Innehållsförteckning för January 2024 från Kitchen Garden

It’s the start of a brand-new year, the time when many of us fire the starting gun on some exciting tender crops that need a long growing season such as peppers and seed-raised onions. In this issue you’ll find great features to help you get the very best out of these sowings, plus info on some delicious new chilli varieties. There is more news from the seed catalogues starting on page 40, where KG’s Tony Flanagan brings you the last of his roundups of the best new introductions for 2024. There are so many brilliant new varieties to try this year! For those of you who might have resolved to start growing for the first time, top organic grower Becky Searle has all the information you need to make it…

FLOODED PLOT SOLUTION It was interesting to read Stephanie Hafferty’s article about gardening on wet/flooded ground (December issue). Our veg plot too has suffered from flooding. In the summer we converted the veg plot to contain raised beds. Like Stephanie we hoped that raising the level would help the plants to sit a bit above the flooded ground. The recent rain in October and November has certainly vindicated our decision. Our crops have improved and look likely to continue doing so. We need to work with the present climate and do it now. We have also installed veg meshing cages/cloches over all our beds, although crops that need pollinating will of course lose such protection at the appropriate time. The mesh does not prevent rain but does reduce the effect…

GET GROWING Herbs have been grown for centuries for their medicinal and healing properties, not to mention their use in the kitchen to flavour food. As garden or container plants they are hugely popular and as well as their culinary use, many are also decorative. They are easy to grow and by having a selection of annual and perennial herbs in your garden, you’ll be able to pick a supply of tasty herbs throughout the year. SOIL AND GROWING CONDITIONS As a guide, the herbs we commonly grow in our gardens prefer a well-drained soil. Sandy or loamy soils are ideal as they tend to be free draining, whereas heavy clay bakes hard in summer and becomes waterlogged in winter, causing root rots. To help improve clay soils, work in…

SPEAR & JACKSON TOOLS These tools from Spear & Jackson are part of the best-selling Traditional Stainless Range. The set is made from rust resistant, mirror-polished stainless steel. The handles are made from durable, weatherproofed ash and carry the traditional burnt-in brand logo. A leather cord at the end of the handle may be used for carrying the tools and to hang them up when not in use. And they come with a 10-year guarantee: ■ Traditional Stainless Dutch Style Trowel with a heart-shaped head featuring a pointed tip for creating a planting hole or shallow furrow in the soil. For use when planting out seedlings, small plants or bulbs. (RRP £23.99) ■ Traditional Stainless 3 Prong Cultivator which is a 12in midi handle cultivator for breaking up topsoil without…

Tips from the Leith Hall gardening team 1. Protect our precious peatlands by using peat-free compost for sowing seeds and potting on seedlings. Scotland’s peat bogs are a crucial carbon sink and play a vital role in regulating our climate. 2. Try growing perennial vegetables, for example rhubarb, globe artichokes, asparagus, chicory and sea kale - they use less water and heat than annuals. 3. Mulching your vegetable beds suppresses weeds, locks in the moisture so you don’t need to water so often and provides essential nutrients for your plants. You could use compost or leafmould. 4. Choose heritage varieties and harvest your own seeds. Most vegetable seeds are straightforward to collect and this means you don’t have to buy more seeds next year. 5. Use companion planting to attract…

(AGM is the RHS Award of Garden Merit. Under RHS garden trials these varieties performed particularly well) Save over £14 ALSO IN THE KG SHOP THIS MONTH CUSTOMER FAVOURITES SEED POTATO COLLECTION Nothing beats the taste of freshly dug spuds, and it’s always good to grow a row or two. Pick from our top-selling varieties to provide yourself and your family with fresh potatoes over many months. All varieties have great disease resistance and are super performers in British gardens. You’ll receive a 1.5kg pack each of the following varieties: ■ ’CASABLANCA’ (Extra early): The perfect kitchen all-rounder with long, oval, white-fleshed tubers. Harvest from late May. ■ ’CHARLOTTE’ (Second early): This French-bred, highly popular potato is the salad variety of choice for many discerning chefs. The smooth-skinned tubers have…

UNDER COVER CLASS Agriframes’ exclusive new Premium Greenhouses are built to last, with a robust aluminium frame and attractive design that creates the perfect growing environment without compromising on style. They are available in Classic, Urban and Sloped styles and a range of size options, in a choice of UV-protective powder-coated colours. Built to the highest standard with professional corner profiles, 4mm safety glass and a closed tubularshaped ridge beam, they are backed by a 12-year structural guarantee. Prices: from £1942 www.agriframes.co.uk Tel: 0117 934 1790 SUBSCRIBER SAVING: 10% off all Agriframes greenhouses until January 31, 2024 GET SET - JUICE! The state-of-the-art Nama J2 Cold Press Juicer represents a step-change in juicer design, says supplier UK Juicers. It introduces handsfree batch juicing, allowing you to load the large hopper…

