Stephanie's Kitchen Garden Diary

There is a long list of harvested produce this month; spinach, lettuce, tomatoes, kale, courgettes, blueberries, red currents, raspberries, cucumber, broad beans, sprouting broccoli, radishes, potatoes, runner beans, onions, garlic and French beans.

It has been a challenging month weather wise; we have had heat, sunshine and thunder storms, the weather does really affect how the crops grow.

April was a month of unpredictable weather we had it all sunshine, rain, wind and even some hail. Easter really saw the first of the warmer weather and the temptation to start planting out this year's crop was just too great so the first of the brassicas were planted out.

As the ground is starting to warm up, we have been able to prepare it for the coming season. which I have to say is my favourite, spring always bursts in with lots of new life both in the garden and in farms surrounding us, Always so welcome after the cold grey days of winter.

Every year we spend a lot of time deciding on the planting plan for Stephanie's Kitchen Garden and this year we have brought it to life with colourful illustrations of how we hope the garden will look when everything is in full growth.

What a month we have had weather wise. It felt as if we had skipped spring and gone straight into summer. We had the hottest Valentines day in 21 years and on Thursday Kew Gardens recorded 21c. Because of this flowers and plants are growing when they should be dormant. It's lovely to see the bobbing heads of daffodils mingled amongst the snowdrops.

Well the first month of this year has been a real mixture of weather. It started with rain wind and frosts then as the month marched on the temperatures really started to drop but none of the white stuff. Some weeks I was beginning to wonder if we were going to see the sun again then as the month ended the snow arrived, but not a lot and very, very cold temperatures.

December has again been another month of mixed weather and varying temperatures, one day in double figures, the next in a single figure with a crisp frost. Parts of the country have seen inches of snow but here the nearest we have had is sleet and freezing rain.

We have had numerous storms passing through, leaving a path of leaves and fallen branches everywhere. Because of the mild weather, bothersome insects are still present, white fly and gnats are the two I dislike the most. One is eating my cabbages and sprouts; the other is eating me!