Harvest Monday: Herby harvest

My urban garden harvest so far in 2017 has mainly comprised of herbs. This is perhaps unsurprising when you consider that it’s very early April, in London and that the climate in the UK is pretty inhospitable at this point in the year. I’m actually not at all unhappy with this, as I love to […]

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Mintybags: Planting a herbal vertical garden

Tear, crunch, rend…the poor mint! Filling the planters takes an age There is no mistaking the slightly sickening feeling of roots being ripped apart or severed under your trowel. It feels (and sounds) like lots of tiny wires snapping under high tension and the lurch of the tummy that goes with it when you hear […]

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Herbal hanging baskets

When trying to decide what we should plant in our tiny garden, I strove to get as wide a variety of edible produce as possible. I did, however, want to ensure we have a herb garden as well as I use herbs in a large amount of my cooking. The problem with herbs is the […]

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First harvest of 2017!

*Drumroll please*. It is with enormous pleasure that I can now reveal the first of our 2017 harvest! It is a sprig of Rosemary, which we used in one of my absolutely favourite comfort dishes for cold weather, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s Chicken with lentils and rosemary. A puny harvest? Yes. Technically cheating as I bought rosemary […]

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Instaherbs; a cheat’s way to a herb garden

I have mentioned before that as I no longer have space to have propagators all over the house, I’m having to cheat in the garden by buying plant plugs rather than just sowing all of our seeds from scratch. This includes our herbs. Although I initially felt bad about this, I have to say that […]

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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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What exactly qualifies as a harvest?

Chives, primrose, buckleaf sorrel and mint When I think of a harvest of home-grown produce, I think of flat baskets brimming with vegetables. I think of pretty china bowls overflowing with fat, lucious sweet berries. I think of happy people climbing ladders in orchards to pick fruit. However, I started late this year. It’s already […]

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Planting out supermarket herbs

When we put a new kitchen into our last flat, one of the things I wanted to do was to make up for the lack of a garden. So I went to IKEA, bought about ten FINTORP racks and pots and had the workmen affix them to our tile splashbacks so that I could have […]

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