Stephanie's Kitchen Garden Diary

We have just had one of the driest Aprils I can remember in Stephanie's Kitchen Garden. At one of the busiest months of the growing calendar, the dry spell has added to our workload with many hours spent watering our crops.

The garden has undertaken a dramatic transformation this month; from the bare brown soil of winter to the sea of green that the warm spring sunshine brings. The weather has been very mild this month and plants all around the garden are putting on lots of new growth.

As February draws to a close, the Spring still feels as far away as ever. Despite a handful of sunny, warm days, the month has been mostly cold and grey. Storm Doris made her presence felt by taking down a tree in the surrounding gardens but left the Kitchen Garden largely unscathed apart from a few scattered fir cones and twigs.

The new year has brought with it icy arctic weather which has hung around for most of the month. We've had our first snowfall of the winter transforming the garden into a beautiful winter wonderland.

December has seen the garden emerge from the debris of autumn to the bare beauty of winter. The hard work of clearing fallen leaves and old summer crops is complete and the skeleton of the garden is now tidy and clear.

November is probably my least favourite month of the gardening year. No matter what your efforts, the garden always seems to look untidy; littered with fallen leaves and the skeletons of old crops. Spring and summer suddenly seem like a lifetime away and the short days seem to plunge us into constant darkness. It would be so easy to retire to the house and emerge again in the springtime. This, of course, never happens.

At the beginning of October, we were still experiencing very dry conditions in Stephanie's Kitchen Garden and hoping for a little rain to dampen the dusty ground. We should have been more careful what we wished for. Now it feels as though it has been raining forever and the cold north east winds are making it uncomfortably cold for both gardeners and crops alike. The sun has a little warmth, but the biting winds are pegging back the temperatures dramatically.

September has been unseasonably warm in Stephanie's Kitchen Garden. For most of the month we have been experiencing heatwave conditions, with temperatures only returning to normal within the last week. The garden has loved it and sun loving crops such as sweet potatoes have thrived. Here on the East coast we have had very little rainfall; plenty being forecast but never actually reaching us.

August has been a month of wall to wall sunshine in Stephanie's Kitchen Garden, with lovely hot temperatures and very little rainfall; traditional harvest weather. Gardeners and crops alike have thrived in it, although both have needed regular watering, particularly on the days of blistering heatwave conditions!