CATEGORIES

OUR PLOTTER OF THE MONTH

Last year we launched a competition to find 12 readers and their plots that would appear in Kitchen Garden magazine this year.Our latest winner makes the most of her back garden

Green manures

Steve and Val Bradley outline the benefits and challenges of using green manures

Top Ten Berberis

With colourful foliage and prolific flowers, there's a berberis that will suit almost any garden situation

Understanding peat-free

What is peat-free compost and how should we use it? Victoria Wright, of Melcourt Industries, looks at the introduction of peat-free compost and its various components

Mite fever...

Bob explains how you can protect your greenhouse crops in hot weather if they fall prey to red spider mites

ROOTING FOR carrots

KG editor Steve Ott takes a look at one of our most popular root veg and offers his top tips for great harvests

It's a busy bank holiday

IT is the final bank holiday until August and our gardens are in their growing prime, so let’s get out there and make the most of it!

Create a butterfly garden

Nurturing these delicate winged insects will benefit the environment as well as bringing the garden to life

Redefining SUSTAINABILITY

Becky Searle heads up to Cumbria to talk to the couple behind Dalefoot Composts, a company that specialises in peat-free compost, using potash-rich bracken from local farms

GROW YOUR OWN BERRY BOWL

Enjoy the fruits of your labour - literally - says Rob Smith, with home-grown berries. He also highlights some special varieties

CHOW TO BEAT POTATO BLIGHT

Anton Rosenfeld from Garden Organic shares toolkit for tackling blight his troubleshooting

The town dweller's guide to Cottage gardens

A cottage garden without the cottage? Why not, says Martyn Cox, especially as many of the plants and techniques will work just as well in an urban setting

COMBAT APHIDS NATURALLY

This month garden writer and blogger Emily Cupit turns her attention to that sap-sucking menace, the aphid, and offers some eco-friendly ways to control them

TO PINCH OR NOT To PINCH?

Sometimes plants benefit from having their growing tips removed, as Becky Searle explains

Botanical bumbershoots

For a natural high, every garden should feature living parasols, says Toby, as he praises the humble umbel

Planting out seedlings

They’re hardened off, ready to go and grow

Managing molluscs

This is an exciting time for crops, and for rampaging slugs and snails. Bob shows you how to keep things in check

It's all go in the greenhouse

Undercover growing is going at full tilt now

Ups and downs

Erratic weather has its good and bad points

Everlasting Dahlias

Graham Rice reveals his selection of pompon dahlias, plus small and miniature ball and cactus dahlias, that easily fit in with other flowers and are particularly long flowering

Bringing you the sunshine

Colourful sunflowers provide cheery height

Cut back for more flowers

The Chelsea chop will help some perennials

Be inspired and Plant a winner!

Chelsea’s Plant of the Year competition recognises reliability as well as innovation, and provides some of the best options for our gardens

How to deal with diseases

Nip them in the bud before they spread

Top Ten Lilacs

In recent years, traditional lilacs have been joined by many new varieties and there are so many good ones,

Plant mutations

Steve and Val Bradley explain how many of the varieties we regard as ‘normal’, particularly variegated plants, actually started as a mutation or sport

'Tis the season for containers

Celebrate baskets of colour and patio pots

High and mighty

Selecting climbers for your garden might feel like a tall order sometimes, but it’s well within your reach

Hardy annuals, biennials and veg

Alan Toogood explains how to raise hardy annuals from seed sown in spring or autumn, hardy biennials that take two years to grow to mature, and easily grown vegetables

Ask JOHN NEGUS

John will reply personally to all your gardening questions