March 2012 - Issue 174
NEWS
6 FIRST PICKINGS
All the latest news and views from the world of kitchen gardening
8 USING YOUR FREE BEETROOT AND CABBAGE SEEDS
YOUR PLOT
10 JOBS FOR MARCH
Essential tasks for your plot from the KG team
12 UNDERCOVER
Top tasks for March, plus advice on keeping your border soil healthy
16 BACK TO BASICS… CABBAGE
Harvest delicious and nutritious cabbage year round with advice from Andrew Tokely
20 YOUR PLOTS
We turn the spotlight on to some KG readers’ wonderful plots
22 A GARDEN OF LEGENDS
Steve Ott and Emma Rawlings travel to historic Knebworth House in Hertfordshire where legends of gardening meet legends of rock music
26 ASK BOB
Regular Gardeners’ Question Time panellist, Bob Flowerdew, answers your fruit and veg growing queries
28 TRIED AND TESTED
Joyce Russell puts 20 different hand trowels and forks through their paces
34 GROWING GARDENERS OF THE FUTURE
The latest update on the ‘growings on’ at John Whitgift Academy as the pupils get a new gardening year off to a flying start
36 YOUR LETTERS AND TIPS
38 WEBWATCH
Our latest roundup of the best gardening websites and blogs with Helen Gazeley
ALLOTMENT LIFE
40 THE ROUTE TO LONG ROOTS
Medwyn Williams brings you his top tips for success with long carrots
42 TRIED AND TASTED… BEETROOT
Joe Maiden grows seven popular varieties and offers his top tips for success
46 HELEN’S URBAN ALLOTMENTS
City girl Helen Babbs continues her new series on urban growing with a visit to Ipswich and Norwich
50 HOW TO… USE MANURE
Joyce Russell explains the do’s and don’ts of using manure in the fruit and veg garden
53 LET’S GET SOWING!
Your pull out and keep guide to all you need to know for successful sowing
58 PLOTTING WITH TOBY
Dreams of a new tomato festival lead Toby into growing some bumper crops
62 THE FUTURE OF FRUIT
Gaby Bartai meets John Stoa, whose Dundee garden is a trial ground for new and experimental fruit crops
66 IT’S TIME FOR A SOWING SPREE
This month head gardener Jane Moore gets sowing indoors under way and prepares the beds outside
68 KNOW YOUR ENEMY
Entomologist Lucy Halliday takes a close look at cabbage whitefly and explains how to control it
ORGANIC GARDENING
70 CHEAP FRILLS!
Vegan gardeners Lonnie and Richard Morris on growing and preparing the exotic-looking asparagus pea
72 THE RAW FOOD REVOLUTION
KG resident nutritionist looks at the latest eating craze – the raw food diet – and discovers if it stands up to the health claims made for it
76 NO GAPS, NO GLUTS
Keen kitchen gardener and garden writer Elizabeth Arter on her approach to keeping those harvests coming without having more than you and your friends can cope with
80 OVER THE GARDEN FENCE
This month our gardening duo debates whether allotment plots should be made smaller to help cut waiting lists
82 COMMUNITY GROWING AT STIRLEY FARM
Joanna Richards of the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust visits a wonderful food growing project near Huddersfield
READERS’ SAVERS
84 SAVE ON FOURBERRY & PEPPERS
86 IN THE GARDEN SHED
Our roundup of the best new gardening products and ideas
88 AN EXCLUSIVE OFFER ON ASPARAGUS CROWNS*
90 SPECIAL KG OFFERS
Save money on strawberries, vegetable seed collections, nectarines, peaches, onions and grafted tomato plants
92 GIVEAWAYS WORTH OVER £2000!?
Your chance to win compost, show tickets, raised bed and watering kits, seed drills and an electric propagator
CHICKENS
94 SPRING INTO POULTRY KEEPING!
As the weather improves thoughts often turn to the idea of keeping poultry for the first time. Jane Howorth has some advice for absolute beginners
SEASONAL RECIPES
98 GARLIC PRESS
Cookery writer Gaby Bartai has some super recipes featuring this most pungent of crops
OTHER FEATURES
32 SUBSCRIBERS’ CORNER
97 NEXT MONTH
See what’s in store for your April issue of KG
100 DIARY DATES
Plus your giveaways coupon and seed suppliers’ details
102 LAST WORD
Inspirational KG reader, John Cobbett of East Sussex, describes how he has adapted his back garden plot to enable him to keep on growing
NEXT MONTH
Capital harvests
We discover productive gardens that are building communities in the heart of London.
Take it to the max
Sue Stickland has advice to help you get the best from your under-cover growing space this spring.
Back to basics with sweetcorn
Andrew Tokely brings you his guide to growing delicious corn.
Promoting global worming
Discover how an association of village residents in Ayrshire has transformed a brownfield site into a thriving allotment garden, using innovative vermiculture (worm composting) techniques.
On your marks, get set...
Joe Maiden puts onion sets to the test.
FREE SEEDS for every reader
Receive TWO packets of essential seeds FREE with your copy of KG next month. Every reader will receive a packet of pepper ‘Californian Wonder’ and aubergine ‘Long Purple’. These tried and trusted varieties will provide you with bumper crops and can be grown inside or out in a warm, sunny spot in pots, growing bags or the soil.
Crops in pots
Grow a delicious feast on your patio this summer. Joyce Russell shows you how.
Plus... Toby Buckland goes coppicing... Bob Flowerdew answers your gardening queries... Meet KG readers who found love over a rhubarb crumble...
And... More money-saving offers and giveaways...
On sale March 1st 2012