PLANT BARE ROOT TREES Plant bare root trees and fruit bushes if the weather allows. Dig a hole a little larger than the rootball, plant, fill with the soil, tamp down, and mulch with compost. MONITOR THE WEATHER Keep an eye on weather forecasts and harvest veg and herbs for the kitchen if snow or deep cold is forecast. It’s difficult harvesting parsnips if the ground is frozen! SOW ONIONS Module-sow onions for larger harvests this summer, and to save time in the spring. Sow five or six seeds for multi-sowing, or two for one big onion (thin out the weaker seedling). FORCE RHUBARB Force rhubarb for sweet pink early stems. Use a terracotta forcer, a large bucket or an old bin. ‘Dalek’ type composters with the lid on work…

OUR SERIES FOR YOUNG GROWERS Soil is an important part of all plant and animal life. We need soil to grow tasty vegetables for us, feed for animals and healthy plants for our environment. Let’s make edible soil! We will learn about the different layers hidden under the soil surface and make a yummy treat to eat afterwards. YOU WILL NEED: ■ Chocolate mousse or yogurt ■ Whole Oreos and crushed Oreo biscuits ■ Cheerio cereal. Alternatively, you could use chocolate and butterscotch chips mixed together ■ Shredded coconut mixed with green food colouring ■ Gummy worms ■ Clear glasses or recycled clear jelly pots ■ Spoons ■ Optional: Sticky Post-it notes or labels. You could also try using a washable pen. WHAT TO DO: 1. We start by making…

Send us your tips and pictures and if your letter is published you will get a £10 Dobies voucher. If you are lucky enough to have yours chosen as our Star Letter you will get a £25 voucher. You can choose to spend your winnings on a fabulous range of seeds, young plants and gardening sundries all available on the Dobies website or you can get hold of a copy of the latest catalogue now by phoning 0844 701 7625 or go online to www.dobies.co.uk You can reach us by letter, email or via our Facebook page. Search: @KitchenGardenMag or via our Instagram page: @growwithkg Email your letters to tflanagan@mortons.co.uk or post to Letters, Kitchen Garden, Mortons Media Group, Media Centre, Morton Way, Horncastle, Lines LN9 6JR…

These are a tasty, savoury treat that can be enjoyed on their own, with some pickie or with a cheese board. You can vary the flavours by changing or mixing the herbs you use. Makes about 20. Takes about half an hour plus about an hour chilling time ■ Few sprigs fresh rosemary ■ Few sprigs fresh thyme ■ 200g (7oz) plain flour ■ 130g (4½oz) butter, room temperature ■ 100g (3½oz) parmesan, finely grated ■ 1/4 tsp salt ■ 1/4 tsp ground pepper ■ 1 egg, separated ■ Extra herbs for decoration (rosemary, sage, thyme) 1. Chop the rosemary and thyme finely to measure about a tablespoon of each and put into a bowl along with the salt and pepper, parmesan, flour and butter. 2. Rub together until the…

CHILLIES GET GROWING NEW SERIES This month, I’m looking at the fascinating world of chilli peppers. So, for those of you who have a set of trusty grow lights and a heated propagator tucked away, it’s time to dust them off and start thinking about sowing these fiery (or not-so-fiery) chillies. Growing chillies is an immensely rewarding pursuit. They don’t demand much space but usually yield an abundance of fruit, enough to satisfy even the most dedicated ‘chilli-head’ throughout the year. Getting started with your chilli seeds this month requires a bit of time and effort, along with a heated propagator and a grow light, which are pretty affordable nowadays. However, if you lack these tools, it’s often more dependable to start your seed-sowing in March when daylight becomes stronger, and…

There you stand, on the edge of greatness, trowel in hand and a heart full of hope. Hope of brimming beds, dazzling flowers, giant vegetables and baskets of fruit. But in the meantime you have the small problem of actually getting started. Like putting pen to paper in a new notebook, it’s intimidating. So, let’s break it down into easy-to-follow chunks to get your allotment going in no time. When you start a new allotment, before you even get the key and start planning and clearing, you set your mind on what you would like to achieve. What often happens is that the local wildlife has other ideas. All the slugs, woodlice, snails, mice, rabbits, squirrels and aphids arrive en masse, and you are left wondering what went wrong. The…

GET GROWING MEET THE BLOGGER How long have you been growing your own fruit and veg? I’ve been growing my own fruit and vegetables for a whole decade now. In May 2013, my partner Mark suggested we apply for an allotment, and I initially responded with an eye roll, wondering why we needed one. However, I’m so grateful that he convinced me to check out the plot. We were offered the allotment just two weeks after being on the waiting list, and from that moment on we signed the lease and never looked back. Do you grow on an allotment or in the garden, or both? I exclusively grow everything on my allotment since I don’t have a garden. This limitation has actually fuelled my passion for experimenting and cultivating food,…

No kitchen garden is complete without onions and here at D T Brown we offer some of the very best available. They are a great choice for both experienced and new vegetable gardeners. This specially selected collection contains some of our best-selling spring planting varieties, picked for their flavour and performance in British gardens. The collection contains three packs, each weighing around 250g ’Hercules’, a superb modern variety, ’Centurion’, ensuring heavy yields that store well and ‘Sturon’, a reliable and consistent performer. All are certified as disease and virus free. Take advantage of this collection now to ensure a tasty supply this summer. *You can claim this collection FREE when ordering at least one additional product off the page. WORTH £10.85…

