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of thinning the seedlings releases the carrot's scent. Plant strong-smelling crops, such as garlic, onions, shallots and leeks adjacent to the carrots. Follow a strict crop rotation plan, avoiding growing carrots on the same site in consecutive years

Like it or lump it, there isn't that wide a range of vegetables you can enjoy fresh from the garden at this time of year. So how about some oriental veg? Yes, I'm still enjoying parsnips, leeks, onions, garlic and radish. No spuds though, as those

things that don't need regular picking. So this year I'm saying 'no' to courgettes and 'yes' to butternut squashes.I'm planning a couple of beds of onions which always seem to do rather well on my plot, as well as a small bed of shallots. I've had great

I love this weather, it's just the right mix of fresh, dewy mornings and cracking sunny afternoons. The plants seem to enjoy it too, as long as they get watered regularly.On the plot, everything is coming along nicely - the onions and shallots have

of home-grown garlic, 'Red Baron' onion and a dash of pesto, all grilled on a piece of ciabatta.So here we are in early December, munching on one of the more exotic vegetable crops. I'm really pleased the peppers are still there, particularly as

bouts of windy weather, they haven't required any support (larger varieties do sometimes need some help, though) and they've needed very little feeding. I just couldn't imagine being without ornamental alliums. And their close relatives garlic, onion

foliage, stunted growth and sometimes they tunnel into the stems. (They can also tunnel into onions bulbs.) A disaster for leek lovers such as myself.This year, in an attempt to outwit the moth, I planted my leeks in a more out-of-the-way spot than usual

It hasn’t been a vintage year in my garden. The growing season started off well with the warm spring – good for garlic and onions - but the weather deteriorated soon after that. So, I’m actually quite relieved now that autumn is here. I can forget

dashing around watering my newly planted garlic and onion sets, opening cloches and rolling back the vent covers on my new brassica frame.I recently planted overwintering brassicas, so I rigged up some temporary shading for them, using old netting from

Prune out old stems of elder (Sambucus)Cut back last year's buddleia stems to ground levelHard prune trees that respond to pollardingFlowersPlant onion sets in modular trays of compostRepair netting on fruit cagesContinue forcing sea kale and chicory