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I have a metal obelisk in my Victorian Kitchen Garden and I am looking for advice on how to grow vegetables up an obelisk and which vegetables would be best suited to growing up obelisks

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.

This week In Stephanie's Kitchen Garden we are harvesting the sweet potatoes. This is one of our favourite crops as it always looks so good. We like to grow them in a raised bed and train them up an obelisk to provide a real focal point.

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.

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

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.

We are great obelisk gardeners and have a number of competitor obelisks going strong, some a bit flaky by now. However when you introduced your obelisks we had two and then two more as they are far superior to the competitor ones and are sturdier and easier to erect ! We have David Austin hybrid roses trained up them and they are now in flower.

2023 has been a really rough growing season. Everything started off really well with my early sweet peas being the star of the show but then that extreme couple of weeks of heat that blasted my allotment in June...

Guest Blog by Elementa Design - A Concise Guide to Garden Design - some great advice on creating your own garden scheme using the same tools that a professional garden designer uses.

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!

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

Last week we had the pleasure of visiting Norwich's hidden gem, the Bishop's Garden!

Last week was certainly a week of a mixture of weather. Monday was another warm, dry day and being able to get into the shade was wonderful but the lavender bushes all needed their Autumn trim. When you have quite a few the use of a petrol hedge trimmer is brilliant, remembering to take the new growth right down to where the old wood is, so next year you will get good healthy growth and flowers.

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.

With 157,000 visitors passing through the gates each year, a heritage and history as rich as any and a reputation for gardening excellence around the world, the Royal Horticultural Society?s Chelsea Flower Show is a pivotal event in the gardening calendar ? and for the 10th year running, Lowestoft ?based Harrod Horticultural will be there!

Another long Bank holiday weekend is upon us and the weather looks like it is going to be perfect for gardening!

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

A Norfolk stately home and a Suffolk mail order gardening product supplier and manufacturer may seem unlikely partners but with their new Royal Horticultural Society endorsed Garden Arch range proving the catalyst, Harrod Horticultural and Hoveton Hall have joined forces in a truly symbiotic relationship...

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.

Our stunning garden arches come in a range of styles and sizes and can be linked to create eye catching walkways. Pergolas utilise the same quality designs as the arches and when covered in climbing plants can create a breathtaking garden tunnel and walkway.

We’ve teamed up with Gardens Illustrated to bring you their spring offer, free downloadable copy and an exciting giveaway!

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...

If you want to make the most of your outdoor space, vertical growing could be the solution you’ve been searching for. If you’re still gathering ideas for your 2023 growing plan, vertical growing could be something worth considering to maximise your produce and minimise the space it traditionally takes to do so!

The main point behind growing your own vegetables is how much better they taste fresh from the garden. The only failsafe way to guarantee harvesting vegetables at the optimal time is to taste test. However, there are some guidelines for judging when vegetables are ripe and ready for harvest. Keep in mind that great flavour isn?t always a simple matter of size or colour.

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.

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!

See our latest update from the Hoveton Hall Kitchen Garden!

We’re delighted to announce that we have teamed up with Hoveton Hall Gardens to sponsor their new Kitchen Garden!

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.

A short week for workers this week but the kitchen garden continues to grow. Although, since the last heavy rain it has started to feel a little autumnal in the mornings; a chilly and sometimes dewy start but warming up during the day.

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.

Flaming June is living up to its reputation this year with wall-to-wall sunshine for most of the month. As I write we have had no rainfall for four weeks and the scorching sun and drying winds of a heatwave are causing challenges all around the garden. 2018 has certainly been a year of extreme weather so far!

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

Every year we spend a lot of time deciding on the planting plan for the Kitchen Garden and this year we have brought this to life with colourful illustrations of how we hope the garden will look when everything is in full growth.

Planning is key to a successful vegetable garden and we take a lot into consideration when planning the Kitchen Garden planting each year. Incorporating new products, trialing new varieties while still observing crop rotation can make it a bit tricky, but the design looks great and we can't wait to bring it to life!

Every year we spend a lot of time deciding on the planting plan for Stephanie's Kitchen Garden and this year we have brought it to life with colourful illustrations of how we hope the garden will look when everything is in full growth.

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.

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!

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

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!

Last week the laptop took priority as other work became really busy, distracting me from the garden. As we all know, at this time of year, when you are called away from your garden for even a couple of days, nature goes mad. Crops have grown beyond recognition and are looking a little wild.

One of our team is a keen gardener and we love seeing the updates from the garden - obviously a few Harrod Horticultural products dotted about the garden too!

We wanted to share these pictures from one of our team, a keen gardener who has had lots of success growing her own this year - with loads of vegetables and flowers we think it looks great!

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

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.

The recent warmer temperatures have really helped our sweet potatoes which are now ready to be planted out in our metal raised bed.

Believe it or not, the RHS Chelsea Flower Show is nearly upon us again and the Harrod Horticultural team are busy preparing for another show-stopping exhibit. With a string of previous Chelsea trade stand awards and twice winners of the Chelsea Product of the Year, the pressure is really on to raise the bar yet again and we are determined to do this as you can see with this sneaky peak of our 2015 exhibit

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!

Make a statement this year with our beautiful garden arches, stunning garden pergolas, metal garden obelisks and plant supports - draped with our automatic seasonal festive lights it's the perfect way to light up this festive period. Why not light up your doorway by using our Christmas Tree-Shaped Pyramid Obelisks adorned with our lights? Our SPECIAL OFFER means that if you buy two, then you SAVE ?50

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

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...

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

It feels like deja vu reading July 2011's kitchen garden update - rain, rain and more rain. Our English summers seem to be having a common theme these days and the lack of sunshine is affecting our crops but as the saying goes England in this 'green and pleasant land', us gardeners will carry on gardening and we will get a good crop of vegetables this summer!

June sees the garden looking it's finest, and we've got hedgehog tales; a broad bean update; Sharon's new carrot growing idea and some Teepees give a Wild West flavour...

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 ...

As usual, May has been a very busy time in the garden. I've been at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, we have new raised beds to build and Kate's got hedges to trim

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...

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!

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.....

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.

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

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!

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.

This week in we will be thinning out the apples and pears on our fruit trees. Nature has its own attempt at this job with the June Drop, where trees naturally shed some of its fruit. This is the time to go over the trees and thin the apples further to allow the remaining fruit to grow to its optimum size.

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!

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

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.

Here at Stephanie's Kitchen Garden this week we will be awaiting the delivery of our vegetable plants. Having harvested our onions, shallots and garlic has we have some space for more crops in the Kitchen Garden.

Here at Stephanie's Kitchen Garden this week we will be harvesting our sweet potatoes. This is always an event greeted with trepidation and excitement and I must to confess to having already felt down into the soil to see what size tubers might be waiting for us.