Its that time of year when we are all planning what to grow on our plots. Kim Stoddart outlines her favourite produce for effective buddy planting on the veg patch… To be perfectly honest with you, my gardens are one large mix and match, biodiverse affair. What started with experimentation into companion planting many years ago has ended with raised beds filled with many varieties of produce with barely any block planting in sight at all. I much prefer it this way. It’s harder for pests to seek out their favourite produce when it’s mingled in with less desirable others and I no longer need to ..read more

Kim Stoddart explains why not meticulously tidying away every crop on your veg patch at the end of the season will reap you multiple marvellous rewards…. Traditional advice dictates that once your crop is ready, or your harvest spent, every remaining plant should be plucked immediately from the ground. It’s all part of this mindset of quick turnaround veg production. One in, one out while making room for the next crop, or later in the season, tidying the veg patch by bedding it down for winter. While it of course makes sense to make the best use of every available growing space, and to have as ..read more

For those of you who are more experience seed savers, Sally has written a thought-provoking article on saving seed. To  save seed or not to save seed?  I can hear you all shouting ‘of course save seed’ and as generations of gardeners have done, I diligently save seed each year because locally-adapted seed is best – or is it? I have saved parsnip seed for the last 10 years, with the parent generation being the open pollinated Tender and True, a heritage variety chosen for its resistance to canker. The description of Tender and True on Suttons is: “Heritage Seed Variety, 1929 packet de ..read more

This blog was published on 4 June 2019 and a similar pattern has emerged in 2020, except this time the months of March, April and May have been hot and dry …. Hurrah, some rain is forecast.  I know, it’s June, and we all want to be outside enjoying the sun and the last thing we want is rain.  But 2019 has been a dry year so far.  Down in the south-west, January was incredibly dry. Then summer arrived early in February, when temperatures soared and reached record highs in some part of the country. The rain returned in March, but April and May have had lower than average rainfall ..read more

A garden or allotment can look a complete mess after surging floodwaters have passed through.  It wouldn’t be so bad if it was just rainwater, but most flood water carries with it all sorts of contaminants – plastic, sewage, manure, slurry and chemicals, such as oil and pesticides, and much more besides. So, if you suspect that the water is contaminated, wear protective clothing and waterproof boots while in the garden and keep pets away. It best to avoid going into the garden until the flood waters have drained away. Before you do so, make sure the electricity supplying any outside socke ..read more

Kim Stoddart explains how to save some of your own seed both now and thinking ahead for the following year Whilst I am as keen a peruser of gardening seed catalogues as the next person, there is something so very satisfying about home seed saving that money simply cannot buy. The process of sowing a seed, to growing a plant, collecting the seed to be planted the following season provides a full circle connection that is simple yet wholesome in this increasingly worrying planet of ours. It is also many believe a good way of creating seed that has become more adapted to the growing conditions in ..read more