Your basket is currently empty!
Category: Sweet
5 top tips for winter growing and the seeds I’m sowing
I know a lot of you guys are excited to try your hand at growing food and flowers over autumn and winter, so let’s talk about what I’m going to be doing. Mid-August to early September is a great time to get going, the soil is still warm, summer crops are coming to the end… Read more
Harvest and cure onions for long term storage
While it’s true that you can harvest and use homegrown onions at any point, regardless of size, if you want to store your onion harvest so that you can still be enjoying your produce months from now, there are a few key steps you need to be aware of. When to harvest Firstly you need… Read more
The Great Pepper Pruning Adventure: navigating the Ups and Downs of Summer Pruning
Pruning is always a scary topic, especially if you are relatively new to gardening so this is your advanced warning that today there is going to be some serious pruning going on. Buckle up because we’re diving headfirst into the wonderful world of summer pruning for bell peppers! Read more
How I deal with aphids in the greenhouse and garden
There are certain topics (or questions) that I can always expect at certain points throughout the year, and May until August is always about aphids or whitefly. usually, it’s how can I get rid of “said pest”. OK here’s the honest answer – you can’t. I’m sorry but this is part of the ecosystem that… Read more
What you need to know about mulch
Mulch, in the simplest terms, is a layer you add on top of your garden soil. There are lots of benefits to adding mulch to your garden but there are also a few downsides you should be aware of so you can choose what will work best for you. What is mulch Well basically, mulch… Read more
Self-watering in the greenhouse
We’ve made no secret of how much we love and how successful our current self-watering planters have been over the last 8 years. We have 3 quadgrow units in the greenhouse which we use to grow tomatoes, peppers and aubergines and we’ve even grown various herbs in them. They have been a stupendous success for… Read more
Florida Weave: supporting tall tomato plants outdoors in Scotland
Building a florida weave tomato trellis using bamboo canes and string is easy and cheap and provides amazing support for growing both determinate bush tomatoes and indeterminate cordon tomatoes. Read more
How To Pinch Out Your Dahlia Plants To Force More Flowers
There are a lot of small things you can do which make huge gains in your gardening, pinching out the growing tips on some plants is on of these easy wins. For new gardeners, the idea of pinching or snipping off the top of a plant can be terrifying. Especially when you’ve put so much… Read more
How to harden off your plants before putting them outdoors
If you have grown plants indoors or using heat and grow lights in order to get a jump start on the season. Then the next step before you transplant them out into your garden is to harden them off. It sounds like a traumatic, complicated thing, but really it comes down to this. Little and… Read more
We tried making a planter from an old pallet
There’s no doubt about it, your garden is never big enough. So when you run out of space for flower beds, veg beds, herb beds or collections of containers. Vertical gardening is the next option. The idea of vertical gardening is that you make use of space that you normally wouldn’t be able to garden… Read more
Don’t let garden jargon get you down
If you ever have a conversation with me about gardening, one of the things you’ll notice is that I don’t use a lot of the “gardening jargon”, and by that, I mean that you will never hear me use Latin names for plants, or talk about cotyledon leaves and many other terms I hear in… Read more
Our garden kicks off in April
The early part of the year can be hard for many of us gardeners. We’re itching to get seeds in the ground, the plants transplanted out to the garden and really get going. If you are anything like me, your greenhouse is already bursting with seedlings at the seams, and you have so much more… Read more
Planting up those dahlia tubers
I fell in love with dahlias by accident back in 2012. I had no idea what a dahlia was, back then I just chose things to grow because the picture on the seed packet captured me. That’s how my journey with dahlias started. It’s was dahlia Yankee Doodle dandy. I just grew these flowers from… Read more
Sometimes you really need to step back and focus on the small details
I’ve always told you guys not to sweat the small stuff, instead think about the big picture. I stand by that 100%, because too often we get ourselves in a right palaver because we obsess over stuff that we don’t really benefit from, but, I’m gonna turn that on its head, a little. This week… Read more
Growing petunias from seed
There is a bit of trepidation about growing petunias from seed, with most gardeners preferring to buy small plug plants and grow these on. It’s a shame though because petunias are no more difficult to grow than any other flowers. The seeds are just smaller, a lot smaller. The main problem people find with growing… Read more
The March greenhouse, sowing tomatoes, peppers and dahlia
It’s been a hard year so far, after my decision to hang back from early seed sowing and instead wait for the promise of warmer days in March. Yes there are lots of benefits, including the ability to sow seeds without the desperate need for heat mats and lights, but I’ve found it hard going… Read more
Potting up those onion seedlings
Are you ready to get your hands dirty? Today is all about pricking out and potting on (or even transplanting) onion seedlings! If you’re not familiar with the terms, don’t worry, we’ll get into it. First off, let’s take a moment to appreciate my adorable little onion seedlings. They may be tiny, but they have… Read more
The BEST seed storage and organisation system I’ve ever had
At least once a week I’m asked how I organize my seeds, and until now I didn’t think I was doing anything fancy, but I’ve realized that actually I have a pretty nifty system for storing seeds and organizing them to make it easy to find what I need and when I need them. So… Read more
Everything you need to know about growing tomatoes
This week I’ve started the first in a series – so for all you tomato growers or would-be tomato growers, this is for you. This one is all the background info you need to know in order to grow tomatoes successfully. It isn’t about having a greenhouse or grow lights or any of that, just… Read more