Stephanie's Garden Blog

This week it's fruit picking week in Stephanie's Kitchen Garden. All of our soft fruit bushes have really been enjoying the hot sunny weather and are covered in plump juicy fruits almost ready for harvesting. We have been watering all of our fruits plants and bushes twice a week and they have been thriving in the sunshine.

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.

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.

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.

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!

This pergola is not only on show at RHS Chelsea this year! Gaze Burvill are so pleased with it that part of the structure is making it's way to Chatsworth house for the inaugural RHS Flower Show running from 7-11 June. For those not able to make it to RHS Chelsea, can view it in person at RHS Chatsworth

Last week we finally saw some heavy rainfall in the Kitchen Garden and all around the garden, plants seem to have put on inches of growth overnight. This week we will be exchanging the watering cans for soft-tie and scissors to stake the plants that have had a growth spurt.

The RHS Chelsea Flower Show is the pinnacle of the gardening year taking over a small corner of London for a week every May and this is the 14th year that Harrod Horticultural have been a part of this fantastic spectacle!

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.