Growing your own grapes - summer pruning

A few minutes is all you need to summer prune grapevines. Some simple steps in summer can help you get bigger and riper grapes when you pick them in autumn.

Harvesting Garlic on The 80 Minute Allotment

Growing your own garlic might be the easiest gardening you can ever do. They are a low maintenance crop, and easy to harvest too...

Get more potatoes by earthing up

It will soon be time to dig up this years crop of potatoes but for now, keep earthing them up to get the best crop possible.

Clear away brassicas to make way for root crops

The last of the kale and purple sprouting broccoli has been harvested and eaten, so it's time to clear away what's left of the brassica plants, just in time to sow carrots, beetroot and parsnip in their place.

Sowing vegetable seeds outdoors

When the time finally comes to sow seeds outdoors, you can really start to fill up your vegetable plot, kitchen garden or allotment with lots of tasty crops that will be ready to eat at various times of the year. But how do you know the right time to sow, and how do you give your seeds the best chance of success?

Chitting potatoes

Chitting potatoes gives your spuds a head start, and is as easy as...well, as easy as putting some potatoes in an egg box in a cool light room.

Getting the vegetable garden ready for spring

If you want to grow your own fruit and vegetables on an allotment, in a vegetable patch, or a kitchen garden, preparing the soil for planting is really important. I've got less than a couple of hours a week to spare, so I've been doing it a bit at a time over winter. But it's not too late to start now either. Here's what I've been doing to ensure a great harvest later this year...

How to plant bulbs - A Beginner's Guide

Bulbs do nearly all the work for you, it's the simplest way to grow plants of all!

If you only have room for one pot, you have room to grow bulbs, and if you want a low maintenance garden, this could be the answer.

Recycle to protect your allotment crops or garden fruit and veg

If you are growing your own on a budget, either in a vegetable patch in your garden, or on an allotment, then here is an example of how to support and protect your crops without spending too much, by recycling whatever you have lying around.

How to sow seeds - A Beginner's Guide

You don't need green fingers to be able to grow new plants from seed, and it only takes a few minutes.

When is the best time to plant onions?

Does it matter when you plant onions? Do you get bigger onions if you plant them earlier? 

In theory, planting earlier should give them more growing time and therefore they should reach a larger size, but is that how it turned out? 

Six things to do in your garden during August

There is plenty to do in my garden right now. The weather is still warm, but here in South Wales we've had plenty of rain as well as some sunshine, and that combination means everything is growing strongly.

Is your garden holiday proof?

Are you going away on holiday this summer? Have you thought about how your garden will cope without you? 

Of course your plants can keep on growing by themselves but what if there is a really hot dry spell and there's nobody at home to water anything?

How to stop slugs eating your lettuce without using chemicals

How do you grow your own lettuce without it getting eaten by slugs and snails, but without using chemicals? 

The answer is easy - grow it on top of a water butt - in a recycled car wheel! 

Here's a simple step by step guide to my ingenious, organic, chemical free method for stopping slugs and snails eating my lettuce!

Can a vegetable garden or allotment be beautiful?

For many years I've thought that growing your own fruit and veg was more or less incompatible with having a stylish and beautiful garden. Vegetables just aren't that pretty to look at. But after seeing vegetable gardens at Westbury Court Garden in Gloucestershire and at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show recently, I think I might be starting to change my mind.  

What food can I grow in containers?

Don't let a lack of space stop you growing your own fruit and veg, There are plenty of edibles you can grow in containers. Even if all you have is a few pots then you can grow something to eat, and it will be the freshest and tastiest that you've ever eaten! So what food can you grow in containers?

Grow your own potatoes in a bag

It's very simple to grow your own potatoes. It doesn't take much effort and you don't need much space. You can even grow them in a bag!

Grow Your Own Watercress - On Your Fence!

Watercress is a peppery and nutritious addition to summer salads and other recipes, and really easy to grow. However you use it, you wont get a better taste than if you've grown it yourself and just picked it moments before eating, so have a go at growing your own this summer. You can sow it right now. I thought I'd share with you how I'm growing mine this year, in recycled guttering on my garden fence!  

What's happened to your garden mint and what to do about it

Having fresh herbs outside the back door is easy and convenient. Mint dies down in winter but is now growing strongly again. But if you grew some in a pot last year you will almost certainly see that it is now growing mainly around the rim of the pot, not in the middle where you planted it. This seems strange but gives you the chance to propagate extra plants, and it only takes a few minutes.

Getting your allotment or vegetable patch started

If you've just decided to create a veg garden, taken on a new allotment plot, or are just getting your existing plot started again after winter, the better your preparation the better the results will be. So what do you need to do to get your vegetable garden or allotment going?