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There is something deeply evocative surrounding the traditional hand forging of tools. The heat of the forge, the smell of the coal furnace and the sound of molten steel being hammered into shape all take us back to a time long past, when tools were hand made and lasted for decades.

Our 9th Royal Horticultural Society Chelsea Flower Show sees us unveil our new Garden Arches along with displaying plenty of old favourites including our exclusive and traditional Sneeboer Tools

Sneeboer make their tools with long handles, not solely for the benefit of six-foot-two blokes. These longer handles alleviate pressure on the spine and create a lot more digging power in the garden by creating a longer lever to work with.

If you're looking for an extra special gift for someone in your life that you know loves gardening, then we've just the thing here at Harrod Horticultural. Take a look at our choice of three quality Sneeboer trowels which can all be engraved with a personalised message - a gift like no other!

With the countdown clock showing only 49 days, the 2010 RHS Chelsea Flower Show is rapidly approaching – and Harrod Horticultural will be there to give our customers and other interested parties a chance to see our products, including a fruit cage, timber raised beds and Sneeboer tools, live and close up!

The RHS Chelsea Flower Show announced Thursday the 21th of March that the Sneeboer entry, the 'Royal Dutch Hoe' with 3 innovations for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show Garden Product of the Year 2013 was been successful.

Here at Stephanie?s Kitchen Garden this week we will begin the winter clean of all our pots and tools. Last year I treated myself to a Sneeboer tool maintenance kit and gave all our tools some thorough care and attention.

At last we have passed the Spring Equinox and this weekend will put the clocks forward which will give us all a precious extra hour of light at the end of the day to spend in the garden. The ground has been dug over, all of our structures have been cleaned and the garden is ready for growing. A whole new season lies before us and we can't wait!

All around the garden this week, there are many plants that will need tying into their supports. Our blackberry is grown over an archway that suits its rampant growth. The plants seem to be growing as we watch at the moment and the new stems will need tying in to keep them supported. Currently they are just bursting into lovely pale pink blossoms and the bees are really enjoying them.

Well the weather this week has been a complete change, with us having the warmest valentine's day in 21 years. I have seen out in the garden a butterfly, a very large bumble bee, other solitary bees and numerous other bugs and flies, the weather is really teasing us.

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.

Imagine a typical scene at the local allotments. Older men wearing caps and clad in their favourite gardening gear, gathered together in a ramshackle shed plonked next to an overgrown plot discussing how great it is to escape the house and wife, is probably the picture your mind conjures up. But things are very different these days...

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.

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!

August has been a month of wall to wall sunshine in Stephanie's Kitchen Garden, with lovely hot temperatures and very little rainfall; traditional harvest weather. Gardeners and crops alike have thrived in it, although both have needed regular watering, particularly on the days of blistering heatwave conditions!

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

Autumn is an important time of year for taking care of your lawn. The effort you put in during autumn will improve the quality and health of your lawn right through into spring and beyond. Here's some tips on caring for your lawn in autumn from our friends at Rolawn.

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.

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.

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

The main summer harvest is almost over and the larder and freezer are bursting with the fruits of our labour. This week we are continuing the big autumn clear up as crops begin to fade and litter the ground. Spending a little time each day clearing away plant debris keeps the garden as neat as possible and avoids a huge clear up later on.

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.

Late September and early October heralds the start of bulb planting season with gardeners countrywide frenziedly digging away, driven on by the thought of a wonderful spring show.

It has almost been like summer, not spring, with the warm weather we have been experiencing. Most days there has been full sun and blue skies which has been brilliant as that has given me the opportunity to get out and really start clearing the flower borders and beds.

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.

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!

From new innovations to tried and tested favourites, enjoy this quick trip through our festive range and get some inspiration for the gardener in your life!

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.

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

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.

Weather permitting, it is time to start digging in the Kitchen Garden this week. As a rule of thumb, we usually pay attention to the activities of the local farmers as an indication of when it is time to begin turning over the soil and in our area, the tractors have begun to appear in the fields surrounding the garden.

This week in Stephanie's Kitchen Garden, we are trying to trick mother nature into an early harvest by moving a trough of strawberry plants into the greenhouse. The warmth of the heater will spur the plants into life and encourage early blooms.

This week we will be earthing up our potatoes for the final time. They are a really good size now and looking very lush and healthy. Hopefully the tubers are growing just as fast. We will be incorporating some potato fertiliser as we earth them up to give them a good feed at the same time.

A great guest blog from Elementa Design using a 5 step guide to prepare your garden for Summer. Nick Dickinson, a much sought after plantsman and garden designer and offers some great advice in the article.

Gardening is like any hobby - there are endless tools and equipment you can buy if you have the money to invest however the list of essential equipment for gardening is actually fairly short.

