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With over 60 years of experience behind us here at Harrod Horticultural, our heavy-duty, long lasting range of garden netting should not be confused with cheap imitations. You'll find 100's of reviews from satisfied customers to back this up, and we're also happy to send out free netting samples so you can see the quality for yourself.

Which Garden Netting do you need? Some advice on the best netting to protect your plants...

One of the great pleasures of gardening is to grow your own plants from seed. Unfortunately the exhilaration of planting out can quickly be followed by the anguish of seeing plants nibbled by wildlife or blasted by unseasonal weather if not covered with garden netting or plant protection.

Attaching the netting to a fruit cage is a simple task when using Harrod quick release net ties and net clips.

I have finally had a dry, bright day to remove the fruit cage roof netting. This will prevent any damage to the cage frame from any heavy snowfall that may lie ahead. A lot of the tie wraps that were used to put the netting up were easy quick release ties, but after a time the fingers do start to go numb in the cold.

We have been supplying netting since 1954 so we think we know a thing or two about it! Our Top 10 of Garden Netting Tips will help you choose the right netting and protect your plants throughout the year.

Every gardener has been there, after spending countless hours tending, watering, feeding your plants a pest invades or some extreme weather damages your plants and wipes out all your hard work...

July was a testing time as I was busy fending off attacks from mice (chief suspects) whilst battling against tropical temperatures.

If you live in an area where there is already snow and you've got a flat roof fruit cage in your garden, this might be a 'horse/bolted' alert - but you need to remove the roof netting off your fruit cages in the winter.

Garden pests that we are on the look-out for this week are butterflies and white fly. The broccoli and sprout plants are now a really good size and we are being vigilant to make sure the netting on the vegetable cage doesn't touch any leaves, allowing butterflies to lay their eggs through it.

The last of the cauliflower (Romanesco) has now been planted out under the cover of butterfly netting to protect them from the butterflies, and the caterpillars that will eventually follow.

Our NEW, highly innovative Slot & Lock Cloche System can be used throughout the season with a choice of protection covers. There's the ultra thick and UV stabilised PVC cover to start growing earlier or extend the growing season; the 7mm long lasting soft knitted mesh netting to keep out all birds and the Cabbage White Butterfly

We've had our first snowfall of the Winter in the Kitchen Garden this month. A beautiful white, festive blanket covering everything in sight. Jo quickly took the netting off our vegetable cage to prevent the snow from weighing the net down and causing it to sag. She also shook the snow off our Slot and Lock portable cages. Luckily we had all our tender plants fleeced and ready for a cold snap.

Our Walk-In Steel Fruit Cages and Vegetable Cages offer exceptional high quality and value with the galvanised matt black powder coated framework, heavy duty side and roof netting, all the fittings and a door unit at no extra cost.

Harrod heavy duty Poultry Cages are made using our 60 years manufacturing experience and are supplied with heavy duty chicken netting to keep your chickens safe. Based on our best selling fruit cages our chicken and poultry cages form a large part of our range these days.

It is challenging times we are all facing at the moment but the garden offers some sanctuary. The plants are unaware of the current crisis and continue to grow and bloom as they normally do and we continue to care for them.

It has been a challenging month weather wise; we have had heat, sunshine and thunder storms, the weather does really affect how the crops grow.

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.

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.

Well October has been a month of four seasons in one day. We started the month with warm and occasional hot days and still watering the kitchen garden on a regular basis. By the end of the month the temperature had dropped drastically and the garden was empty of the lovely summer produce and the leeks and parsnips were fattening up for the winter dinner table.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

Autumn is creeping into the garden and I have just filled my first barrow of leaves. This week we will begin the annual task of trying to keep the garden tidy it is a battle with Mother Nature that I know we will lose. As soon as the rake and barrow are put away, more leaves will fall and all our work will be undone.

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.

Badgers are certainly headline news at present and without getting drawn into the debate on the proposed cull, it's fair to say they can be a major pest in the vegetable garden.

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

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.

Fruit Cages are becoming very popular additions to the garden as grow your own fruit and vegetable enthusiasts realize that you can harvest more of the crops you grow if you protect them from birds and other pests with a taste for something sweet in the garden.

The Cabbage is an extremely versatile vegetable and a valuable addition to any healthy diet being packed full of anti-oxidants and Vitamin C. There are so many varieties that it is possible to harvest cabbages in every season of the year. They also look amazingly ornamental, particularly in the Winter. Where space is limited they can be grown in raised beds.

