugely versatile vegetable and a staple ingredient in many meals which is surprisingly easy to grow.

November has been a beautiful month, with sharp frosts and blue skies creating some stunning autumn scenes all around the garden.

Propagation Bench It's around this time of year when thoughts of sowing seeds and striking cuttings occupy the minds of many gardeners - and what better way to give those seeds and shoots every chance of making it than providing them with a propagation bench?

This week in Stephanie's Kitchen Garden, we are going to be installing a new raised bed in our greenhouse border. Over the past couple of years our tomatoes, grown in the border, have not performed as well as we would like.

To help you price up and make the most of your raised beds - and most importantly enjoy growing in them - we've compiled a list of factors to consider when choosing, siting and filling your beds.

Rhubarb is one of my favourite Kitchen Garden crops. Not only does it taste delicious but it also looks lovely growing in the corner of the garden. I find the red stems and large leaves beautifully ornamental. In return for very little effort it will reward you with a bumper crop.

There are two good reasons for East Anglian gardeners to make their way to the Royal Norfolk Show next week - both our very own horticulturist and photographer Martin Fiddes and pest control expert Julian Ives will be in attendance!

There are two good reasons for East Anglian gardeners to make their way to the Royal Norfolk Show next week - both our very own horticulturist and photographer Martin Fiddes and pest control expert Julian Ives will be in attendance

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.

Busy morning at the Harrod Horticultural HQ yesterday as we carried out some product testing and have a general tidy up before starting to sow some seeds in some self watering propagators.

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.

With much of the Autumn Harvest now in, many of the kitchen gardens beds are revealing bare soil. These will be allowed to rest for a while then, manure will be added to them and they will be dug over in the Spring ready for the new season crops.

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.

Read the latest blog written by the wonderful Brigitte Girling and learn how she utilises her garden to create stunning sustainable and fully home compostable Christmas Wreaths!

Well the first month of this year has been a real mixture of weather. It started with rain wind and frosts then as the month marched on the temperatures really started to drop but none of the white stuff. Some weeks I was beginning to wonder if we were going to see the sun again then as the month ended the snow arrived, but not a lot and very, very cold temperatures.

There are many reasons why you need to be aware of your soils acid/alkaline balance. The solubility of minerals can be compromised if there is an imbalanced pH. Minerals become locked-up in the soil making them unavailable for your plants to absorb.

Knowing your soil type and pH is the key to successfully growing your own. Improving and managing your soil and choosing the right plants for the conditions will help you achieve bigger harvests of healthier vegetables.

Here at Harrod Horticultural, we're always looking for quality gardening tools and accessories to bring to you. With Christmas in mind, we would like to showcase The Sophie Conran Collection for you

One of my favourite things about gardening, particularly in the kitchen garden, is the blank canvas that presents itself at the start of every year. Last year's successes and failures are all behind us and we have an opportunity to changes things that haven't worked or learn from previous good practise

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.

Easter is traditionally the time of year when gardens - and gardeners - spring into life as warmer weather, longer days and a couple of bank holidays all combine to point us in the direction of the outdoors; and with 116 pages of top quality and incredibly diverse gardening products in the form of the Harrod Horticultural Spring Catalogue on hand to help, spring 2012 promises to be a gardening season to remember

As February draws to a close, the Spring still feels as far away as ever. Despite a handful of sunny, warm days, the month has been mostly cold and grey. Storm Doris made her presence felt by taking down a tree in the surrounding gardens but left the Kitchen Garden largely unscathed apart from a few scattered fir cones and twigs.

I’ve been using many products in the Kitchen Garden over the last few weeks, but I've managed to narrow down my top 3 picks for August.

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...

Winter's late blast does not affect propagation and the Potato chitting debate continues

Where does the time go? Already it's August and the scales have tipped and we have now passed the midpoint of this year's summer...

As I am writing this the heavens have opened and there is a roar or thunder accompanied by a crack of lightning and I am reluctant to say is this the end of summer? We certainly hope not here in Stephanie's Kitchen Garden as our plants have got plenty of life in them yet - we still need some much yearned for sunshine to ripen them off...

Hark back, if you will, to my last update from the Kitchen Garden when I was sidelined with my ankle injury

Christmas hullaballo doesn't mean the garden grinds to a halt. There's leeks to harvest, bushes to prune and leaves to collect - all before the weather turns really nasty...

