Fruit & Veg Growing Guides Archives

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…

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…

How to grow: Swiss Chard

25th June 2020 Shannon Butcher Fruit & Veg Growing Guides

Swiss Chard is worth growing just for its decorative leaves and stems. A clump could be grown in the flower border and not look out of place. The stems and the leaves can be eaten with the leaves making a tasty alternative to spinach. Swiss chard is a crop for autumn, winter and spring harvests at a time when there…

How to grow: Sweetcorn

25th June 2020 Shannon Butcher Fruit & Veg Growing Guides

There is nothing more delightful on a warm summer’s evening than eating barbecued home-grown sweetcorn; the juices and melted butter dribbling down your chin. This crop is simple to grow and a great one to involve children in. You’ll have the kids eating vegetables in no time! Sweetcorn is a type of maize and it produces its cobs of yellow…