Stephanie's Garden Blog

This week in the kitchen garden it has been a week of planting out, the last of the runner beans (Enorma) have been put in. This year we are doing more successional sowing, to give a longer harvest period and to hopefully avoid a glut of any one vegetable.

The last of the cauliflower (Romanesco) has now been planted out under the cover of butterfly netting to protect them from the butterflies, and the caterpillars that will eventually follow.

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.