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

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

A review of February's garden activities including a visit from a tree pruning expert, a look in the greenhouse, some early strawberry planting and much more

Finally, the worst winter for 30 years draws to a close. We celebrate with news from the greenhouse, our plans for peas this year and how to chit your potatoes...

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!

This must be the worst time of year, with slate grey skies day after day and the garden practically devoid of colour. It really seems like nature has packed up and gone away for a couple of weeks just after Christmas!

A look back at the early days of the Kitchen Garden, a welcome delivery of manure and what's likely to be growing in 2008...

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.

January quiet in the garden? I don't think so! Read what trainee horticulturist Courtney has been up to this past month, including results of her Christmas crops

The Harrod Horticultural Kitchen Garden is usually a hectic place to be, but this last month has really taken the frantic biscuit

It is already June in the Kitchen Garden, and now we can really see, smell and taste the fruits of our labours. The garden is vibrant with bright colours of Calendula and Nasturtium. Heady scents of sweet peas waft from obelisks...

A bi-monthly update this time around as I'm out and about, hunting down new products - but that hasn't stopped me developing a solution to mice, raising my vegetable cage and creating a support frame for my Stephanie's Kitchen Garden tomatoes ...

Sowing the Seeds for 2006 -It's going to be a busy year in the Kitchen Garden and I've already started sowing our Organic vegetable seeds

I always thought that it was hares that went mad in March, but this year it seems to be the weather! March is always a busy month in the Kitchen Garden

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

Spring is here - no it's not! What is happening with our weather? Unperturbed, March sees potatoes planted, strawberries given a trim and some new additions to Stephanie's Kitchen Garden...

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

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 ...

'Four Seasons in One Day' sang 80's-90's Antipodean pop stars Crowded House and that's not a bad way to describe May 2012! A start to the month which seemed more akin to February was in complete contrast to a scorching finale which saw our Kitchen Garden plants - and the weeds - go mad! The weather aside, it's been a great month with the culmination an RHS Chelsea Flower Show award double! Find out more below...

With even more products appearing in the horticultural marketplace, it's been decided to boost the staff numbers in the Kitchen Garden too

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...

September here at the Kitchen Garden has been a bumper month for many crops and a disappointment for others as that wet, wet August took its toll.

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.

August has been a month of extremes, beginning with hot sunny weather and ending with chilly autumn nights and plenty of rain. This has brought its share of challenges and kept us on our toes. It's been a month of successes and failures.

December in the Kitchen Garden is all about planning for the New Year ahead. As the garden is cleared of last season's crops and prepared for the coming year, it is a good time to look back on our successes and failures of the past year. I have been drawing up my plan of the garden for 2014 and placing my seed orders. My next rainy day task is to peruse the latest Harrod brochure. There are some new Harrod Wire Obelisks that will look lovely with sweet peas growing up them...

December has been a very productive month in Stephanie's Kitchen Garden. The weather has been very cold, but also dry allowing us to crack on with lots of structural and maintenance jobs. It's an ideal time of year to make changes to the garden whilst most of it is in its winter dormancy and less likely to be damaged or disturbed.

It has felt more like Easter than Christmas this month, as the weather has been incredibly mild. Unfortunately the sun has been conspicuous by its absence and we have lots of grey days and plenty of rain. No sign of a white Christmas in Stephanie's Kitchen Garden this year.

It now feels like it has been Winter forever, and that Spring will never arrive. Sunny days have been few and far between in the Kitchen Garden. Most of February has been cloudy, dark and very cold. Inside our greenhouse, however, Spring has already arrived in force.

The new year has at last brought some seasonal cold and frosty weather to Stephanie's Kitchen Garden. For me these are ideal conditions for a healthy garden, as sub zero temperatures help to cleanse the garden of some overwintering pests and diseases. It also sweetens the brussel sprouts and parsnips to make them tastier than ever. Better still the blue skies and sunshine bring an added beauty to the garden that has been missing during the dark, grey days we've seen so often of late.

At last the harvest has begun in earnest in the Kitchen Garden. It feels like it's been a long time coming as we are obviously delayed this year due to the weather. This month we have been harvesting kale, sprouting broccoli, cucumbers, tomatoes, strawberries, salad leaves, spring onions, rocket, rhubarb and new potatoes. Picking lots of delicious organic produce is so satisfying and the very best part of kitchen gardening.

The growing season is in full swing here in Stephanie's Kitchen Garden. The garden and greenhouse are packed with crops and we have been harvesting lots of lovely fruit and vegetables all month. June is one of the busiest months of the growing year and I sometimes have to remind myself to stop for a moment and take some time to simply admire how lovely the garden is looking. These moments don't last for long, however, as the urge to grab a spade or secateurs is often too much for me to resist!

