I thought I’d share the photo of my tomato plant, taken on January 6, 2021. I read in a summer edition of KG that new tomato plants can be grown from sideshoots, so I thought I’d experiment! I put the shoot in a pot, added in the compost and for a wh

STEP 1: Dig the bed over and incorporate some compost, well-rotted manure or dried feed, depending on what’s available. Use a dibber to make holes at 30cm (12in) apart for earlies and 40cm (16in) for maincrop. Holes should be 15-20cm (6-8in) deep. Pu

FOXGLOVE - Poisonous if eaten. (Will often self seed) CROCUS - Great to lift your spirits after a long winter APPLE AND PEAR - Have several varieties for cross pollination BLACKBERRY AND BRAMBLE – Why not let a few brambles grow through a hedge? BROO

New to the Dobies’ Rob Smith Range is ‘Green Fingers’, a snackable cucumber which will produce high yields of smooth, dark green and spineless 10cm (4in) long fruits. This is predominantly a female flowering variety that can be grown outside or in a

If you are, that makes you a member of our Mudketeers’ Club, a dedicated website for subscribers ONLY. www.mudketeers.co.uk includes exciting offers, brand new seed variety trials, competitions and unique features just for you. Go to www.mudketeers.c

■ Pests such as celery fly(or celery leaf miner) will start to cause problems by tunnelling the leaves from May onwards, and peaking in late summer/autumn. Protect against them by covering the plants in crop protection fleece or insect netting after

Emma is sowing ‘Sweet Horizon’ mangetout, ideal for steaming or stir-fries. Seeds can be sown March-July and pods harvested June-September, depending on when you sowed them. One method is to sow in cell trays initially, one seed per cell, filled with

■ WATER REGULARLY: Potted plants rely on you almost entirely for water since the leaves often deflect it. Check them every day in summer. If you need to be away for long periods, consider installing a reliable irrigation system. These can be linked t

This affects parsnips as well as carrots. Keep the bed covered with fine mesh net to keep flies out. Put this on when you sow and leave it in place until the crop is lifted. Uncover for weeding, but don’t leave the bed exposed for long if you want gr

■ If you can provide constant warmth in a greenhouse, start to sow melon and cucumber seeds in a heated propagator. ■ Sow peas and mangetout in large pots of compost where they will grow and crop in summer. ■ Harvest spring cabbage and greens from th

(AGM is the RHS Award of Garden Merit. Under RHS garden trials these varieties performed particularly well) SAVE UP TO £36 The collection contains one bare root plant each of: ■ ‘BEN CONNAN’ This excellent and reliable blackcurrant tolerates frost an

1 Slip brassica collars around newly planted cabbages and sprouts. The collars serve as a physical barrier to cabbage root flies, preventing them from laying their eggs 2 Include nearby companion plants. Nasturtiums tempt cabbage white butterflies aw

This brand new planter from The Posh Shed Company comes in nine sizes. It has fully pressurised treated timber walls and a base that will not rot, made from recycled plastic board. www.theposhshedcompany.co.uk This pack contains everything needed to

Rhubarb has been cropping for weeks now, such a versatile ingredient for many sweet and savoury dishes. I make this relish without any added sugar, using dried fruit and orange juice to add sweetness. Keep it in the fridge for a week or so. ■ 500g/17

Trees may be full of blossom over the next few weeks, but this doesn’t automatically ensure that trees will be full of autumn fruit. Those flowers need to be pollinated to make fruit set, so try following a few techniques to aid the process: ■ Learn

■ ‘MULTI-HEADED F1’: This produces one large head and three to five smaller side heads for later use. This unique cut-and-come-again cauliflower is perfect for those of you who like to harvest your crop in your own time. (Suttons) ■ ‘CHINESE SWEET SP

In January of this year the BBC reported that a dog walker in Tyne and Wear alerted the police to what she thought was a human foot buried in mud. When police investigated it turned out that what looked like a toe protruding through the mud was actua

■ As soon as you empty a watering can in the greenhouse, refill it from the water butt and bring it back inside. This does two things. Firstly, it allows the cold water time to get to room temperature so that when you water the plant, its roots don’t

This is really easy to do and I recommend it for home growers. To do this, I knock the pollen from the top flowering part of the corn (the tassels) into a plastic container. I then use a wide, dry paintbrush to paint the pollen on to the ‘silks’ that

Different species of bees have different requirements when it comes to nesting. Solitary bees like leaf cutters and mason bees will look for cavities in the soil, walls, trees, bricks, and in the hollow stems of plants, such as bamboo as in bee hotel