Stephanie's Garden Blog

Our greenhouse crops are coming to the end of their lives. The tomatoes have all been harvested and we will be clearing the old plants and consigning them to the compost heap. The pots, tomato towers, plant halos and slot and lock frame and will be brushed clean and set aside for scrubbing and cleaning during the winter months.

Crushing and pressing fruit to extract juice is a process rich in history, with the production of apple juice and cider stretching back to Norman times. Things have moved on a bit since then, and today, pressing your own home-grown fruit could not be easier.

Here at Stephanie's Kitchen Garden this week we will be harvesting the pears from our pear arch. After they have been picked the pears will be put through a fruit press to be turned into delicious organic pear juice. A real treat!

Here at Stephanie's Kitchen Garden this week we will be sowing spinach and chard into our mangers for overwintering. Our summer salad leaves are almost finished as they are beginning to succumb to the cold autumn nights. We will be clearing these and replacing them with winter crops. The mangers will then have their covers put on to give the seeds a snug environment to germinate in, as well as added protection over the winter.

Fruit Cages are becoming very popular additions to the garden as grow your own fruit and vegetable enthusiasts realize that you can harvest more of the crops you grow if you protect them from birds and other pests with a taste for something sweet in the garden.

Here at Stephanie's Kitchen Garden this week we will be digging up our Desiree potatoes. Last week Jo dug up our other maincrop potatoes which were Cara. This is very early to be harvesting our spuds and we wouldn't normally do this until October, but we were unlucky enough to get Blight this year and had to remove the tops of the potato plants a few weeks ago.

Here at Stephanie's Kitchen Garden this week we will be planting out our Spring Cabbages. These have been growing away in our cold frame waiting for a space to become available in our vegetable cage.

Here at Stephanie's Kitchen Garden this week we will be planting our Christmas dinner. Our parsnips and sprouts have been growing since February and are looking very promising. We have also frozen some peas and runner beans to join them on our Christmas plate.

If August is holiday time for you, plans may be needed soon to enlist the help of friends and family to look after the garden when you are away. August can be one of the hottest months of the year and this makes watering essential.