From the first radish to the autumn harvest: growing, care and variety know-how for your vegetable beds.
24 postsBrussels sprouts stand in the bed for almost half a year before the first sprouts are ripe. Two things decide firm versus loose sprouts: a firm soil and topping the growing tip in autumn. Here is how the patience crop succeeds into winter.
Kale is the most honest winter-vegetable classic: winter-hardy, healthy and fresh when other beds are empty. What really happens with the cold stimulus, why a hard frost is not necessary at all, and how to crop it from the bottom up from planting to winter harvest.
Garlic needs the winter to divide into large cloves, so you plant it in October, not in spring. Here is how to choose the right stock, plant the cloves the right way up and harvest a whole bulb from every single clove in July.
A pea is not just a pea: the robust round pea, the sweet marrowfat pea and the crisp mangetout each have their own character. Here is how to choose the right type, sow early into the bed and harvest from the bottom up, entirely without nitrogen fertiliser.
Three routes lead to your own onion: the fast set, the cheap seed onion and the early overwintering onion. Here they stand side by side, plus the trick against bolting and the classic bed duo with the carrot.
The potato is the perfect starter vegetable, entirely without raising plants indoors. Two simple actions decide yield and head start: chitting before planting and earthing up during growth. Here is how to get both right, from mid April to harvest.
The aubergine is the most heat-loving of the fruiting vegetables and succeeds here best in a pot or greenhouse. Here is how to raise it from February, harvest it at the right moment and find the right one between dark purple, striped and mini varieties.
Peppers and chillies are almost the same plant, the difference is the heat. Both need lots of warmth and a very early start. Here is how the raising succeeds from February, and how to find the right variety between the mild sweet pepper and the fiery habanero.
Thousands of tomato varieties, and you have to choose? Two simple axes bring order: the growth habit (cordon or bush) and the use (cocktail, salad, beefsteak, paste, wild). That way you find the right variety for your space and your kitchen.