GET COOKING SAVOY CABBAGE AND POTATO CURRY Cabbage and potatoes go very well together, with almost any flavour combinations. Here they are paired in a delicious Indian dry curry, perfect for winter. SERVES 4 Preparation time: 15 minutes Cooking time: 35 minutes ■ 1 tsp coriander seeds ■ 2 tsp cumin seeds ■ 3 tbsp coconut oil ■ 10 curry leaves ■ 1 tbsp black mustard seeds ■ 1 large onion, sliced ■ ½ chilli, sliced ■ 600g (1 ⅓lb) potatoes, peeled and diced ■ 1 large Savoy cabbage, shredded ■ 1 tsp turmeric 1. Lightly grind the coriander and cumin seeds with a pestle and mortar. Set aside. 2. Put the oil into a large lidded frying pan over a medium heat and add the curry leaves, mustard seeds…

WHAT’S A DANDELION, MISS? A new report, Sowing the seeds: A blooming English horticultural sector, published by the cross-party House of Lords Horticultural Sector Committee, says that the £5 billion industry is “too frequently overlooked by policymakers”. The lack of horticulture in education is of particular concern. Giving evidence to the committee Dr Chris Thorogood, deputy director of Oxford Botanic Gardens and Arboretum, said: “There is little or no horticulture in many children’s education… a survey completed in 2019 of 1000 children between the ages of five and 16 showed that 82% could not identify an oak tree, 50% could not identify a bluebell and 42% did not recognise a dandelion.” The report goes on to say that “secondary schools also fail to give horticultural skills and careers due attention”…

Get in touch by post, email or via our Facebook page: Facebook.com/kitchenhardenmag STRANGE GROWTH ON TOMS Having returned from a short holiday last year I was surprised to find an unusual growth on my ‘Nagina F1’ plum type tomatoes. *STAR* QUESTION WINS £25 VOUCHER John Davies, Haverfordwest STEVE SAYS: No need to worry - your tomato stems simply have roots growing from them. These are called adventitious roots and are natural in many plants, including tomatoes. In nature tomatoes are scrambling plants that often root along the ground as they grow, sending out new roots from the stems. These potential roots usually stay dormant unless triggered, sometimes naturally when the stem touches the soil or by stress - for example, if the stem or main roots become damaged, perhaps by…

GET GROWING KG PLOTTER OF THE MONTH We had a great response to our annual competition, and we had a difficult job choosing our 12 but the following are our lucky winners and they will be featured in the coming months as our Plotter of the Month. Our first winner featured this month is Francesca Chadwick from Harrogate, North Yorkshire. Like many people, Francesca really found her love for growing her own food during the pandemic and has quickly settled into a cycle of self-sufficiency. Do you have an allotment or a veg patch in your garden? A veg patch in the garden since 2020 and an allotment since April 2023. How long have you been growing veg and why did you start? Roughly four or five years. It was just…

GET GROWING POTATOES WHY DO YOU CHIT POTATOES FIRST? This is contentious as some say it isn’t necessary and that is true. You will still get a potato crop if you don’t chit them first but chitting them means earlier harvests. Traditionally you buy seed potatoes in February and you place them in a light, frost-free, dry place. This encourages short stocky shoots (chits) to grow. Between buying the tubers and planting in March/April you are forcing the growth of the tuber in a safe protected space and in theory potentially bringing forward a harvest date by starting them into growth early. WHEN DO YOU START PLANTING? It really depends where you live in the country but a general rule of thumb is late March for people in the south up…

CLIMATE CHANGE GET GROWING RESILIENCE BEGINS FROM WITHIN It’s really important to be kind to yourself as much as you can, to create space to enable your inner climate change resilient gardener to prosper and grow. There is no definitive list of static solutions. The challenges we face will vary depending on where we live, our soil type and what we like to grow. Therefore the ability to think on your feet about what needs to be done around our changing climate will be important in the future. Running around with exacting, long ‘to do’ lists doesn’t enable the calm state of emotional regulation that you need for creative thinking. Quite the opposite in fact. So know that time to sit and stare, to think, to tune into your plot and…

DARLAC MINI SNIPS WITH RUBBER GRIPS These Darlac Mini Snips have stainless steel blades for rust resistance and ergonomic handles with rubber grips. They also have a single-handed locking mechanism which can be operated with either the left or right hand. Length of tool: 15cm (6in). GARDENING NATURALLY www.gardeninq-naturally.com TEL: 01285 760505 PRODUCT CODE: MS002 PRICE: £9.99 KG VERDICT An excellent pair of snips, comfortable in the hand. The blades are suitably sharp and there is a very responsive spring mechanism without being too taut. This makes deadheading very easy but they can also be used for cutting herbs, harvesting veg on the vine and light pruning. Very good value for money. Kitchen Garden magazine BEST BUY 2024 CLASSIC POCKET KNIFE This general-purpose knife has a straight, high carbon steel…