Search - Articles

others thrown in for good measure. I'm thrilled with the results. The bulbs are massive, swollen during the early hot weather we had this year.This must be the first year that I've harvested a crop of garlic with no traces of rust: not a pustule in sight

We've been harvesting potatoes. After the dreaded potato blight hit the rows of potatoes I was quick to employ my son to cut off and rake up all the haulms.Although we couldn't lift the tubers immediately and we had a lot of rain, when we did lift

and our resident vole have also had their fair share. The vole does test my patience, as it harvests more than it actually eats and makes a series of ‘larders’ – small mounds of neatly cut fruit! I’m too soft to do anything about it, though, and I’m quite

The sun is shining, I can't believe it, and I'm pretty sure my plants can't believe it either! The warmer soil and increased light intensity have made a massive difference to my garden. Only now, towards the end of September has my vegetable plot suddenly sprung into life. The mi...

You can tell it is autumn, the grass is yellow. I've just come back from a pear-harvesting foray, and as I stomped through the scruffy grass in the field I looked ahead and saw numerous patches of miserable, yellow grass.I assumed the yellowing

We've had a mixed garlic harvest so far this year - the bulbs I planted in spring did nothing and were a total waste of time. They were probably the worst I've ever grown (or, dare I admit it, the worst I've ever seen).However, the bulbs I planted

Potato blight, Phytophthora infestans, determines the quality and quantity of our potato harvest. We grow our own spuds every year, but harvest them in varying quantities, depending on whether or not they've been affected.The fungal infection

's not essential. By getting the tubers into the ground a little earlier you should be able to enjoy a delicious crop of first-earlies a few weeks before other crops are ready to harvest. Choose a sunny spot in your garden and warm the soil for a few days

, and planted the asparagus crowns. It's also advised to avoid harvesting asparagus for three years after planting, as this is the time the plants are getting established. Each year I’ve had to watch those succulent looking spears appear and resist

brilliant year for sloes, many of them the size of damsons and looking seriously juicy. I'm about to go out and start the harvest, sure to come back with arms ripped to shreds by those mega-thorns, as no doubt I'll forget to take the gauntlet gloves. I have