Sowing Chilli Seeds
Chillies like a long growing season. They are the first plants that I start and just about the only seeds I sow before mid-end of Feb. I always plan to sow my chillies between Boxing Day and New Year – it can give you a break from the festivities and is a great way to grab an hours peace and get the new growing season started! This year it didn’t happen, but I thought I better get my act together and get the chillies going.
Here I discuss how we start our chilli seeds and the varieties we will be growing this year.
My favourite ‘Grow Your Own’ Bloggers
At the end of last year, we were lucky to be awarded a prize as Kitchen Garden’s best blog/website for 2019. I was very humbled and surprised with this especially since there are so many other great bloggers out there. In this post I would like to share some great ‘Grow your Own’ blogs that I enjoy following. Take a look!
When to start sowing?
Photo by Akil Mazumder At this time of year there is always lots of talk on social media about ‘when to start sowing”. If this is your first year growing veg it can be VERY confusing. There is guidance on the back of seed packets, but even this can be a very wide range of times! Kitchen gardeners are a very passionate bunch and we just want to get going. However starting very early usually isn’t the best approach!
Here I discuss our planning schedule for the year to give you an example of a working plan to manage a vegetable garden.Making liquid plant feed from weeds
I have been contemplating making a system for producing liquid plant feed from comfrey for quite some time (well instructing Ant to do so). As part of our generous prize for winning the Kitchen Garden Blog/Website of the Year 2019 competition we have been lucky enough to have recieved some goodies in the post. One of these items was a Hozelock Pure BioMix bucket. Whoop!
Today we decided to get it out of the box and give this a try
Clementine & Ginger Jam. Water-bath processing preserves
How do I waterbath process preserves? Here I discuss how I used leftover Christmas clementines to make a tasty jam and processed the jars for storage.
Plastic and Kitchen Gardening
The Plastic Problem
Although the first plastic was produced in 1907 it wasn’t until the 1950’s that plastic production became industrialised. In 2015 it was estimated that it was estimated there were 381 million tonnes of plastic produced globally. In 2018, plastic pollution became a hot topic – the so called ‘David Attenborough effect’
How does plastic pollution fit with the ethos of Kitchen Gardening? What is the impact of plastic in the garden? Are there alternatives? As kitchen gardener’s what can we do to help?
Happy New Year: Reflections for 2019
Things never stand still in gardening. Every year, we plan to change structures, build new things and try new plants. The creativity of gardening is one of the things I really love. 2019 was no different! Developments have included, fitting an IBC tank for water storage, building polyhouse cloches over beds to grow heat-loving plants, installing another pond, building a brick bbq, a rockery and the latest challenge of completely taking apart the summerhouse to recycle and rebuild a larger structure. That last project is still underway!
1000L IBC tank 
Summerhouse build in progress 
Tadpoles in the new pond
Red Cabbage Salad
Here I use leftover chutneys to make a fruity dressing for a cabbage salad.
Controlling weeds: Creeping Buttercup
Image from lawnweeds.co.uk Creeping buttercup, Ranunculus repens, is also known as Crow’s foot and Restharrow. It is a herbaceous plant that can grow up to 50cm tall. Just under the surface the plant sends out runners, called stolons, which means it can quickly infest an area.
How can you control creeping buttercup in your vegetable beds, borders or lawn?
Video diary: Clearing a plot with ‘No Dig’
We have decided to take the plunge and use ‘No Dig’ methods to clear Plot 5b. Here is a short intro to Plot 5b and our plans to tackle the space. We will be producing a series of videos about our progress.
One of the problem weeds on 5b is ‘Creeping buttercup’