Cauliflower has a reputation of being tricky to grow. It is precisely this that makes them such a desirable crop in the Kitchen Garden. A good, successful cauliflower makes for a proud and satisfied Kitchen Gardener and makes the cauliflower taste all the better!

Back from the brink our nearly frazzled courgettes are now looking much healthier, the sunshine and showers this week has been great for them.

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

Spring cleaning has a 1950s housewife image. Not many people open up their houses and clean them from top to bottom in March any more. But a garden spring clean will make a big difference to your gardening later on in the year.

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!

With it set to be the hottest few days of the year so far, make sure you are doing all you can to look after your plants as they will be feeling the heat too!

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.

Greenhouse vents and greenhouse shade are essential for the warmer months to maintain the optimum temperature in the greenhouse and to prevent scorching. The 3 simple overheating prevention steps are ventilation, circulation and shading.

The long bank holiday may have been a welcome break for us, but many of our plants in the Harrod Horticultural HQ Greenhouse didn't have quite so much fun...

You may wish to customise your Harrod Greenhouse with some handy optional accessories such as greenhouse staging, shelving, and work trays and reservoirs, available to add to your order at the time of purchase or to add to your greenhouse at a later date

You might recall the visit of Splash Broadcast to Stephanie's Kitchen Garden last August and the footage of the garden and Harrod Horticultural products they shot back then has been helping our customers understand and assemble the more technical items we supply ever since, thanks to the video clips located on the product pages of our main site.

Great excitement on the Harrod Horticultural stand at the Edible Garden Show last week as we received a Royal Visit from HRH Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall

Healthy plants will resist pests and diseases much better than those grown under stress, so it's important to adopt a good feeding regime to keep your crops happy. Leafy vegetables, such as brassicas will be treated to a top dressing of fish, blood and bone every six weeks.

A mini heatwave hit the Kitchen Garden this week so the focus has been on trying to keep the plants happy - especially the leafy crops which can succumb to the heat!

Harrod UK were proud to be selected to take part in a new 4 part BBC documentary hosted by John Humphrys entitled 'Something to hope for'. The 'Panorama-style' programme will be aired on the 23rd March and will be based around Lowestoft and 'Hope'. It will relate to Norman Kirk's theory that you need four things in life to be happy - love, work, a place to live and hope.

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!

At the beginning of October, we were still experiencing very dry conditions in Stephanie's Kitchen Garden and hoping for a little rain to dampen the dusty ground. We should have been more careful what we wished for. Now it feels as though it has been raining forever and the cold north east winds are making it uncomfortably cold for both gardeners and crops alike. The sun has a little warmth, but the biting winds are pegging back the temperatures dramatically.

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.

July has certainly been a hot one and a great time to enjoy your garden but make sure you keep any new plants well watered and hoe off the weeds that will thrive in the sunshine.

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.

Leaves are falling all over the place and wind and rain are on the increase. Tender plants will need protecting from frost, gales and freezing rain. Move plants into a greenhouse or into a sheltered spot.

September is often a cooler, wetter month than August but as previous summers have shown this is not always the case and can often be glorious even if the days are becoming noticeably shorter.

July in Stephanie's Kitchen Garden is when the main harvest begins. I have just spent a pleasant summer morning picking blackcurrants with only the birds and a radio for company. A back breaking job, but one of huge satisfaction gained from harvesting a bumper crop of fat juicy currants that will soon adorn my larder shelves in the form of jam. On the darkest of winter days the taste will transport me back to the hot sunny day when they were picked.

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.

Now that the potting shed is clean and tidy, there is room to sit and clean our tools. We are very fastidious at cleaning the dirt from them every time they are used, before putting them way. This keeps tools in good condition, but we also like to give them a good dose of loving care to keep them in tip top condition.

This week In Stephanie's Kitchen Garden we will be harvesting our blackcurrants in the fruit cage. This is such a low maintenance crop, with the bushes needing very little attention through the year.

This week In Stephanie's Kitchen Garden we will be planting out some winter broccoli in to new vegetable cages. We have two identical cages put up side by side. One is covered with white insect mesh and the other in covered with new black insect mesh. We are running a trial to see if the plants grow differently according to the colour of the mesh.

The Kitchen Garden has been left to fend for itself for two days this week as I've been off on my travels once again - this time to the Royal Horticultural Society's famous garden at Wisley and here's my report on the trip

These delicious beans are easy to grow and will prosper in just about any soil and climate. Store bought varieties are often big, floury and lacking in flavour, but when you grow your own, you can pick them when they are young, tender and at their tastiest.

