Blog Archives - Kitchen Garden Magazine

‘Musical’ plants the talk of the town!

27th April 2023 Steve Ott 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…

A mixture of mung bean, alfalfa and radish

Your indoor salad bar – all year round

9th March 2023 Steve Ott 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…

My Pacific Isle

12th January 2023 Steve Ott 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…

The Cold of Winter

14th October 2022 Steve Ott 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…

A tomato update

16th June 2022 Steve Ott Blog

The tomato (and pepper) season has seemed a little slow to me this year with germination being a bit erratic and subsequent growth slow. But as always the plants come through in the end and now that they are planted in the spoil of the polytunnel enriched with compost, leafmould and blood, fish and bone, seem to be greening up…

Time to sow tender veggies

13th May 2022 Steve Ott Blog

If you haven’t done it already, now’s the time to sow things like courgettes, pumpkins, cucumbers and other squashes. I always wait till now (mid-May) as I don’t have a heated greenhouse and although it’s plenty warm enough during the day, night time temperatures can still be quite low. I start them off in pots with two seeds per pot…

Undercover salads

12th May 2022 Emma Rawlings Blog

If you have an empty border of soil in the greenhouse and don’t grow tomatoes or peppers in it you could always sow salad leaves in short rows. Pictured are sowings of radish ‘Rioja’ which is often used as a microgreen. These are plants you harvest as seedlings. The leaves are tinged with purple. They are very healthy and are…

LIVE Q&A with the Kitchen Garden team

10th August 2021 Sam Hewitt Blog, News, Tips and Advice

To celebrate National Allotment Week, we’re giving you the chance to ask our team of experts for their top tips and advice for getting the tastiest produce from your plot! Whether you’re a green fingered expert, or just a beginner, you can ask our Kitchen Garden team anything you’d like to know about growing your own. Simply sign up to…

We’re looking for Bloggers/Vloggers for new Kitchen Garden series!

28th May 2021 Sam Hewitt Blog, News

Perhaps you’re an award winning vegetable grower, or a proud allotment owner with a plot to make everyone envious? Or, you might have a little vegetable patch you enjoy taking care of in your garden, or a small number of pots resting on your windowsill? We’re looking for bloggers and vloggers to be a part of our ‘Growing on the…

A natural summer garden

26th April 2021 Pauline Hawkins Blog

Kitchen Garden reader Peter Dean, of Cambridge, sent us this item about the joys of a summer garden. This is a reader blog and views expressed by Peter may not necessarily reflect those of the magazine. Summer is the season of growth. It is when the garden is at its most productive. There is colour from flowers, and crops of…

MUDKETEER’S DIARY- 21st July 2020

21st July 2020 Emma Rawlings Blog

Lifting garlic My brother harvested the garlic today as the shoots were going a little yellow. They are a good size considering they were only planted in spring. They were put in at the beginning of March and have been kept well watered but even so they seem to have been more successful than previous autumn sown ones.…

MUDKETEER’S DIARY- 2nd July 2020

2nd July 2020 Emma Rawlings Blog

Oh deer! We discovered today the very tips of the French beans have been eaten.Some of the stalks hadn’t been nibbled off cleanly but had been ripped slightly. This was consistent with muntjac dear damage. Sure enough close by we found some deer droppings. Muntjac deer droppings…

Mudketeers diary – 6th May 2020

6th May 2020 Steve Ott Blog

Young lettuce planted out In April I sowed some lettuce in cell trays filled with multi-purpose compost. It is a good way to start lettuce off; getting them to a decent size before planting out. You avoid a lot of issues such as pests and poor weather that can affect direct sown lettuce. Once they are a couple of inches…

Mudketeer’s diary- 20th February 2020

20th February 2020 Steve Ott Blog

Chitting potatoes I have just bought my seed potatoes. I bought first earlies ‘Foremost’, second earlies ‘Charlotte’ and some main crop ‘Pink Fir Apple’. I have put them in seed trays and placed in athe greenhouse to encourage the chits, the shoots to start growing. We had a tip via Facebook about putting the potatoes in moist compost. This is…