Tips and Advice Archives - Kitchen Garden Magazine

Build your own propagating equipment: how to protect seedlings on a budget

25th March 2024 Stephanie Hafferty Features, Tips and Advice

Stephanie Hafferty offers some money-saving ideas to keep seedlings warm and make sure they have adequate light. Stephanie with a foil survival blanket which can help reflect light on to seedlings Seeds need warmth and light in order to germinate and thrive. British weather is remarkably changeable in the spring. One day we can be gardening in shorts and a…

The 10 easy things you can do for success sowing in containers

29th February 2024 Web Editor Features, Tips and Advice

Here are a few simple ideas to help you when starting seeds in pots and trays. 1. Avoid oversowing pots or trays If you are planning on lifting the seedlings and potting them up individually, you don’t want to have them sown too thickly. It will be difficult to lift and separate seedlings when you need to move them. Be…

What kind of twine should I use for gardening?

30th January 2024 Alex Bestwick Tips and Advice

Good garden twine is an important accessory which can be used for all sorts of tasks. But with different options available, what is the best gardening twine? What is twine used for in gardening? Whether it’s constructing climbing frames for beans, tying in tomatoes to a bamboo cane, stringing up onions and garlic to store in the shed or making…

Go Green on Blue Monday: 5 things to do in nature today

15th January 2024 Alex Bestwick Features, Tips and Advice

Whether it’s a walk or some gardening, we believe that the best way to combat the blues is to go green. Mondays can be hard whenever they fall, but especially in January. It’s cold, Christmas is over, and although the days are getting lighter bit by bit, the long days of summer still feel a long way off. But the…

How to make your own peat-free potting compost

12th January 2024 Alex Bestwick Features, Tips and Advice

Emma Rawlings looks at some ingredients and recipes for making your own peat-free potting compost, both for seeds and potting on. What is the difference between seed sowing compost and potting compost? It can get confusing when we use the word compost as it can mean two different things. There is potting compost which is usually bought from a garden…

How to protect your plants during a heatwave

20th July 2023 Arianne Davey News

Editor, Steve Ott, shares his top tips for protecting plants, while temperatures are forecast to soar throughout the UK. Keep plants watered, but if watering aim to water in the early morning or evening to avoid too much evaporation. Once the soil is soaked spread a mulch over the roots to aid water retention and to cool the root zone.…

To be busy

8th December 2022 Arianne Davey Features

Emma O’Neill, head gardener at horticultural charity Garden Organic, shares her top tips for what needs to be done in the garden as autumn turns to winter As the nights draw in, and it becomes cold and wet, it’s all too tempting to neglect your garden and stay close to the fire. But, at this time of year, there is…

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…