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.

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.

We have been enjoying a heatwave in Stephanie's Kitchen Garden this month. The vegetable beds have been basking in glorious summer sunshine and we have been working hard to make sure the crops haven't suffered by giving them lots of water and food. As a result everything in the garden is thriving - including the gardeners!

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

The past two weeks of glorious sunshine has been a wonderful relief from the excessive rain and gale-force winds that battered the gardens throughout May.

May is always one of the busiest months of the year in Stephanie's Kitchen Garden and this year has been no exception.

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.

There has only been one topic of conversation amongst gardens during July 2018 and it is the weather. When we finally arrived in Spring this year, after such an awful winter, we sighed with relief and looked forward to a summer of growing. But Mother Nature was obviously not through with trying to stretch our gardening skills and now we are battling with the Mediterranean Melt!

Versatile is a term often bandied about when it comes to describing garden equipment but in the case of Harrod Horticultural's Slot and Lock? connector and crop protection cage range, it's a title well merited.

Our team have been busy developing more exclusive Harrod branded products suitable for all gardeners. So whether you are thinking about getting your seeds off to an early start in the greenhouse or digging over your beds we are sure that you are bound to find something to help you in the Harrod Horticultural NEW 2014 range.

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.

We have just had one of the driest Aprils I can remember in Stephanie's Kitchen Garden. At one of the busiest months of the growing calendar, the dry spell has added to our workload with many hours spent watering our crops.

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.

"Our schools Budding Gardeners programme supports school gardening across the country at grass roots level. This is important to us as a company as children are the gardeners of tomorrow" says Stephanie Harrod, Managing Director of Harrod Horticultural.

One of the most pleasurable things of early summer is picking and eating sweet, tender peas straight from the veggie patch. They are a valuable source of protein either raw or cooked.

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.

The warm spring weather is loved by the plants and unfortunately by the pests too - we have already had our first cabbage white in the kitchen garden!

This week we are going to be planting out broad beans for autumn harvesting. We have never grown them for autumn harvesting before and are very excited to see how they perform. We have a large space where our disastrous onions and garlic grew and that we had originally earmarked for our leeks. Given our white rot problems we couldn?t use it for leeks so decided to give autumn broad beans a try.

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.

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...

My husband and I have used black aluminium poles and slot and lock fittings to make a bespoke raised curved pond cover to protect from herons. We would love these photos to be on the website to show the versatility of the fittings.

The customer service team were hard at work again in the greenhouse this week potting on cucumbers and also had time to put a slot and lock vegetable cage together to protect one of the raised beds.

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

To get you started with your own Cloche system, we have a SPECIAL OFFER on our 1m Extra Value Starter Kit which this includes all 3 cover options for a 1m length and is just ?63.95 which is a SAVING OF 15% on buying the items separately.

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.

Three of the major pest groups likely to cause havoc in any vegetable garden or allotment are animals, birds and weeds

Well the promised storms by the weather forecasters have finally arrived and we've had a few heavy showers to keep the garden ticking over. It had been been 8 weeks since we had any rain in the Kitchen Garden and the temperatures over the past week has been in the 30's every day so these showers are very welcome.

As Autumn raspberry plants get taller and stronger they will need support from poles or a frame we have been specializing in fruit protection and growing frames for over 50 years and our exclusive product range is designed and manufactured here in our Suffolk factory.

Well what a week it has been weather wise. This time last year we were staying indoors, only going out if it was really necessary! It had been snowing, there was ice and the day time temperatures didn't get above freezing and the Beast from the East had arrived!

It's our 14th year at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show and we thought it was a great time to look back at our stand over the years - things have really changed!

What a fantastic week at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, great to meet so many customers and so pleased with our Product of the Year Award for our 'Stormproof' Slot & Lock Vegetable Cage.

Although all eyes are currently on the Royal Horticultural Society's Tatton Park Flower Show, it's the preceeding Hampton Court event that we're focusing on

The Royal Horticultural Society's Wisley HQ is renowned for it's stunning and varied gardens but the venue - and the fruit growing areas in particular - just got a whole lot better! Read our horticulturist Martin Fiddes's report into how eleven (yes, eleven!) fruit cages made their way from Suffolk to Surrey

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.