Well the week started with a couple of tons of farmyard manure being delivered. Most of this was to go in the kitchen garden so with wheelbarrows and spades at the ready, it was time to shovel manure. We have put about 50 barrow loads onto the kitchen garden plots and the remainder has been stored to go over the flower borders at a later date.

Our tomato plants have now begun flowering in the greenhouse, so next week we will give them a foliar feed wth epsom salts and also begin feeding them with liquid tomato feed. The tomato feed will continue each week throughout the growing season.

This week in Stephanie's Kitchen Garden we will be wrapping up warm before heading out into the cold temperatures. We have been spoilt by the mild winter until now and the freezing conditions have come as a shock. Thank goodness for the winter gloves that Santa left in my stocking this Christmas. There'll be no cold fingers here!

We have had some really frosty conditions in the kitchen garden this week. Which, although looks really pretty has made working the ground quite hard as it has been frozen.

The wonderful thing about gardening is garden tools can make it as labour intensive or relaxing as you wish. You may decide to dig your entire plot by hand, or you might choose to use machinery and then spend more time in the planning.

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.

Finding that perfect gift can be tricky, but if you are looking for a gardening gift for a greenfingered family member or friend, our range of gifts for gardeners will give you some great inspiration and ideas for the perfect present.

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.

We're taking a trip down memory lane and reminiscing on many of our fond memories at Chelsea Flower Show throughout the years!

This week in the Kitchen Garden, we will be starting to harvest our early potatoes. These were planted way back at the end of March. They have flowered and their haulms are now turning brown. There is nothing quite as good as the taste of freshly dug new potatoes - a delicious meal just by themselves.

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.

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.

There is something deeply evocative surrounding the traditional hand forging of tools. The heat of the forge, the smell of the coal furnace and the sound of molten steel being hammered into shape all take us back to a time long past, when tools were hand-made and lasted for decades. But are these wonderful noises and smells resigned to history? In most places yes, but in a small corner of Holland they are very much alive.

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.

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.

This week in Stephanie's Kitchen Garden we will be eagerly awaiting the arrival of our new heated propagator. I can't wait to try it out and January is the perfect time to be sowing seeds such as celery, celeriac and chilli peppers

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.

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.

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!

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

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.

A lot of tidying in the Kitchen Garden this week, lots of leaves thanks to the high winds, a Greenhouse to clean and lots of tools that need some cleaning.

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 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.

With the wet and windy conditions recently we have had to make a hasty retreat to the potting shed, but this gives us a chance to catch up on some other important jobs...

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 continuing the Autumn Harvest. The haulms on our maincrop potatoes have now all but died, so we will cut these off to the ground and leave the tubers for ten days before digging them up.

I'm back! Following a busy week even by my standards, I've finally returned to my keyboard and can bring you a fully illustrated report on the latest Kitchen Garden Sowing and Growing Event to be held at the RHS's Harlow Carr gardens. It goes something like this...

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

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.

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

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 the Kitchen Garden, we will be digging up our main crop potatoes. We would not normally expect to be doing this for at least another month, but our crop has been struck by blight following the wet summer. It certainly wasn't a surprise that our plants were attacked by blight. With the amount of rainfall we have had, it was something that we were fully expecting.

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.

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.

Sunday March 18th is Mother's Day and although it might seem a good few weeks away, thinking of a present suitable to the lady you call mum isn't a five minute task! But it gets a whole lot easier if Mum likes her garden and we've got load of ideas to make Mother's Day 2012 a bit special. Engraved tools, Sophie Conran garden gear and plenty of top quality food preparation equipment for when the produce makes it into the kitchen are all featured in our press release along with plenty more mum-friendly gifts - 2012 is the year to really treat your mum!

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.

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 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.

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.

Our apple and pear trees are positively smothered in tiny fruits and, so far, there is no sign of the June drop, where nature thins out the excess fruits on the trees. In the next week or so we will emulate mother nature by picking off fruits to leave the largest two on any spur. As painful as this is, it is necessary if we are to get good sized fruits and to protect the branches from breaking under the weight.

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.

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

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.

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 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.

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

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.

Easter is traditionally the time to plant potatoes and this weekend we will be making the most of the double bank holiday and the long light evenings to get ours into the ground. I had thought to delay it a little following the recent cold start to spring and the current chilly temperatures, however today I watched the local farmers putting their seed potatoes into the ground in the fields near our kitchen garden. If conditions are good enough for the farmers, they are definitely good enough for us.

Potatoes are the most versatile vegetables grown in the west and one of the easiest to grow; they are one of main staple ingredients on our dinner tables today. Even if you only have a small space you can still grow potatoes in potato barrels, bags or containers.

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

At last we have reached the end of February and the Spring is about to begin. After the hard work of the winter, it?s time for the growing to really start. Inside the greenhouse this week, we will carrying out one of my favourite jobs of the gardening year; pricking out seedlings.

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

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.

