Author: Steve Ott

Steve Ott is editor of Kitchen Garden magazine and started his career as a professional grower, producing everything from cut flowers to vegetables. He has been growing fruit and veg all his life and spends most of his spare time in his garden in the East Midlands. He loves to experiment with crops and varieties he has never grown before and when he isn’t gardening is to be found out in the countryside bird watching and walking his dog Ted.
Plants wired for sound

‘Musical’ plants the talk of the town!

Blog, News
Only Easter Sunday brings more people onto the streets of Milan than the city’s famous Design Week, the Fuorisalone. Over seven days every designer worth their salt vies to showcase the wackiest designs and most glamorous products – but never before has the festival seen a plant orchestra. Forget hollowed-out carrots or gourd drums, this is hi-tech stuff. Scientists and…
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Cornwall Spring Flower Show April 1-2 2023

Cornwall Garden Society Spring Flower Show

Diary Dates, News
Dramatic displays of spring flowers and shrubs, exquisite exhibits by leading nurseries and floral artists, and a spectacular slice of horticultural heaven are just some of the features of the Cornwall Garden Society’s 2023 Spring Flower Show to be staged at The Royal Cornwall Showground near Wadebridge on Saturday 1st and Sunday 2nd April. Described by The Telegraph as “the…
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A mixture of mung bean, alfalfa and radish

Your indoor salad bar – all year round

Blog
There is a simple way to enjoy home-grown salads all year long and that is by growing sprouting seeds. KG editor Steve Ott explains. With all the food shortages in the supermarkets at the moment and, as I write this, snow falling heavily outside making working in the garden impossible, you might despair of ever being able to have fresh…
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Geoff (left) and Nick Hamilton

Celebrate The 40th Anniversary of Barnsdale Gardens

News
 ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌    In this cold a grey January, it would be nice to have something positive to shout about…so please let us oblige…2023 is the 40th Anniversary of Barnsdale Gardens! In 1983, Geoff Hamilton, the much-loved BBC Gardeners World presenter founded Barnsdale, developing the gardens from a pasture that he had ploughed. The BBC filmed there from the moment he moved…
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Peter's tropic isle

My Pacific Isle

Blog
KG reader Peter Dean dreams of an island holiday away from the cold winter rain I entered a competition In a gardening magazine. I had to write a poem About a garden I had seen. I chose a lovely garden That was here in my mind. A piece of imagination Where Heron’s could have dined. Mammals and coloured singing birds…
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The beautiful new bridge at Biddulph Grange

Iconic bridge returns to Victorian garden with help from fundraising youngster  

News
Biddulph Grange Garden, a masterpiece of Victorian garden design, is celebrating the return of its striking Chinese Bridge, thanks to the skills of a National Trust specialist crafts team and the marathon fundraising efforts of a Staffordshire schoolgirl.  The ornate red, green and yellow footbridge – first built in the mid 19th-century and replaced in the late 1980s – is…
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Be sure to feed the birds this winter

The Cold of Winter

Blog
By KG reader, Peter Dean In winter it is especially important for gardeners to look after birds and other wildlife. When temperatures fall to single Celsius figures wildlife is more vulnerable. They need extra food to survive. Leaving seed heads on sunflowers, for example, gives birds – finches in particular – a good food source. And so do berries like…
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