The traditional idea of a kitchen garden is to have an outdoor pantry full of fresh produce for using every day. This is correct but modern gardeners are just as interested in processing fresh produce for use in the down seasons when the pantry is not so full. With simple inexpensive kitchen gadgets available these …Read More about Kitchen time
Summer
Tomatoes: Soil beds or pots
Tomatoes will grow equally well in pots as in soil beds. The main difference is during hot conditions pots require watering every day while plants in a soil bed may only need watering once a week. A raised bed (40cm height) with a mix of light soil and homemade compost is ideal for tomatoes. Large …Read More about Tomatoes: Soil beds or pots
Garden favourites
Gardeners should not have favourite plants, but they do. The Prince Borghese tomato is an Italian heirloom variety well suited to small city gardens or balconies. It grows well in pots or in the ground and produces large quantities of small plumb size tomatoes on a sturdy bush type plant that grows to about 1 …Read More about Garden favourites
Summer Chard
With the summer heatwave resumed, following cool wet conditions, it is understandable garden plants are confused and distressed. While tomatoes are flourishing, summer salads are struggling, particularly those grown in containers, going to seed or becoming tough and unpalatable. Thank goodness for the chards which suffer the conditions far better. Kitchen gardeners love the daily …Read More about Summer Chard
Summer lull
The busyness of spring has passed and summer garden crops are now established and growing. Now is gentle maintenance time, tying up tomatoes, tidying beans and cucumbers and using up salad crops. The weather has been very changeable with cool wet days and now some extra warm days. Keeping an eye on the weather forecast …Read More about Summer lull
Rainy trays
Rain is generally welcome in hot summer months, a nice break from the heatwaves. The lower temperatures that accompany rain make this a useful time to start new salad crops, especially in trays which dry out too much in heatwave conditions. It is even worth clearing out any older salads that have toughened up in …Read More about Rainy trays