Stephanie's Garden Blog

This week has been very productive in the kitchen garden the first of our broad beans have been harvested along with some very juicy strawberries and the rhubarb I feel like a crumble might be on the cards the only decision is cream, custard or ice-cream.

The kitchen garden is thriving and a lot of work has been done this week, the celery and celeriac have been planted in their final positions and seem to be very happy. The last of the courgette plants have been planted now too

It's been lovely in the kitchen garden this week plenty of blue skies and sunshine, this of course means no rain and an awful lot of watering, as this has been a week of planting.

Finally, the temperatures have improved enough to start planting in the kitchen garden, this week I have planted out the sweet potatoes, Dwarf French green beans, Runner beans Enorma, Peas Norli and Kelvendon wonder, sweet peas, Dill and Parsley.

So, this week I want to talk about companion planting in the kitchen garden, companion planting is a must for organic gardeners as it is the natural way to control pests and aids pollination, plus it looks really pretty

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.

What beautiful weather we have been having, lovely sunny skies and warmer air, so its now time to start planting out some of the hardy vegetables. This week we have planted our early purple sprouting broccoli, broccoli Santee, Brussel sprouts nautic f1 and spinach. All of them have appreciated the sunshine and have already grown well.

An important job to start now is slug control because these greedy little creatures will quite happily munch through all your crop and leave you with a few stalks to cry over. I highly recommend Nemaslug as it is a natural biological slug killer you apply every 6 weeks until all the crops are harvested, I would also recommend applying it with the Nemasprayer as it distributes the product easily and evenly.

Peonies do like a sunny location with well-drained soil and good air circulation around the plant is important. Peony plant supports should be put in place early on in the growing season. Once the plant is in full bloom, it is much harder to set up an effective support system and the damage may have already been done.