Vegetable Gardens and Vegetable Growing

Every year I run Compost Trials to discover the best quality peat-free composts on the market. Dalefoot Composts have produced the top performing composts in all of my Trials, over the past seven years. One of my favourite products is Dalefoot’s Double Strength Wool Compost,…

Contents1 Vegepod Raised Garden Beds1.1 Vegepod overview1.2 Vegepod height2 Vegepod Features2.1 Vegepod Cover2.2 Vegepod Watering System3 Building the Vegepod3.1 Planting up the Vegepod3.2 Compost4 Tips and advice for gardening in a Vegepod4.1 Choosing a site for your Vegepod4.2 Compost for your Vegepod4.3 Choosing Seeds to…

Compost Trial: Growing Broad Beans - Pumpkin Beth

Contents1 The Quadgrow Self Watering Planter1.1 How to assemble the Quadgrow Self Watering Planter:1.2 What compost can you use with the Quadgrow Self Watering Planter?1.3 How do you fill up the Quadgrow’s reservoir?1.4 Growing tomatoes in the Quadgrow1.5 Supporting tomato plants growing in the Quadgrow…

Chilli pepper seeds are usually sown from February to the end of April. However, these vegetables command a long growing season, requiring sufficient time for the plants to mature and their fruit to develop and ripen. Accordingly, I find that chilli peppers are best started…

The Tomatoes in my Quadgrow are still growing! This year, I’ve been running more Trials with Tomatoes; I’ll share all the results from my Tomato Trials with you in due course, but today I wanted to show you my Quadgrow Self Watering Planter. Most of…

Grow your own figs and grapes Holidaymakers buying plants or collecting plant material as holiday souvenirs often bring home more than they bargained for and unwittingly transport pests, diseases, or invasive species into the UK; causing lasting, and sometimes irreversible, problems for themselves and UK horticulture as a whole. Instead, make your holiday excitement last all summer, every year, with UK grown plants that will flourish inside your conservatory or glasshouse, at your garden or…

2020 Compost Trial: Growing Broad Beans - Pumpkin Beth

Growing tomatoes is so much fun! Tomato plants will grow happily in a sunny border or in large containers of peat-free compost. There are two types of tomatoes – cordon and bush tomatoes. Cordon (also known as indeterminate) tomatoes can form tall plants, reaching 2m or more! Don’t worry – you can ‘stop’ your plants from growing any taller by simply pinching out the tip of your plant’s stem, when your plants have reached your desired height. Once you’ve ‘stopped’ your plants from growing any…

I feel a strong and passionate desire to protect our planet’s peat bogs. This is an urgent matter, it’s not something we can keep putting off to consider again in the future, at a more convenient time – for the peat that is being extracted…

Contents1 What am I growing inside my Vegepod?1.1 Moving the Vegepod1.2 What compost am I using inside my Vegepod?1.3 Using a Vegepod in full shade1.4 What can you grow inside a Vegepod in shade?1.5 Watering the Vegepod1.6 Using a Vegepod to avoid pests1.7 Growing my…

Contents1 Garden Twine Trial2 Garden Twines Trialled2.1 Blacker Yarns Garden & Gift Twine2.2 Henry Winning Nature Twine2.3 Nutscene Classic Jute Fillis 3-ply Twine2.4 Nutscene Greentwist Garden Twine2.5 Nutscene Heritage 5-ply Twine2.6 Nutscene Natural 5-ply Jute Twine2.7 Nutscene Tin O’ Twine2.8 Twool Chelsheepensioner Red Limited Edition…

Contents1 Growing Garlic, Wild Garlic, and Elephant Garlic1.1 Garlic Growing Conditions1.2 Best Soils for Garlic Growing1.3 Hardneck Garlic Varieties1.4 Softneck Garlic Varieties1.5 Buying Garlic Cloves to Grow in your Garden or Allotment1.6 Great Tasting and Top Performing Garlic Varieties1.7 Planting Garlic1.8 Elephant Garlic1.9 Growing Wild…

Tomato Trial I love growing fruit, vegetables, and herbs. We’ve all got our favourite heritage tomatoes, but have you tried any new tomato varieties? Last year, I grew lots of new tomato varieties, as part of my quest to discover the most delicious and productive tomato cultivars available to gardeners! The objectives of this Tomato Trial were to identify delicious, productive, disease resistant tomato varieties, and to discover whether any of the trialled tomato cultivars perform…

What to do with your tomatoes in September As autumn’s whisper reverberates through our landscape, many plants are now fading, as they respond to the changing season and become rapidly aged by the ever lengthening nights’ embrace. This is a season of salvage, protection, and celebration; it’s time to bring tender plants inside our homes, conservatories, and glasshouses, and to gather in our harvest. If your tomato plants have produced an abundance of green tomatoes, which have yet to ripen…