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It is a good idea to put weed control barriers in place in late winter or early spring, as they work better as a preventative method rather than when an existing problem requires suppression

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...

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.

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!

Although the week started very dry and warm, towards the end of the week and into the weekend we had some very welcome rain in the Kitchen Garden.

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

Anyone can grow Broad Beans - definitely one of the easiest vegetables to grow and one of the first vegetables to harvest in the Spring. Very good for you too, rich in vitamins and very tasty if harvested before the pods grow too big.

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

It 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.

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!

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

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

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

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

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.

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

Finally, we have had rain and everywhere is looking so much better for it, with the kitchen garden really bursting into life over the last few days.

Rolawn Landscaping Bark is produced from organic material and the garden bark will naturally help your garden soil retain and hold water, which is ideal for our changeable climate.

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.

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.

August can be one of the hottest months of the year, this makes watering an essential task! If water butts are running flow, grey water can be used wherever possible. If August is holiday time for you, plans may be needed to enlist the help if friends and family to look after the garden when you are away!

With brighter, sunnier days on the horizon and rules on socialising easing, you will no doubt be thinking of dusting off that BBQ and organising a few garden gatherings with six of your nearest and dearest. From cleaning your garden furniture, to mowing the lawn, here is a few things you can do to get your garden ready.

You could sense the excitement from the buzz around the crowd that the long-awaited project was finally open for the world to see. The glorious weather helped to bathe the Wellbeing Garden in all its glory and the stage was set perfectly for the ribbon to be cut by Sir Nicholas Bacon, Baronet OBE (Deputy Lieutenant).

It has now been three weeks since we had any rainfall in Stephanies' Kitchen Garden and the forecast shows sunny and hot weather for at least the next three weeks to come. In our part of the world, near the most easterly coast of the UK, we are used to gardening in the driest part of the country, but usually enjoy the odd thunderstorm to keep the garden from drying out completely in the heatwave.

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

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

August can be one of the hottest months of the year, this makes watering essential. If water butts are running low, grey water can be used wherever possible. If August is holiday time for you, plans may be needed to enlist the help of friends and family to look after the garden when you are away.

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.

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!

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

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

Hardy, durable and not particularly fussy, beetroot is ideal for both first-time and experienced gardeners. Traditionally a deep purple root, this versatile veggie actually comes in a variety of colours, all bringing intense earthy flavours when slow roasted or added to soups and salads. Plus, with its underlying sweetness beetroot lends well to cakes and desserts too.

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

Home-grown carrots are versatile and full of flavour and texture. They are a popular, long-lasting root vegetable that can be grown in many climates.

Parsnips are a hardy winter vegetable that are easy to grow, require little maintenance and can be used in just about any dish. Find out more about this versatile vegetable in our latest blog...

Nothing comes close to home-grown peas for their tenderness and taste. What’s more, peas thrive in cooler climes, so are perfectly suited to growing outdoors in the UK.

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.

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.

The week started with building a larger net cage for the brassicas. Building the frame was the easy part, shaping and cutting the net to fit took its time but finally it was built.

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

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

The first of our rhododendrons has come into flower and looking beautiful next to the new laser screen panels, a perfect assimilation between nature and man.

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

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

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...

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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....

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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!

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.

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

What a change in weather this week. We seem to have had weeks of cold wind and cloud, but now the wind has shifted to the south and finally the sun is gracing us with its presence and warmth.

What a difference a week makes weather wise, gone are the beautiful sunny skies and warmer temperatures. I have to admit it has caught me out as I thought the risk of frost had gone, only to wake up this morning and hear the dreaded weatherman say there is a chance of frost over the weekend.

Wireworms, and their potential to devastate potato crops and many other garden vegetables and plants, were in the forefront of one of our customer's minds recently - and here's the advice our horticulturist Martin Fiddes gave him...