Search - Articles

Dig over veg plots, mixing compost into the soil as you goContinue filling a trench with kitchen waste where you want to grow beansCover rhubarb with forcing jars for an early harvestUse cloches to warm the soil for early sowingsPlant new fruit

Prune out the oldest stems from blackcurrants to encourage new shootsCheck crops that are in store and discard any showing signs of rotFork compost into the soil and clear old crops from the veg plotCover fruit trees and bushes with netting

artichokes as a windbreak on exposed plotsSprinkle sulphate of potash fertiliser around fruitSow seeds of broad beans, carrots, hardy peas and parsnips outside in soil that's been warmed with cloches

Use twigs pushed into the ground to support tall-growing peas, or use short canes and stringFeed strawberries with a high potash feed, such as tomato fertiliserSow flowering companions in your veg plot, such as tagetes and poached egg plants

I love the first harvest of the new season - it's so welcome after the long dark winter. For a while now, I've been harvesting winter veg, such as leeks, kale and cabbage. These stalwarts of the plot have meant we've had fresh veg for soups

- and nothing could be fresher.Cut out any plain green shoots on variegated shrubs and treesTreat moss and weeds in lawns with weed killerHoe bare areas of soil to prevent weedsAround the gardenPlant gladioli in groups to depth of 10-15cmComplete outside sowings

FlowersDig over veg plots, mixing compost into the soilContinue filling a trench with kitchen waste Cover rhubarb with forcing jars for an early harvestFruit & vegTop up fuel tank of paraffin heater every eveningBring potted hyacinths and bulbs under cover

of my veg plot's cropping life for a good few weeks more, I must get some more!

dad puddle in leeks on the veg plot. I loved it, and am still enchanted by the smell of bonfires on summer evenings and swollen, ripe gooseberries, just as I was when I was roughly the same height as the plants.I also had a strong affinity

Yesterday at a Gardeners' Question Time recording it was amazing to hear that Eric's Cumbrian plot had only had 5cm of snow. Not so here in Hampshire. The snow is 45-60cm deep and the icicles more than 1m long!What have I been up to during the snowy