According the RHS, the gardening trends for 2024 are planet friendly gardens which help your well being and there is still a strong growth in the Grow Your Own Vegetables field. My thoughts on Vegetable Garden Trends for 2024 Whilst researching the internet, I can see what is making people passionate this year when it comes to Growing Vegetables. So here’s an insight in what I think is on trend for 2024. My Top 5 Vegetable Growing Trends for 2024 1. Arches Growing squash, pumpkin or beans and peas up and over an arch in your vegetable garden or allotment. You’ll need a strong arch that’s able ..read more

My Onion sets were planted in cell trays in the second week of March. One month later, in Mid April, they are now ready to be planted out in a raised beds. See my article: How to Start Growing Onions in wet weather in Cell trays + Video. Planting Onion Sets into a Raised Bed This year in Mid April, the temperature is about 11 degrees centigrade during the day and still cold at night down to 2 degrees centigrade on some nights. The weather isn’t warming up until May, but at least it’s dry, so the onions won’t rot in the ground. Onions don’t mind the cold, although when planted out they may sul ..read more

One of my Projects this year is to Grow my Own Coleslaw. This is quite an interesting project as there are three vegetables I need to be able to harvest at the same time in order to achieve making the coleslaw in July or August. What is Coleslaw? Copyright SkinnyTaste.com Coleslaw or Slaw in the UK is shredded raw cabbage (red or white or both) with a dressing like mayonnaise or plain yogurt. Over time Coleslaw has evolved to contain other shredded raw vegetables, the most well known coleslaw is usually cabbage, carrot and onion. It can also contain red pepper, grated cheese, apple, bacon or e ..read more

There are more than 10,000 Tomato varieties worldwide! Tomato World Records There are a number of word records broken with Tomatoes. 1. Tallest Tomato Plant – according to the Guinness World of Records, a UK company in October 1999 reached a height of 19.8 meters (65 ft). 2. Most Cherry Tomatoes grown on a single stem – Douglas Smith from the UK, broke the world record by growing 1269 cherry tomatoes on one plant stem in Sept 2021. 3. Heaviest Tomato – grown by Del & Julie Faust from USA in October 2022. The Tomato weighed 11.65 pounds. (Approx 5 kg). 4. Most Tomatoes on a single tomato pl ..read more

Every vegetable grower has one, a difficult vegetable to grow. I’ve had more failures with growing Brussels Sprouts than any other vegetable. Yet I still pick myself up and try growing them again. This year is no exception, I am determined to find a way of actually getting some Brussels Sprouts on my dinner plate. Why did my previous years attempts to grow Brussels fail? One word, Caterpillars! & Cabbage White Butterflies! that’s technically five words but these butterflies are a real pain. Hopefully my Timeline to Growing Brussels Sprouts success Year 1 – No Netting, No Cage – FAIL Caterp ..read more

April is a bumper seed sowing month. Every weekend is packed with a number of vegetable seeds to get sowing in the greenhouse or direct into the soil outdoors. Temperatures have warmed up In April, the outdoor temperatures should have warmed up, the soil temperatures have warmed up and the overnight temperatures should now be above 10 degrees centigrade for your tender plants like tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet peppers and aubergines. These Tender seedlings can be put in the unheated greenhouse to get more light all round to prevent ‘leggy’ seedlings. Frost Risk There is still a risk of frost unti ..read more

This year I’ve started to use my favourite social media channel Twitter / X as my Daily Updates channel. I like this type of social media as in a few sentences and a photo (microblogging), I am able to update any of my followers as to what is happening in the Vegetable Garden in that week and as it happens. Daily Vegetable Growing Updates If you would like to see what I’m sowing or potting on in my Greenhouse, on a sunny windowsill and 4 Raised Beds, Follow me on Twitter / X to get your daily dose of Vegetable Growings and Sow your seeds along with me. Share your sowings I’d love it if you sha ..read more

Tomatoes are one of the easiest vegetables to grow. so why not try sowing tomatoes this year. Sow along with me – I’m sowing… Tomato Variety: Cherrola F1 – red cherry tomato from MoreVeg.co.uk Tomato Variety: Orange Cherry – orange cherry tomato from MoreVeg.co.uk When to Sow Tomatoes Greenhouse Tomatoes – Sow: Late February to Mid March. Outdoor Tomatoes – Sow: Late March to April. You will need: Shopping List 1. Seed cell tray with lid or small pots, (small enough to go on a windowsill). I got mine from Amazon – Yaungel Seed Trays 2. Tomato seeds of your choice. (If you don’t know what varie ..read more

The red Sweet Peppers – ‘Napia’ which are an early variety from Real Seeds, had really put a growth spurt on compared to their sweet pepper neighbours in the cell tray ‘Tangerine Dream’. At 6 leaves, the red sweet peppers were definitely ready for a larger pot and some fresh compost. Sweet Peppers ‘Napia’ potted on into potsHow to Pot On Sweet Pepper seedlings You will need: 9cm diameter pots, Peat free compost, Plant labels and pen, A tiny fork tool to lift the seedling out of soil. Instructions 1. Fill your 9cm diameter pots with peat free compost, to a little below the rim. 2. Make a wide ..read more

Origins Tomatoes are originally from a South America, Central America and Mexico. They arrived in Europe in 16th century from the Spanish but people didn’t like them and they only became popular in the UK in the 18th Century. Other Names for Tomato Tomatoes were originally called Tomatl in Aztec times and then change over the centuries to Tomate, then as we know it today Tomato. Italians called the Tomato – tomato pomodoro which means golden apple. Some say the first tomato was yellow and not red. The French call the Tomato ‘Pomme d’amour’ which is Love Apple. Tomato is the 2nd most popular V ..read more