The late Spring has certainly proved to be a challenge to vegetable growers this year, but despite the slow start, the Kitchen Garden is filling out with lush green growth all around. We've harvested our first cucumbers this month and tomatoes are rapidly appearing on the plants in the greenhouse, waiting hopefully for some warm sunshine to ripen them ready for eating.

We have had the perfect growing weather in Stephanie's Kitchen Garden this month. It's been a mixture of warm sunshine and steady rain and the crops are really thriving. Unfortunately so are the weeds! And the pests are beginning to arrive as well....

We have had some really wild weather in the Kitchen Garden in November - high winds, storms, torrential downpours and generally wet, mild days. The winds have brought the leaves down off the trees in abundance, with plenty more still to come. As regular readers will know, I am not a lover of clearing leaves and wet ones are even worse! I am hoping that December will bring us some calmer, brighter days.....

November in Stephanie's Kitchen Garden has been a busy and eventful one. The weather has certainly kept us on our toes. We've experienced high winds and heavy rain along and later on, the first frosts of the year. But November 2015 will probably long be remembered as the month that box blight hit the garden.

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!

The harvest has been gathered and stored and the big tidy up has begun in earnest in the Kitchen Garden this month.

The harvest is in and our larder is now well stocked with squashes, potatoes and sweet potatoes. The freezer is full of French beans, runner beans, raspberries and blackberries. They should keep us going through the long winter ahead, along with the sprouts, leeks, celeriac, parsnips and broccoli still to be harvested.

We've been enjoying an Indian summer in the Kitchen Garden this month. We have seen the longest dry spell of the summer and the irrigation all around the garden has been working hard to keep our crops happy. The warm temperatures have meant that many summer crops are still being harvested well into the autumn. It's certainly been a bumper harvest this year.

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!

It has been a month of storms, strong winds and rain, but still not as cold as it should be at this time of year. In the kitchen garden it has all been about tidying up and preparation for the upcoming growing season.

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.

The summer harvest continues in earnest this week in Stephanie?s Kitchen Garden and spaces are beginning to appear in our vegetable beds. We have already dug the garlic and shallots up and they are currently drying in the sunshine.

What a change in the weather this last week - from lots of much needed rain last week to beautiful sunshine this week, the Kitchen Garden has really burst into life!

September has been hot in Stephanie's Kitchen Gardenas and for most of the month the heatwave continued, with temperatures only returning to normal within the last week.

Time to harvest one of our favourite crops in the garden, sweet potato, not only do we love the tasty tubers but the plant always looks fantastic trained up an obelisk in one of the raised beds.

Sweetcorn is an extremely popular crop and children love it too! The reason is simply the sweet tender taste of a freshly harvested sweetcorn cob with hot dripping butter ? you can?t beat it. It is very healthy (without the butter) and is a good source of fibre and Vitamin B.

It's that time of year when we have our big autumnal tidy up, clearing and getting ready for winter.

The big summer harvest has reached a crescendo in the kitchen garden this month, with large trugs full of produce making their way to the kitchen. We have been picking huge bowls full of blueberries, raspberries and, in the last few days, blackberries. French and runner beans and courgettes have also been providing a bumper crop with much more to come. The greenhouse is producing more cucumbers and tomatoes than we can eat and the aubergine harvest has been the best we have had in recent years.

The last few days of February are at last drawing to a close and we enter my absolute favourite time of the year. The days are getting ever longer and the sun has some real warmth to it now. The promise of the growing season stretches out ahead of us as the green shoots of spring begin to emerge.

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.

The weather has been extremely hot here with glorious sunshine, which has meant I have been doing lots and lots of watering. But the vegetables have loved it and are growing really well and getting big especially the sweetcorn which has now got kernels, not quite ready for picking yet but I think it is going to be a very good year for sweetcorn.

It's still feeling a little chilly in the kitchen garden, but the weather is definitely improving a bit now. The forecast for the coming weekend is warm and sunny and we will be making the most of the welcome fine conditions to get on with the many jobs that need doing at this time of the year.

It's been a week of tidying in the kitchen garden, we have cleared out all the plants that have stopped producing and relegated them to the compost bin and started our Autumn planting of perpetual spinach, Pak choi, early sprouting broccoli and kale.