As we head into May, in our part of the world we would normally expect to be planting out some of our tender crops such as beans, courgettes and squash plants. However we are in the middle of a very cold snap and planting out now would be a disaster for these tender plants.

The new metal raised beds that have been located in the peak roof fruit cage have now all been filled with new soil and the autumn raspberries and blueberries have been replanted in their new homes.

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.

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!

Wow! What a fantastic week it's been at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, it just seems to get better every year, already looking forward to next year!

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.

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.

This week we will be sowing more vegetable seeds to grow plants to fill the holes that the harvest creates. We will soon be harvesting our early potatoes and our remaining broad beans which will open up more much needed growing space. We will be sowing winter cabbages, pak choi, chard, kohl rabi, spinach and broccoli.

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.

It's getting colder but Christmas is coming! Here are my top product picks for the month of December...

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.

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!

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...

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

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...

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

Harrod Horticultural receives a commendation at the World's premier Gardening Show

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...

Just because it's snowing doesn't mean the garden stops! We've got horse manure to spread and a greenhouse to clean - and how's that rhubarb coming on...?

Now the Chelsea Show is over I can get back to tending the garden - can anyone remind me how to get there?

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

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...

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...

The winter starts to fire off it's weather arrows and we clean the garden from top to bottom!

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

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.

The arrival of a film crew, a lowdown on our glut of tomatoes and how to grow carrots of the highest quality - as usual, it's been an eventful month in Stephanie's Kitchen Garden...

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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 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.

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!

Although it has been a beautiful start to September, we’re already starting to see the misty mornings and darker nights creeping in.

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.

Whilst over half of the country was being hit by gale force winds and rain, here on the East coast we have seen temperatures reaching 17c, with wasps and bluebottles still flying around and even a Red Admiral butterfly flew past me on Tuesday, what strange weather we are having!

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.

During the past week, summer has begun to make way for autumn in Stephanie's Kitchen Garden. The night-time temperatures have dipped and the weather has become squally with the strong wind and rain setting in.

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.

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 garden is tidy, the potting shed has been spring cleaned and the greenhouse is gleaming. Overwintering crops are snugly nestled in a heated tent of bubble wrap. We are ready for the festive break; the only time of year that I leave the garden and disappear into the house.

The long Easter weekend has given us plenty of opportunity to tend to the maintenance of the garden and we have been busy jet washing paving and oiling decking. The grime and algae of the winter has been washed away. Necessary and satisfying work, but time spent away from the main task of growing.

We have had our first taste of spring weather over the weekend; a welcome sign that the winter will not last forever! It was but a brief reprieve and the grey skies and cold winds have returned. As February approaches, it is time to start off some early crops in the greenhouse. Impatient as ever, we sowed ours last week and now have tiny shoots of green appearing in the seeds trays in our heated propagator.

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!

Summer is almost upon us and the garden is reveling in the warm temperatures and long daylight hours. Unfortunately, the weeds seem to be reveling in it too and are popping up all over the garden literally growing overnight. It is important to keep on top of them while they are small and before they have the chance to set seed.

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've finally treated to some significant rainfall in our part of the world. This was a big relief for us gardeners, giving us some respite from the watering can; albeit for only a few days. The garden seemed to sigh with relief too and plants in every part of the garden seemed to shoot up overnight after their welcome drink.

It is time to dig up our main crop potatoes in Stephanie's Kitchen Garden, during August, the entire crop was hit by blight; a common problem for growers this year. We cut the haulms right down to the ground and burned them.

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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.

The recent warm spring weather has brought a growth spurt to all areas of the garden, rhododendrons are beginning to flower and our young vegetable plants are getting bigger by the minute. Unfortunately the weeds are also enjoying the conditions and are thriving!

All our crops are enjoying the current late spring heatwave, but the soil is drying out and there is no rain forecast for the next few days at least. Many of our young plants have only just been planted out and need a good supply of water to help their roots spread.

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

Here at Stephanie's Kitchen Garden this week we will be getting back out into the garden following the Christmas break. There is plenty of digging to be done it is an ideal way to work off those Christmas excesses!

The weather has at last warmed up and our crops now need more care and attention to keep them productive. We like to use fish, blood and bone every six weeks on our leafy crops such as brassicas, spinach and chard, and seaweed feed on flowering crops such as courgettes and beans.

Here at Stephanie's Kitchen Garden this week we will be sowing our sweetcorn, courgettes, squash, runner beans and French beans in the greenhouse. We will also be sowing more salads and peas to ensure a succession of crops.

We're off to the Chelsea Flower Show for a few days, so will need to leave our plants in good shape for our absence.

Lots to do in the Kitchen Garden this week as the season really gets into gear. Sunshine and showers over the last week has been great for the plants, but meant more work to keep everything under control, especially the weeds!

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.

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.

The espalier apple trees and trained pear trees have at last shed all their leaves in the Kitchen Garden, which means that it's now the perfect time to give them a bit of attention.