Stephanie's Garden Blog

The Consumer Council for Water has produced a checklist of water saving ideas following predictions of another long, hot - and dry - summer.

It's always good to find out what the nation's gardeners are up to, and although not quite on the scale of a Gardener's World roadshow, I do occasionally get an insight into what plans others are drawing up.

Remember last month I brought you some updates of what we've been up to in our own Harrod Horticultural Kitchen Garden?

Being a Master Composter, you could say compost-wise I've seen it, done it and got the T-shirt - and now, quite literally, I have!

Following on in our recent series of Kitchen Garden overflow news, Sharon has advised me she's been busy planting artichokes.

The process of composting has been taking place ever since the earth was created, long before any of us were even thought of. Fast forward a few million years to today however, and your chance to learn all there is about compost as Norfolk County Council hold their latest course next month.

It's fair to say 2007 will not go down as a vintage year for potato crops, with blight and the unprecendented wet summer weather being the main culprits.

Organic gardening - in the Harrod Horticultural Kitchen Garden at least - doesn't just mean that chemical-based pest sprays, weedkillers and fertilisers are banned from the potting shed. It's about protecting the environment in general, and that's why you'll find water butts scattered around the garden.

With Christmas over, and the annual trawl through the seed catalogues almost complete, the thoughts of most gardeners turn to sowing and growing once again - and that means peat free seed compost.