Stephanie's Garden Blog

Here at Stephanie's Kitchen Garden this week we will be planting out our broad bean plants and our shallots. These have spent the past week in the cold frame acclimatising to the weather and are now ready to be planted in their final growing space. The ground has already been dug over and fertilised with fish, blood and bone.

Harrod Horticultural are delighted to announce that they are the headline sponsor for the 2015 SGD awards. Managing Director, Stephanie Harrod said "We have chosen to sponsor these celebrated awards as the SGD has been championing excellence in garden design for over 30 years and we feel this is the perfect fit for our prestigious Harrod Horticultural brand."

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.

Here at Stephanie's Kitchen Garden this week we will be pricking out some of our new little seedlings in the greenhouse. The heated propagator is a hive of activity and some of the tomatoes, aubergines and peppers are ready to be transferred to small pots.

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.

Growing in vegetable planters you'll be surprised how many delicious vegetables you can cram into a small space and an attractive Manger Vegetable Planter can transform a barren patio into a vegetable oasis.

It's an exciting time at the kitchen garden - some of our seedlings are starting to emerge in the heated propagator and really starting to get the feeling that Spring is on its way...

It may seem slightly premature to approach the subject of greenhouse vents whilst snow is lying on the ground in some parts, but there's nothing like being prepared! The sun will eventually gain warmth and temperatures will rise - especially under glass.

Here at Stephanie's Kitchen Garden this week we will be turning our attention to our rhubarb patch. Last year at this time we divided some of our existing plants to extend our crop and these grew well throughout the year putting on plenty of growth. At this time of year, the plants benefit from a generous mulch of well rotted manure or garden compost.