As the garden prepares to burst into life, you can be sure that the local pest population is slowly stretching, stirring and sleepily emerging from winter hibernation too with rumbling stomachs and big plans on how to fill them - all involving your plants

We've been busy during the autumn developing and testing our new Harrod Slot and Lock? range of connectors, low level strawberry cages and rock-solid vegetable cages. The new innovative Slot and Lock fixings spell the end of costly cage collapses when the tubing slips out of the connector - they do exactly what their name implies! Read all about how the Slot and Lock connectors ccan improve your gardening experience, the cage permutations we offer and plenty more in our Slot and Lock press release...

We are experiencing one of the driest growing seasons in recent history in Stephanie's Kitchen Garden, along with soaring temperatures and hours and hours of glorious sunshine. We have spent many hours carrying watering cans keeping our crops happy and with their feet in damp soil and their heads in the sun, they are, on the whole, flourishing.

October really marks the changing of the gardener's year, this is the month where we finish the main harvesting and start preparing for next year. Soon the frosts will come and finish off crops like runner beans so, depending on the local weather patterns, it's time to clear them.

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!

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

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.

June started with a bit of a heatwave and ended with much more unsettled weather, but everything in the kitchen garden has continued to flourish, including the weeds!

Climatic experts have long been insisting that global warming is inevitable, and in the next few years we are likely to see changes in our weather

Finally, some sun on our backs! Another busy month in the garden - find out about our new lodgers, how the potatoes are getting on, our slug-busting ideas and much more!

At last things are warming up in Stephanie's Kitchen Garden - but the improved weather brings new problems to solve. Meet my new assistant and discover my plans for the Chelsea Flower Show...

You've got to take your hat off to Mother Nature she laid on the perfect conditions for slugs and snails to procreate during the wet months of June and July

No excuses for combining two months again - read on and you'll find out just how busy I've been! The film crew are back for 'Stephanie's Kitchen Garden 2'; I've invited 8 leading garden journalists for a Press Day and there's the usual summer gardening jobs to complete...

The legume bed has proved extremely popular

An Oasis of green in the Kitchen Garden

A mystery is unfolding in the Kitchen Garden during the long hot days of the summer - just who is responsible for eating the runner bean plants?

Phew! What with a Customer Focus Group meeting, a Press Day event and all the preparation both these days entail, it's been a busy July in Stephanie's Kitchen Garden. We've also been harvesting blackcurrants (and putting them to good use!), avoiding snakes but catching mice and lamenting the sad demise of our bees...

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...

It's been another distinctly underwhelming month weatherwise in the Kitchen Garden although the beans and potatoes in particular have defied the weather and are looking good! Unfortunately we will have to insist on some sun for our squashes and the wet and windy spring has left its legacy too - find out why and more...

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 ...

The Heavy Duty Steel Fruit Cage arrives and the paths take shape

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...

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

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.

A bit like Romeo and Juliet, or perhaps oil and water. Fire and ice even. And to that list you can add gardening and a broken ankle!

A breath of that crisp autumn air and the sight of low sunlight illuminating the golden leaves, inspires me to roll up my fleece sleeves and get stuck in to all those essential tasks.

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.

It has been all systems go in Stephanie's kitchen garden this April. The mild weather has got everything putting on lots of growth and is keeping us busy. The greenhouse has been a hive of industry and is currently packed with lovely healthy plants and seedlings. Outside, the pear arch is dripping with beautiful blossom and the apple trees are covered with pink buds ready to burst into flower. The growing season is well and truly underway.

As I write this, the sun is beating down on yet another hot and sunny day. August has been a month of beautiful summer weather, but dare I say we are praying for some rain in the Harrod Kitchen Garden. The crops are revelling in the lovely warm conditions, but our water butts are now empty and we are using mains water for all our watering. A good rainfall would soon have the water butts full again...

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...

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.

Phew! What a scorcher July has been. Here in the Kitchen Garden temperatures have been soaring. Our crops have been thriving with so much sun and warmth and we have been harvesting aplenty. With the all watering, feeding and harvesting, it's been busy, busy, busy!

We are now well into the main harvesting season in Stephanie's Kitchen Garden this month with trugs full of beautiful fruit and vegetables being delivered to the kitchen on a regular basis. The weather has been a healthy combination of hot, sunny and showers providing perfect growing conditions for all our crops.

Typical - we develop a water saving irrigation plan for Stephanie's Kitchen Garden and it finally pours with rain! In this month's update you can find out from new Kitchen Gardener Lynn how the extensive new watering system will benefit the garden; there's a pest update and you can find out what we're picking too! All in all, another busy month in Stephanie's Kitchen Garden...

