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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Leek and parsnip gap filling

So having sowed some more carrots to spread the harvest a little and divided up the last of my shadier raised beds, it occurred to me that I should fill the gaps and plant the last of the square foot plots I’ve marked out. I have chosen two of my favourite winter vegetables, parsnips and […]

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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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How to plant out seedlings with a toddler

Planting out seedlings, as long as they’re relatively robust, is something that even young children can get involved in. At two years old GarlicBoy already loves raking the soil smooth and watering it with his little watering can before using a dibbler to make holes and gently lower the seedlings inside and coving them with […]

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Carrots: the second sowing

Setting everything out before we starts ensures the two year old is interested I always feel so brutal when I have to thin out seedlings and I really have to force myself to do it. I spur myself on with memories of the Great Garlic Failure of 2015 and try to remind myself that life […]

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Taunting the slugs

One thing I’ve always been prone to do is put things off. I wait happily for harvest from my main plants, thinking that I’ll have nothing until then. And to a certain extent, that’s true because I have so little space in my tiny urban allotment garden. But this year I’ve decided to really try […]

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When aphids attack: How to build an organic defense

Disgusting: Aphids colonising the plum tree The other day I was out in the garden and pottering about with a cup of fresh mint tea making a mental list of tasks that needed doing when it occurred to me that the fan-trained Marjorie’s Seedling plum tree that I planted in a raised sleeper bed appeared […]

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Weed-proofing raised planters organically

Inconsiderate neighbours are irritating at the best of times. We have a couple of particularly bad ones. One of them rents his house out and has let the garden become so overgrown with ivy that the weeds actually reach underneath the foundations of our house! So when I wanted to put some small raised beds […]

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