After a summer of high temperatures and little rain, gardening magazines, blogs and posts are full of recommendations for drought-tolerant plants. But are drought tolerant plants the answer? Looking around my garden, its clear that the classic drought-tolerant perennials have survived well – my eryngiums, rubeckias, heleniums, euphorbias and salvias have fared well. And all…
This blog was published on 4 June 2019 and a similar pattern has emerged in 2020, except this time the months of March, April and May have been hot and dry …. Hurrah, some rain is forecast. I know, it’s June, and we all want to be outside enjoying the sun and the last thing…
Its that time of year when we are all planning what to grow on our plots. Kim Stoddart outlines her favourite produce for effective buddy planting on the veg patch… To be perfectly honest with you, my gardens are one large mix and match, biodiverse affair. What started with experimentation into companion planting many years…
A garden or allotment can look a complete mess after surging floodwaters have passed through. It wouldn’t be so bad if it was just rainwater, but most flood water carries with it all sorts of contaminants – plastic, sewage, manure, slurry and chemicals, such as oil and pesticides, and much more besides. So, if you…
Kim Stoddart explains why not meticulously tidying away every crop on your veg patch at the end of the season will reap you multiple marvellous rewards…. Traditional advice dictates that once your crop is ready, or your harvest spent, every remaining plant should be plucked immediately from the ground. It’s all part of this mindset…
For those of you who are more experience seed savers, Sally has written a thought-provoking article on saving seed. To save seed or not to save seed? I can hear you all shouting ‘of course save seed’ and as generations of gardeners have done, I diligently save seed each year because locally-adapted seed is best…
Kim Stoddart explains how to save some of your own seed both now and thinking ahead for the following year Whilst I am as keen a peruser of gardening seed catalogues as the next person, there is something so very satisfying about home seed saving that money simply cannot buy. The process of sowing a…
Kim explains how getting up close and personal with nature has greatly helped her ten-year-old autistic son, Arthur get close and personal with nature If someone had said to me ten years ago that autism and the therapeutic benefits of gardening will become your life, I wouldn’t have believed them. Yes, I enjoyed growing some…
Kim Stoddart looks at some of the easiest and most rewarding ways to boost your eco-gardener credentials, whilst having fun in the process… I gardened entirely for free a few years back for my writing in the Guardian. What started out as a ‘can I really do this?’ experiment turned into one of the most…
Kim outlines some additional ingredients for the best ever all-in-one natural soil improver for the veg patch… Your soil is the key ingredient in the success of your resilient produce growing efforts so it’s essential to treat it well. Building fertility can be done in a number of ways, and once you have this there…