It's time to plant out our broad bean plants in the Kitchen Garden this week. We sowed the beans a few weeks ago in rootrainers in the greenhouse, as sowing direct into the soil tends to result in well fed mice and very few plants! Once the beans plants were a good size, they were moved to the cold frame to harden off and are now ready for life outside.

Tomatoes produce abundant delicious fruits in many different colours, shapes and sizes. They are easily grown in gardens, greenhouses or containers and are loved by children and adults alike. A must grow for any budding fruit & vegetable grower.

Versatile is certainly a word which applies to the tub trug, a real gardener's ally.

The turnip seems to have become an unfashionable addition to the vegetable plot, but here in the Harrod Kitchen Garden, it has earned its place. Easy to grow, it provides delicious baby roots as well as peppery leaves for the salad bowl, all with very little effort required.

Can you remember those early days of vegetable growing when you couldn't tell a spade from a shovel, a cucumber from a courgette and thought a propagator was a kind of crocodile? Martin Fiddes looks back...

August has been a month of successes and struggles in Stephanie's Kitchen Garden. It has certainly been a busy month for the watering cans as the weather has been really kind to us and we have enjoyed hot sunny conditions for most of the month.

With drought summers increasingly predicted due to global warming, accompanied by hose pipe bans likely to come again in many areas, it certainly makes sense to wise up to potential water shortages in your garden.

This week we have started our autumnal jobs around the garden. The beds have been weeded, the lawns have been scarified and some areas re-seeded and the lavender and roses have had their autumn prune.

Here at Stephanie?s Kitchen Garden this week we are going to be planting out our leeks. The seeds were sown into a raised bed back in March and are now a good size to be transplanted into the ground.

Here at Stephanie's Kitchen Garden this week we will be planting out our Spring Cabbages. These have been growing away in our cold frame waiting for a space to become available in our vegetable cage.

This week it's all about the brassica's, planting out our sprouts, broccoli and kale now that the plants have been hardening off.

There are lots of jobs planned this week as the season gets into full swing - beans to be planted out, potatoes to be earthed up again and even more seed sowing!

Here at Stephanie?s Kitchen Garden this week we will be treating our fruit trees to a bit of TLC. Earlier in the month we replaced the glue bands on all our fruit trees and our job this week is to give them a winter wash.

Here at Stephanie's Kitchen Garden this week we will be harvesting the pears from our pear arch. After they have been picked the pears will be put through a fruit press to be turned into delicious organic pear juice. A real treat!

Here at Stephanie's Kitchen Garden this week we will be planting garlic. This is one of our favourite crops and this year we are growing Picardy Wight and Carcassone Wight.

Here at Stephanie's Kitchen Garden this week we will be planting strawberries. Our existing plants are 3 years old and this year our crop was not as good as previously. Strawberries need renewing every three years to maintain a vigorous healthy crop.

Here at Stephanie's Kitchen Garden this week we will be sowing spinach and chard into our mangers for overwintering. Our summer salad leaves are almost finished as they are beginning to succumb to the cold autumn nights. We will be clearing these and replacing them with winter crops. The mangers will then have their covers put on to give the seeds a snug environment to germinate in, as well as added protection over the winter.

We have been working hard to prepare a raised bed for our sweet potato crop - they looked so good last year on our pyramid obelisk we just had to do it again.

The heated propagator and growlight have been cleaned and assembled and are ready for the first sowings of the year. We will begin with aubergines, tomatoes, peppers, chillies, celery and celeriac.

Here at Stephanie?s Kitchen Garden this week we will be starting the war on slugs and snails. According to recent press reports, this year is predicted to be a bad one when it comes to our slimy enemies, so we will be taking steps to ensure they don?t get the upper hand in our garden.

Nothing quite compares to making delicious cider, wine, fruit juice or even apple cider vinegar from the comfort of your own home, with your very own fruit press. Not only will your homemade delights be far healthier and tastier than shop-bought varieties, they'll be a fraction of the cost too.

It's at this time of the year that nature takes over in the garden and if you're not careful, things can get a bit out of control - so there's no better time to unveil our Easter Catalogue and give you a helping horticultural hand

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

Discover the advantages of gardening with nature whether you have a large garden or just a window box. By actively encouraging birds, mammals and insects into your garden you can successfully control garden pests naturally whilst looking after the wildlife too!

Found an interesting article in the Daily Mail last week which seems to indicate that recycling and composting are starting to become big business - the worm has turned!

Wormeries are gaining in popularity as gardeners and householders embrace the recycling ethos and discover the benefits that soft, crumbly and beautifully textured wormcast can bring to the garden...