Innehållsförteckning för March 2024 från Kitchen Garden

WISE WORDS “Gardening is the work of a lifetime: you never finish.” (Oscar de la Renta, Dominican fashion designer). “Have you viewed us on YouTube yet?” BIRDS, SPUDS AND BUGS Steve has an area at the bottom of the garden for wildlife and when he found a couple of rose stakes and some plant saucers during a pre-season shed declutter, decided to make a couple of simple bird tables. A pint milk container fixed to the middle of the saucer with the same screw that fixes saucer to pole and with a feeding hole cut in the side makes a great seed dispenser and helps to keep the seed dry. Tony has been gifted a little bug hotel and he's been calling out to all the insects in the neighbourhood…

CASH CROPS GET GROWING Food prices remain inflated, with prices of staples – including fruits and vegetables – rocketing over the past few years. So what's to be done? The solution, of course, lies in our own muddy hands, as Benedict Vanheems explains Are you feeling the pinch? I know I am. And it's all courtesy of the steepest cost-of-living rise since the 1970s. At the time of writing, you'd have to pay £119 for goods that would have cost £100 just two years ago. That's quite some rise, but it isn't the full picture. Core inflation of essentials like food has risen even more precipitously, with the same supermarket basket shooting up more like 30% over the same period. Of course, you know all this already! So, what can be…

Permaculture is a design approach inspired by patterns and observations in nature to help us create resilient and productive gardens, farms and communities. The goal is to work with nature rather than against it, and permaculture would be the most accurate description of how I approach growing my own food. One of the most important happenings in the gardening world of recent years has been the rise of no-dig gardening. The idea of gardening without digging has been around since at least the 1940s; gardeners and authors Albert Guest and Frederic Charles King both released no-dig books in this decade – a brave move surrounding the significant cultural popularity of the Dig for Victory campaign during the Second World War. No-dig has a very important goal: to cause as little…

MEET THE BLOGGER GET GROWING How long have you been growing your own fruit and veg? Aside from planting one potato with my nan as an experiment when I was little, and occasionally picking from my mum's rhubarb plant, I wasn't really into gardening and growing my own veg until I moved out of a flat into a house with a postage stamp of a garden – it was a new build so the garden was basically rubble if you scratched the surface, but I put in a couple of raised beds and thought I would see what veg I could grow. Like with most things, once I'm interested, I go all in, so after that I got the bug and I put my name on the allotment list. A few…

ELEGANCE IN ACTION New to Agriframes' Elegance range, the Quadrant Tiered Plant Stand is a pleasing and practical way to display your potted plants, indoors or out. Available in rustic, sage green or matt black, it is crafted from solid steel, with a tough UV-stabilised coating on the coloured finishes, and stands 76cm (30in) high. The rustic finish arrives pre-aged to give an authentic rust effect that blends beautifully into your garden. Price: £105 plus £10.95 p&p www.agriframes.co.uk Tel: 0117 934 1790 SUBSCRIBER SAVING: 10% off all Agriframes orders until April 30, 2024 FRUIT FOR 2024 Pomona Fruits' spring catalogue is out, with enticing new varieties including Japanese plum 'Beauty', which produces huge crops of sugar-sweet and very juicy purple-red fruits that hang on the branches like cherries. 'Yuzu' lemons, which…

PLOTTER OF THE MONTH GET GROWING Dave has been growing veg in his garden and on an allotment for 15 years and enjoys the health benefits and just eating fresh veg. Do you share your plot with others? No, I used to have my boys help me but they've grown out of it (for the time being). What do you find most challenging about growing your own veg? Every year seems to be different, I'm always learning and there is always something that doesn't go quite right. After a few years of failure due to allium leaf miner and white rot, I had to change my methods of growing onions. I now sow 'Santero' (white rot resistant) seeds at the end of February and plant out at the end of April.…

Early peas are hardy varieties that can be sown in the autumn for May/June harvest or from early spring onwards and then in succession for a spread of harvests (in some cases) to October. All are great frozen as well as fresh and all those mentioned here need very little support other than a few twiggy pea sticks or similar. ■ 'KELVEDON WONDER' (AGM*) This first early pea has been around for a very long time and is popular for its reliable performance, compact habit and heavy crops. Good for smaller plots and containers. Resistant to mildew. D T Brown, Kings, T&M, MoreVeg ■ 'AVOLA' Plenty of pods with up to eight plump peas. Great for freezing, this compact grower will crop from June to August from March to May…

5 PAGES OF CROPS FOR A CHANGING CLIMATE Oca or Oxalis tuberosa is a small, elongated tuber that comes in a range of bright colours and which originated in the Andean Highlands. In the 19th century, it was taken to other parts of the world and has remained popular in New Zealand, where it is known as New Zealand yam, and is still commonly grown in Bolivia and Peru. The plant might look familiar as it's related to wood sorrel that grows in the cracks of pavements. Although it's eaten like a potato, the key advantage of oca is that it is not related to the potato so will not suffer from any of the same diseases, including potato blight. And there are also many other differences in the way…

