Innehållsförteckning för April 2025 från Kitchen Garden

WISE WORDS “Aside from the garden of Eden, man's great temptation took place when he first received his seed catalogue” (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 19th century American poet) “Have you viewed us on YouTube yet?” ONIONS, LETTUCE AND PHACELIA Steve has been busy planting the red onions he has overwintered in cell trays since planting in October. They have formed very nice roots which will hopefully give them a head start and they should romp away now they are in the newly-enriched soil to which Steve has added a little controlled-release fertiliser. Tony has been digging in his green manure plants that he sowed last August in some of his veg beds, including this one which was sown with phacelia. The plants survived the winter and have kept weeds at bay.…

The gardens are situated in a wonderful walled setting. How long has Bridewell been operating as a mental health recovery charity and how long has it been based at this lovely site? Bridewell has been operating from the walled garden site since 1994 as a mental health recovery service – the service has been running for more than 30 years. It officially became a charity in 1998. How many gardeners and volunteers can you accommodate at any one time? On any day we will have up to 16 gardeners supported by four volunteers and two members of staff. How do you feel the garden environment and the act of gardening helps those attending? The recovery approach we use is social and therapeutic horticulture in our six-acre site – a walled…

I often hear soil referred to as ‘dirt’. To me, this really is a dirty word as it denegrates the gardener's most precious asset. Get your soil right and everything else follows, allowing your garden to flourish. So what do we mean by a healthy soil? Ultimately, we're looking at healthy levels of organic matter so that it supports a thriving population of soil life. Too often we forget it's the biology in the soil that's responsible for looking after its physical properties and nutrient balance. Without this biology we're in a very lonely place and have to work 10 times harder to ensure that our plants are fed and watered. THE IMPORTANCE OF ORGANIC MATTER Organic matter is anything that was once living, such as decaying leaf matter, compost…

Potatoes are classified into types depending on time they take to mature. This means you have first earlies and second earlies, which are traditionally grown and harvested while relatively small and have that amazing new potato taste. Maincrops, which we are concentrating on here, tend to be higher yielding and produce larger tubers that are versatile in the kitchen and are great for baked potatoes, chips or for roasting. They are harvested later in the summer into autumn and are often grown to be stored for use over winter. If stored correctly they stay good for many months, right up until spring. One downside to growing maincrop potatoes is late blight disease which can affect the foliage and the tubers, usually from mid-summer onwards. The first and second early varieties…

Thyme is the quintessential Mediterranean herb. A true sun-lover, it will thrive in any hot, dry suntrap in the garden and is just perfect for growing in containers. Its diminutive size means it can be grown in the smallest of gardens or even on a balcony. Bees and other pollinators just love its delicate, nectar-rich blooms, and pots placed around your cabbages are said to deter cabbage root fly. Gravel gardens or slopes are its favourite as here it will get the sharp drainage it loves, but if your soil is heavy and tends to sit wet in the winter you can grow it in a container filled with gritty compost or plant in a raised bed. HOW TO PROPAGATE Cuttings offer a quick way to produce new plants. Simply…

COURGETTES This is such a great value crop. If you can get just one or two plants growing well they will reward you with a lot of courgette fruits for many weeks. Resist the urge to plant too many as you will take up a lot of space and end up with a glut. This is great if you have a big family or lots of neighbours you can feed! Look out for different ones, not just the long green varieties. You can also get stripey green, round green and round yellow ones (eg ‘Summer Sun’ pictured). These more unusual shapes do have a slightly different taste and texture, so see which you prefer. Round fruits are great for stuffing. GROWING TIPS Sow individual seeds in small 9cm (3½in) pots…

FIRST STEPS TO SUCCESS Asparagus is a perennial crop, so you need to devote an area of ground to it long term. With the right conditions you could be harvesting spears from that area for 12 years or more. The best way to start is to buy asparagus crowns. It can take a couple of years to establish these before you can harvest but at least they are quicker to come into production than seed raised asparagus. With seed raised plants it could take four years or more before you start to get a crop. Crowns will give you a head start. START TO PLANT Plant in spring, so sometime during March or April and prepare the ground well before planting. The crop will be in the ground a long…

Living up in Yorkshire, this month's topic – rhubarb – holds a special place in my heart. It's a mainstay of almost every allotment, requiring little in the way of care and attention, and producing great crops for the kitchen at a time of year when everything else in the garden is still just waking up from winter slumber. In the early 1900s an area between Leeds, Bradford and Wakefield of just nine square miles came to be known as the ‘Rhubarb Triangle’ – at one stage producing over 90% of the world's forced rhubarb. There was even a special express train which was specifically run by the Great Northern Railway Company to take the produce down to market at Covent Garden in London. The name ‘rhubarb’ is thought to…

(AGM is the RHS Award of Garden Merit. Under RHS garden trials these varieties performed particularly well) SAVE UP TO £14! SAVE ON KINGS SEEDS! 20% OFF ALL TOMATO & CAULIFLOWER SEEDS Kings Seeds are offering KG readers the exclusive chance to save 20% on all tomato and caulifower seeds from their extensive range. To take advantage of this great offer simply visit www.kingsseeds.com and enter code KGAPR25 at the checkout. Offer ends April 30, 2025 TRY THESE FOR 20% LESS! Kings recommend: Why not use your 20% discount to try these great varieties. TO ORDER ONLINE VISIT: WWW.KINGSSEEDS.COM/KITCHEN-GARDEN ALSO IN THE KG SHOP THIS MONTH 10 X STRAWBERRY ‘CHRISTINE’ PLANT Bred in the UK by Dr Derek Jennings, ‘Christine’ is named after his daughter. The variety has a remarkable…

