Grow Your Own Fruit & Veg

Quick Answer No dig gardening means covering weeds or grass with cardboard and a thick compost mulch instead of digging or tilling the soil. You plant straight into the compost, top it up once a year, and let worms and soil life do the cultivating for you. It is quicker to start, kinder to your […]

Quick Answer Sow courgette seeds indoors in April or May at 18 to 21 degrees, then plant out in a sunny, sheltered spot once frost risk has passed. Feed weekly with a high potassium fertiliser once flowering starts, and harvest fruits at 10 to 15cm every two to three days to keep plants cropping all […]

Quick Answer For most UK gardens you need three feeds. A seaweed based tonic such as envii SeaFeed Xtra for general plant health, a balanced NPK feed like Growmore or fish, blood and bone for hungry beds and vegetable plots, and a specialist feed for anything that needs it, meaning an ericaceous feed for rhododendrons […]

Quick Answer The best raised beds for most UK gardeners are galvanised steel (longest lifespan at 20 to 30 years), pressure-treated timber kits (10 to 15 years, most affordable), or composite WPC beds (15 to 20 years, minimal maintenance). For vegetables, aim for at least 30cm depth; for root crops, 40cm minimum. Fill with a […]

Quick Answer Medlars are an old fashioned, self-fertile fruit tree that is genuinely easy to grow in even a small UK garden, and one of the very few trees that fruits through winter. The fruit needs to be bletted, meaning left to soften and ripen off the tree for two to three weeks, before it […]

Growing your own fruit and vegetables is a fantastic way to engage with your garden, reduce your carbon footprint and help eat better organic produce. Tomatoes are among our most popular fruits to buy in supermarkets and can be found year-round (usually flown halfway around the world, sadly). Often, these ‘forced tomatoes’ taste rather lacklustre […]

Quick Answer Gardening is one of the most evidence-backed forms of therapy available to anyone with access to outdoor space. Studies consistently show that regular gardening reduces cortisol (the stress hormone), improves mood, lowers anxiety, and builds a measurable sense of purpose. You do not need expertise, a large garden, or expensive tools to benefit. […]

Once you’ve grown a few plants from seed, you suddenly open up your gardening skills. That knowledge builds quickly and sticks because you earned it by putting in the effort to really understand your plants. There is also the cost saving from growing your own. A single packet of seeds for a pound or two […]

After all my years of gardening and teaching others how to grow things, I can tell you that strawberries are absolutely one of the most rewarding plants you can grow at home. There is something magical about picking a sun-warmed strawberry straight from your own garden and eating it there and then. The taste is […]

April is the month where the garden stops waiting and starts delivering. This is the busiest sowing and planting month in the entire UK gardening calendar, and if you know what to do and when, you can set yourself up for an absolutely cracking summer. I genuinely love this month, Ninjas. The seed packets come […]