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!

What a difference a year makes. Last year in March we still had snow and freezing temperatures and spring was nowhere in sight. This year, the garden is enjoying warm, sunny days and the crops are much further forward. We are harvesting broccoli, rhubarb, chard, spinach and kale and our broad beans are flowering and covered in bees. Our parsnip seedlings are already appearing through the soil.

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....

I love November. The first light frosts have arrived, but still there are days warm enough to garden in your shirt sleeves. This month has been all about finishing the clearing and tidying of the garden and preparing for Winter. This is one of my favourite jobs of the year. The clear, freshly dug ground is oozing with the promise of what's to come next year. I already have it all planned in my head!

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.

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.

Spring bulbs will be fading now and the flower borders growing in leaps and bounds, summer is on it’s way.

With interest in Grow Your Own flourishing, Fruit Cages are fast becoming staple additions to the garden. There is nothing more upsetting than discovering your tasty strawberries, raspberries, leeks, or other such delights have been devoured by garden pests and animals. A fruit cage increases the amount of produce that makes it from the veggie patch to the table.

Following the arrival of spring, the garden has put on a growth spurt and it would appear that Mother Nature is trying to make up for lost time. The peonies are quite literally growing as we watch and we just managed to pop the plant supports over them before their stems became too tall.

The garden has undertaken a dramatic transformation this month; from the bare brown soil of winter to the sea of green that the warm spring sunshine brings. The weather has been very mild this month and plants all around the garden are putting on lots of new growth.

The harvest has continued to reward all our hard work with trugs full of produce in August and there is no sign of it slowing up as we head into September. We are currently experiencing a glut of beans and tomatoes and enjoying every minute of it! Despite its cold start, the weather has been warm and sunny for most of the month; a joy for crops and gardeners alike. Consequently, much of our work this month has involved watering and harvesting.

Unfortunately the vegetables you are attempting to grow for your own consumption are also much loved by lots of pests which exist in your garden - here are our most common garden pests .

The warmer weather has finally arrived in the Kitchen Garden and we have been enjoying some sunny spring conditions. The rhohodendron buds are showing subtle hints of the colour that is soon to come and the weeds are beginning to grow. A sure sign that the temperature is rising!

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.

Whether it's slugs, aphids, carrot root fly, rabbits or birds causing you sleepless nights, we have compiled a rogue's gallery of the top 10 grow your own garden pests. Often identification is the most difficult part of the conundrum and getting to the root of the problem is easy once you know which pest you are tackling.

You may be thinking, what are the benefits of purchasing a Harrod Horticultural steel fruit cage from us rather than from another company? Find all the answers here where we discuss the merits of a fruit cage, and with the many types available there is bound to be a style that suits your garden.....

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.

It is certainly becoming an unusual growing season this year, with the serious lack of spring rain and the late cold temperatures. Mother Nature is challenging the Kitchen Gardener and it will be interesting to see what effect it has on our harvests.

Arguably the busiest week in the Harrod Horticultural Calendar is rounded off when the latest set of informative website video clips are shot in the stunning grounds of the Kitchen Garden...

With lots of activity over the last couple of weeks the Harrod Horticultural HQ greenhouse and raised beds are coming along really well, helped by the sun finally making an appearance!

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.

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.

Caterpillars develop from eggs laid by Moths and Butterflies. There are many different species and many that produce caterpillars damaging to plants. Some of the most damaging for brassica plants are the cabbage white caterpillars; the large cabbage white (Pieris brassicae) and the small cabbage white (Pieris rapae).

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

In the greenhouse, we will be keeping a very close eye on our plants. Whitefly has appeared in abundance on the leaves of our pepper plants and, although they still look really healthy, we are taking action to nip the attack in the bud.

Raised beds are becoming ever more popular, and it is easy to see why: wooden raised beds are a great way to grow plants, vegetables and fruit right on your patio. They look great and allow you to create a simple, yet wonderful growing area - without the hassle of digging up plots in your garden.

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.

The first of the winter storms has just arrived at Stephanie's Kitchen Garden and this week we will be clearing up the aftermath. Storm Angus has swept across the country causing gardeners everywhere to open their curtains and despair at the mess it has left in its wake. It has ripped leaves from the trees and scattered them wide across the garden. We also have a few branches down and our first job of the week will be to clear and tidy away.