UNDER-COVER CLASS → British company Zest has been designing and manufacturing its wooden garden products for over 35 years, with an expanding range of grow-your-own products and garden furniture, all made from pressure-treated slow-grown FSC softwood. Its best-selling Sleeper Cold Frame, which has two hinged lids and tough acrylic glazing, gives you a generous 170cm by 60cm (5ft 7in by 2ft) of growing space. Price: £272.99 www.zestoutdoorliving.co.uk Tel: 01352 873555 PREMIUM PROTECTION ↓ GardenSkill's heavy-duty aluminium walk-in fruit cages are made from 25mm (1in) powdercoated box-section tubing with push-fit reinforced joints. Available in a range of width/ length combinations and standing 2m (6ft 6in) high, they are able to withstand the toughest conditions. There are options with or without a door and all are fully extendable in 2m (6ft 6in)…

START CUCURBITS It's time to sow warmth-loving courgettes and summer and winter squash under cover, ready for planting out in May. These cucurbits are not frost hardy and should be planted outside after the last frosts, so check the date for your area – here in Wales it is mid-May. Fill large sized modules or small pots with peat-free compost. Sow one seed per module or pot, cover with compost and water. Place in a warm sunny spot, such as a greenhouse or windowsill, to germinate. Keep a watch out for slugs, which love to eat young squash plants. If using modules pot on when the roots start appearing from the bottom of the module. Keep in a frost-free place. When it is time to plant out either harden off…

RHS MALVERN SPRING FESTIVAL The four-day RHS Malvern Spring Festival returns to the Three Counties Showground, Malvern, from May 8-11, 2025. This year's Festival Theatre will once again host a packed programme of talks, interactive demonstrations and advice from horticulturalists, TV gardening personalities and leading chefs, including Alan Titchmarsh, Raymond Blanc and Rachel de Thame. Husband and wife team Martin and Jill Fish will host The Potting Shed Theatre, bringing to the stage more than 45 years of experience working in horticulture and experimenting in the kitchen with homegrown ingredients. Martin and Jill will welcome guests including garden designer, grower and winner of numerous RHS gold medals Jon Wheatley; head of horticulture at Garden Organic and former head gardener of Westminster Abbey Chris Collins; and leading UK floral designer Jonathan…

LOVE FOR PLANTS UMAR YOUSEF FROM SWANSEA Umar has been interested in growing from a young age with his mother encouraging him to experience nature and understand where his food comes from. This has now inspired him to take up a career in horticulture Do you have an allotment or veg plot in your garden (and approximate size)? I tend to my mother's allotment and it's a half plot. When we got the plot the soil was really bad. I made my own compost from chicken manure, cuttings and horse manure. It took three years to regenerate the soil on our plot. How long have you been growing veg? Since I was a toddler. Plants have always been my passion. I got an apprenticeship with specialist parks Swansea when I…

Totally terrifically tomatoes – you can't beat them, especially when you've grown them yourself! Who doesn't love bringing a freshly picked fruit to the nose to inhale that glorious tomatoey aroma? It's magic I tell you, pure magic! Every year I aim to grow at least three types of tomato: a cherry type for salads (though more often, snaffling straight from the vine), a plum tomato for sauces, and a big-and-ballsy beefsteak to stuff, chop or pair with mozzarella and basil for a handsome plate. For me, the best bit about growing your own tomatoes is that the fruits are ripened on the vine to pick at their absolute prime. This means flavour, texture and that winning aroma are at their peak. You just don't get that with supermarket fruits.…

Cold frames are essentially mini greenhouse boxes with lids and are extremely useful in the veg patch. They are a cost-effective way to extend your veg season without having to invest in a greenhouse. In early spring they allow you to start crops earlier, and in the summer you can use them to grow low-lying, heat-loving plants like melons and sweet potatoes. In the autumn they can be filled with winter salad, which will grow through the cold months with the benefit of a bit of protection. During the day cold frames are often much warmer inside than the outside air, and they also protect young seedlings from cold, drying winds. This means that plants grown in a cold frame will have much larger, softer, lusher leaves compared to those…

Kitchen Garden magazine BEST BUY 2025 PRO GRO NET TUNNEL CLOCHE This Pro Gro Net Tunnel features flexible carbon fibre rods to maintain shape and tension, with ballast pockets and guy ropes for wind stability. It has a large zipped door for ease of access which can also be opened and closed to help regulate heat, humidity and airflow. It will protect crops from birds, rodents and cabbage white butterflies. GARDENSKILL www.gardenskill.com TEL: 01902 725055 PRODUCT CODE: N/A PRICE: £50.98 * Prices correct at time of publication KG VERDICT This is an excellent netted tunnel. The flexible carbon rods need to be slotted together and then threaded through the stitched pockets to form each hoop. It can then be stood up, stabilised with the guy ropes and securely positioned with…

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