CREATURE FEATURE Aphids are so common in the garden, and so annoying to the gardener, that it's easy to think of them as simple creatures: walking plankton who appear from nowhere to chow down on your favourite plants (and aphids will attach themselves to almost anything). But nothing in nature is as it seems. The UK is home to more than 500 species of aphid, many of whom are specialists, focusing on a single, pair, or select group of species. Some of the most commonly encountered aphids are migratory; overwintering as eggs on a tree or woody shrub, emerging in time to feast on the fresh young growth in spring, before moving on to a herbaceous plant in summer. These aphids are usually named for the species they predate: the…

This month, your humble fruit correspondent will, technically speaking, be treading on the toes of some of the many other experts that write for KG and talk about a vegetable for a change. Don't worry, I wouldn't dare tell you how to grow the perfect parsnip or give you my tips for a mammoth pumpkin – instead we're in the blurred no man's land between fruit and vegetables, where you can find tomatoes (a fruit, but treated as a vegetable) and today's topic, rhubarb (a vegetable that is treated as a fruit). First, we'll go over the essentials for growing, focusing on flavour. Then we'll look in depth at forcing techniques to get the sweetest stems and finally the best varieties to choose to suit your needs. A rhubarb crown…

JOBS FOR THE MONTH GROW CARROTS IN A CONTAINER For an extra-early crop of tasty fresh carrots, sow some in containers. Deep pots are fine for all varieties, whereas choose roundrooted carrots for shallower containers. Fill the container with multipurpose compost and sprinkle the carrot seed across the surface. Cover with a little more compost and water thoroughly. In March grow carrots in a conservatory, greenhouse or polytunnel − later sowings are fine outside. Or cover with fleece to help keep the germinating seeds warm. Once germinated, thin out, leaving the rest to grow on. Wash the thinnings and add to a salad or make into pesto. Once the carrots have been harvested, use the compost to mulch beds or earth up main crop potatoes. SOW CELERIAC Celeriac benefits from…

A NEW KITCHEN GARDEN GET GROWING Being able to harvest our own fruit and vegetables fresh from the garden is something that gives me great enjoyment and Jill loves to cook with the fresh produce. It was being in my grandma's veg plot as a young boy that sparked my interest in gardening and it's probably what led to a career in horticulture when I left school. For all my adult life I've grown fruit and veg and every year I still get a buzz when I pull the first baby carrots, pick ripe berries or cut a crispy cabbage! The hunter gatherer in me relishes putting food on the table but it's also the enjoyment I get from being out in the garden with my hands in the soil and…

It's happening; the peat-free train has left the station, and most of us are on board. But I still read comments online about stockpiling peat for personal use and ridiculing peat-free composts. This makes me sad, and I think it's high time we talked more about why peat is being banned rather than what we're going to do about it. For centuries, we have blissfully drained the planet's resources without a second thought. The idea of a resource truly running out or humanity causing irreversible damage to the planet seemed to be just beyond the scope of our consciousness. But in recent decades, we have begun to wake up to the very real fact that we have taken too much. Change is under way to try and reverse the damage…

GET GROWING Growing conditions are becoming more unpredictable. Thanks to changes in our climate, during one horticultural cycle you may have to contend with extremes of drought, heavy rainfall and hard frosts, leaving you scratching your head deciding what's best to grow. You may even be thinking that some of our more traditional garden plants aren't quite the stalwarts they once were. So we've compiled a few suggested alternatives. We're not proposing that you should replace all your usual plants with these, but rather, try them out alongside what you normally grow and see how they perform. That way, you will increase your diversity and spread the risk. SUMMAR CHARD FOR AMARANTH There's no doubt that chard has been a very dependable crop that provides abundant leaves over a long…

MOON PHASE GARDENING GET GROWING Fruit and vegetable gardening is my passion. Whether on my allotment or at home among my raised beds, I am in my happy place. I love planting and growing, having my hands in the soil, and seeing and eating the results. I always want to feel that I garden in harmony and balance with nature. This is how I first came to moon phase gardening. I am already an organic and no-dig grower, but I'm always keen to improve my knowledge and try different approaches. So when I came across an article talking about the benefits of planting and harvesting crops by the lunar cycle, I found it absolutely fascinating. The basic principle is that the cycle of the moon and its gravitational pull influences the…

SUPER 7 ELECTRIC PROPAGATOR This Garland Super 7 propagator (13 watt) will provide gentle heat to facilitate germination. It comes with seven mini propagating trays and vented lids so you can sow a range of different seeds on the same heated base to allow great flexibility in both variety and number of individual seedlings grown. DOBIES www.dobies.co.uk TEL: 0333 240 5933 PRODUCT CODE: 13134 PRICE GUIDE: £49.99 * Prices correct at time of publication KG VERDICT This heated propagator will fit perfectly on to most windowsills. Use it with heating on or without, depending on the indoor temperature of the room. With seven propagating trays you can sow a variety of seeds at the same time, so very versatile. The lid will keep the heat in to facilitate germination, though…

Over the last year, wild gardening has certainly captured the imaginations (and horror) of many. But is it really all for weeds, and weeds for all? Cheap, resilient and low impact, wild gardening is accessible to those with limited resources of time, money and mobility. Frequently built over poor ground, social housing estates are prime sites for a wild approach, offering an opportunity to increase biodiversity and contribute to socio-economic benefit. With nature and gardening listed as positive for mental health, this seems like a win. Yet, the opportunity to grow wild is often only open to those who own their homes and gardens. In a country where over half of the land is owned by less than 1% of the population, this makes growing wild a radical (and risky)…