Editorial Contributor

How to grow: Apricots

10th July 2020 Shannon Butcher Fruit & Veg Growing Guides

Apricots are a favourite for drying and the nutrient-packed fruits make a great alternative to sugary sweets in children’s lunchboxes. However, the fresh fruit is delicious too and more and more popular in the supermarkets; unfortunately imported fruit which has travelled halfway around the world often tastes rather poor for the experience. But with modern varieties it is now possible…

How to grow: Apples

10th July 2020 Shannon Butcher Fruit & Veg Growing Guides

Shop-bought apples are great, but if you have never grown your own, your choice will have been restricted to a handful of varieties chosen partly for taste, but also for their travelling and storage qualities. Yet there are so many more to choose from, all with their own unique flavours and textures. Apples are easy to grow and undemanding and…

Planting fruit

9th July 2020 Shannon Butcher Tips and Advice

Catalogues offer you tree and soft fruit grown in two different ways. Fruit growers who also supply gardeners will usually grow their plants in the field planted directly into the nursery soil. These are lifted when the plants are dormant from October to March and sent to you with no or very little soil on the roots – hence they…

Where to grow fruit

9th July 2020 Shannon Butcher Tips and Advice

Most people can find space in their garden, whatever its size, for growing fruit. Here are a few suggestions: Use Minarette or Pillarette fruit trees (single pole trees) in flower borders or put a line of them at the end of your allotment to act as a screen. Several different varieties can be grown to give a wonderful choice of…

How to grow: Turnips & Swede

25th June 2020 Shannon Butcher Fruit & Veg Growing Guides

Home-grown turnips are the best to eat. They can be harvested about golf ball size and eaten raw in salads, rather like radishes, or cooked in many ways. They are also fast to mature and have a long sowing season. Their leaves can be harvested in spring as an alternative to spinach. Grown in the same way, swedes are a…

How to grow: Tomatoes

25th June 2020 Shannon Butcher Fruit & Veg Growing Guides

Tomatoes are a popular greenhouse crop can also be grown outside on the patio or plot or even in a hanging basket if you get the right variety. There are hundreds of tomato varieties ranging from the tiny cherry tomatoes to the huge beefsteak types and all sizes in between. Tomatoes are great value for money because most home-grown fruit…