Winter in the kitchen garden: planting a future

The arrival of winter should surely herald hedgehog-like behaviour in all of us. We no longer shuttle too and fro from the kitchen garden to the house laden with gluts that we don’t know how to process fast enough, but rather wish to laze by the fire with a good book. Most flowers fade and […]

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Harvest: so much more land, so much less veg

The thought occurs that although we’ve had serious amounts of eggs from our hens so far this year, we haven’t had a single vegetable or fruit. Well, we have had fruit technically I suppose, in that we planted fruit trees and I harvested tiny fruits to stop them developing but obviously tiny immature apples etc […]

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Entering a vegetable competition at the Lambeth County Show

We’ve always been big fans of county shows and try to attend a couple every year. To be completely honest, our local on in Lambeth isn’t usually on the list, but I’ve always wanted to try my hand at a vegetable competition so I thought we’d try it. Pulling Yellowstone, Purple haze and resistafly carrots […]

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Recipe: Healthy lemony basil pesto pasta with courgette and broccoli

This is a really easy and tasty seasonal dish using home grown basil from the garden that I often make when I”m short of time. We are ardent carnivores but tend to eat vegetarian food during the week and this dish is absolutely delicious. We eat unholy amounts of garlic and so that sauce packs […]

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Harvest Monday

This past week has actually been very fruitful. I’m still mainly getting herbs and leaves (spinach and rosemary and parsley) and although I’m really looking forward to getting some actual fruits and vegetables, I’m still really enjoying being able to wander out to the garden and harvest these greens whenever I like. Once again I […]

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Growing herbs in small spaces: tiny herb gardens across London

Herbs are surely the easiest (and most cheer-inducing) things you can grow in a small urban space. They are so much hardier than anything else in pots and you can keep harvesting them for ages. I remember having a small tomato plant back at university. I had bought it at a market where the woman […]

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Driving them up the wall: Garlic chives and rocket in wall planters

Wall planters before I know that I bang on and on about having to use every last bit of space in my little garden and the truth of the matter is that it all really comes down to my desire for GarlicBoy to have some space to play. That manicured handkerchief sized bit of lawn […]

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Topping herbs

One of the problems with plugs (rather than growing herbs and plants from seed) is that even once transplanted, they are sometimes quite sparse and patchy in their new home. In my herbal vertical garden planters some of the plants, parsley and thyme for example, have really taken off and have spread wonderfully to fill […]

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Harvest Monday: More herbs

Harvest has been rather sparse thus far, still just herbs. But I’m very pleased with it, being able to pop outside with herb scissors whenever I’m cooking is so satisfying. I keep on forgetting to photograph my harvest though. Will you believe me if I tell you I’ve had multiple bunches of flat parsley and […]

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White mustard (homegrown)

I love mustard. And one of the things that I can’t wait to make this year (as well as ketchup) is my very own mustard. There are just so many potential variations! Lemon juice or vinegar? Whole grain or smooth? But before all of that comes the mustard seed, my fastest growing crop to date. […]

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