Shoots Archives - Kitchen Garden Magazine

Grow your own: Asparagus

3rd March 2023 Web Editor Fruit & Veg Growing Guides

Asparagus is one of the few perennial vegetables (those which come up year after year) and is one of the most highly prized – a true delicacy. It grows from thick spidery roots which act as the storage organs in winter when the plant dies back. In early spring the first young shoots to grow from these roots are harvested…

Grow your own: Broccoli

3rd March 2023 Web Editor Fruit & Veg Growing Guides

Broccoli is a highly nutritious vegetable that is a must for the veg patch. You will really notice the difference in flavour of your own grown broccoli and, being so fresh, it will contain even more vitamins and health giving properties. It belongs to the brassica family and there are three types: white and purple sprouting broccoli which are harvested…

Grow your own: Cucumbers

3rd March 2023 Web Editor Fruit & Veg Growing Guides

The traditional long, smooth cucumbers need to be grown in awarm, almost hot, humid atmosphere so require greenhouse or polytunnel conditions. Some of the smaller-fruited more prickly varieties can be grown outside on your veg plot. Many of the greenhouse varieties sold are now all-female plants which means there is no need to remove the male flowers. The ordinary old-fashioned…

Grow your own: Garlic

3rd March 2023 Web Editor Fruit & Veg Growing Guides

It’s either loved or hated but whatever your view garlic is certainly popular… and until you have tasted your own grown you won’t believe that it can be so much better than shop bought. It isn’t a difficult crop to grow, but it is in the ground a long time, so ideally find a sunny corner or edge of a…

Growing in containers

22nd April 2020 Shannon Butcher Tips and Advice

So, what’s a container? This depends on what crops you are growing, for example lettuce and salad leaves can be grown in quite shallow containers. A small trough 17cm (7in) deep and 30cm (12in) long would suffice for a few mixed cut and come again salad leaves. Ideally, aim for atrough about 20cm (8in) wide, 60cm (2ft) long and at…

Small space growing

14th April 2020 Emma Rawlings News

If you don’t have a lot of room to grow, there are many ways to maximise crops from tiny places. Emma Rawlings suggests some ideas. Edible corner This picture shows that in a small sunny corner you can create something attractive but productive. Planted at the back is an espalier fruit tree. You can buy young trained trees or you…

National Beanpole Week 2020

8th April 2020 Steve Ott News

In these troubling times, there has never been a greater need to make use of our outdoor space and create something positive Gardeners and coppice workers nationwide are getting ready for National Beanpole Week – despite the pressures coronavirus is imposing on all of us. The dedicated week, from 11 to 19 April, celebrates and promotes the importance of our…

Grow your own veg fast

28th March 2020 Steve Ott News

In these uncertain times lots of people are having the urge to start growing their own veg. Why not have a go at microgreen growing tasty nutritious veg in a matter of days. Microgreens are veg harvested while still only tiny shoots and are packed with vitamins and antioxidants to help boost health. They can also be grown on windowsills.…

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…

Spring’s crowning glory

17th April 2019 Steve Ott News

It’s National Asparagus Day on April 23, so to celebrate, why not make space for some crowns in your garden, says KG editor, Steve Ott At this time of year we are all in the process of filling our plots with short-lived and fast-growing annual vegetables and salads, but it is worth saving some space for the slow-burners of the…

Spectacular show by rare Chinese tree in the UK

7th August 2018 Steve Ott News

Heatwave brings on the blooms of a rare tree that has only previously flowered three times in its 90-year lifetime Emmenopterys henryi, a deciduous tree that’s native to central and south-western China, planted in 1928 at Borde Hill in Haywards Heath, has burst into a mass of bloom thanks to an exceptionally cold winter followed by one of the hottest…

Pea shoot, lettuce and Cheshire cheese salad

24th April 2018 Steve Ott Recipes

Want something quick and tasty? Try this delicious home-grown early season salad Pea shoots and other microgreens can give you a harvest in less time than it takes for outdoor crops to germinate. Add an overwintered lettuce and you have a salad that tastes of summer. Ingredients (serves 2) 2 tbsp sunflower oil 1 tbsp cider or white wine vinegar…

Mudketeers diary-28th March 2018

28th March 2018 Steve Ott Blog

Triffid tale Nothing makes such a dramatic entrance as rhubarb. It’s thick fleshy shoots emerge from the ground like a monster from the deep. All I need do now is to mulch with some garden compost around the base making sure I don’t get too near the emerging shoots or it could cause them to rot.…

Mudketeers diary-13th March 2018

13th March 2018 Steve Ott Blog

Spuddy marvellous The seed potatoes are sprouting nicely. I had them in the porch for a while as I thought the greenhouse was too cold for them. I have just put them out in the greenhouse to encourage nice stout, green shoots. I won’t plant them out until late March. In fact Easter weekend seems the perfect time to plant!…