Don't let this happen to your tomatoes this year!
Tomato plants are easy to grow but they can succumb to a number of pests and disease. Before delving into common problems, there are a few general steps we can all follow to take care of our plants as healthy plants are always more resilient. Read the rest of this entry →
Having given tips on sowing and transplanting tomatoes, it is time to think about what to grow with your tomatoes so that you can start planning. I love to grow lots of flowers around my tomato plants as they look pretty, cover the soil and deter pests as well as attracting pollinating insects.
Chicory - Good for us all
Ummm me want chicory
Did you know that chicory is not just a very tasty to us humans. We may go a little crazy and use it as an alternative to lettuce and something to add a bit of spice to a salad, but recent studies have shown that sheep benefit from grazing on chicory when it is sown within grass and used as a grazing crop. Farmers Weekly recently published an article in which chicory was praised as it has proven to be a far more resiliant crop than grass alone. Read the rest of this entry →
Carefully chosen flowers such as this Buddleia, will attract lots of beneficial insects to your vegetable garden
A guru I may be but predicting the future is not something I profess to be too good at. Despite last month’s tips on the hot weather, August has not been the hottest month on record, in fact it has been quite cool. Therefore many crops may be later ripening and some will be giving quite poor returns. However, despite rainfall having been quite high, there is still a need to conserve water and be a little careful as September is predicted to be quite dry and warm. Now that the children are back at school, parents may have the opportunity at last to put away garden toys and pay some attention to garden maintenance before the weather turns too cool and daylight hours too short. We have seen quite a few hoverflies this Summer, which is great news. Looking rather like wasps (in order to protect themselves from predators) they are quite harmless. Hoverfly larvae like to feed on aphids and so they should be attracted to the garden by planting flowers in the vegetable plot as the adult hoverfly feeds on nectar and pollen. We planted nicandra flowers next to our brassicas which has definitely helped our fight against the whitefly! Read the rest of this entry →
