CATEGORIES

EASY DOES IT!

As the growing season gathers pace there's one thing often in short supply: time! Ever feel like you're chasing your tail? Benedict Vanheems offers some tips to save valuable time and effort

THE CREATURE FEATURE Beauty and the thief

We all know how valuable bees are on the plot - without their pollinating power, our harvests would be pretty pathetic. This month, Jack Edmonds takes a look at some common April plot visitors, the mining bees, and the parasitic nomad bees out to spoil their fun...

A BEAN FOR EVERY GARDEN

You'll be amazed at just how many varieties of French beans there are, both old and new. Rob Smith takes us on a tour of some of his favourites

Kitchen +Garden TOP PICKS

It's time to get growing and you'll need the very best products for sure-fire success this spring. Check out this selection of must-have products from some of our trusted partners, which should be on your shopping list this month

MIND THE GAP

Garden Organic's Anton Rosenfeld shows you how to plug the 'hungry gap' in spring and have ready supplies of home-grown food all year round

OUR PLOTTER OF THE MONTH

Kitchen Garden readers really rose to the challenge when we asked for pictures of their plots to appear in the magazine this year. It’s time to meet another of our 12 creative and talented Plotter of the Month winners

MAKE YOUR OWN TOPSOIL

Becky Searle explains the complex nature of soil, its principal constituents and how it is structured. She also shows how easy it is to create your own

HARD TO BEET

Tony Flanagan offers a whistle-stop guide to growing this much-loved root and picks out some varieties you might like to try

A NEW Kitchen garden!

Having made a start on clearing the ground, Martin Fish now sets about creating the raised beds and placing his compost bin in the right spot. Meanwhile, Jill serves up something sweet and deliciously tangy

QUESTION TIME

GOT A FRUIT OR VEG PROBLEM? ASK KG FOR HELP

TOP JOBS FOR APRIL

ESSENTIAL TASKS FOR YOUR VEG PATCH AND PROTECTED CROPS

BEDS ON A BUDGET

Setting up and filling raised beds doesn't come cheap. But there are ways of keeping the cost relatively low, as Benedict Vanheems demonstrates

FLAVOURSOME FRUIT GROWING IN CONTAINERS

Want to grow fruit in pots on your patio or in your backyard? Top tips and advice this month from fruit expert David Patch

DIGGING THE DIRT PARSNIP WARS

All's fair in love and war, as John Holloway recounts the friendly rivalry he shares with fellow allotmenteer Joe

Paying it forward

We meet Ross Pearson, a gardening writer and horticultural lecturer from Northumberland, who was inspired and helped by his grandfather and now passes on his experience to the next generation of gardeners

ASPARAGUS TIPS

Asparagus can be expensive to buy in the shops, but given a little space and time, it’s easy to grow this gourmet treat in your own back garden. Here’s how...

HUW'S HEROES!

This month Huw Richards explains a method of organising your choice of crop varieties - with reliable stalwarts on the one side and those offering something more demanding on the other

FLOWERS TO feast on!

In this extract taken from A Floral Feast: A Guide to Growing and Cooking with Edible Flowers, Foliage, Herbs and Seeds, Carolyn Dunster focuses on three beautiful and popular annuals

GARDENING WITH MINIMAL DISTURBANCE

Gardening is about balance, says Huw Richards. This month he explains the underlying principles that inform his approach to gardening

THE MAGIC

Not one to do things by halves, Instagrammer Helen Hutchings Cox has fully embraced the adventure of growing her own crops

GO EARLY WITH PEAS

Home-grown peas are a taste sensation and they are so easy to grow. Early varieties can be sown from the middle of the month. Here are some of our favourites

CASH CROPS

Food prices remain inflated, with prices of staples - including fruits and vegetables rocketing over the past few years. So what's to be done? The solution, of course, lies in our own muddy hands, as Benedict Vanheems explains

DAHLIAS

From being totally unenamoured with dahlias for many years, Jane Kelly had a road to Damascus moment and now she just adores them...or is it that she's just getting older?

OUR PLOTTER OF THE MONTH

Our annual competition to find 12 readers and their plots to appear in Kitchen Garden magazine had a great response. Meet another of this year's creative and talented winners

TOMATOES

From garden classics to modern marvels, Rob Smith surveys the wonderful world of one of summer's most popular crops

POLYECO

THE ULTIMATE GROWING SPACE

One in a million

For many species, including wasps, lacewings and small birds, aphids are the bread and butter of survival; nutritious, defenceless and plentiful. Jack Edmonds takes a closer look at their amazing lifecycle

Kitchen garden!

This month Martin Fish begins a new series documenting the development of a kitchen garden at Ivy Cottage in Lincolnshire, his and Jill's new home. Plus another tasty recipe from Jill

A tuber full of potential!

Garden Organic's Anton Rosenfeld shares his advice for growing this unusual root vegetable, which can be eaten like a potato

PEAT

This month Becky Searle explains why peat and its preservation are so important and offers advice on peat-free composts