CATEGORIES

We love June

We're cruising towards midsummer: this is a month full of love and abundance. Wherever you look there will be something in your garden that lifts the spirits and makes you glad to be alive. We have colour to cheer us, we have leaves that still have the bounce and freshness of small puppies, we have the first berries fattening up, there are birds frantically parenting very demanding broods of chicks, the bees are all over the place, it's prime barbecue and picnic season, and we have lawns as lush and green as billiard tables. What a month to fall in love.

FLAVOURSOME FRUIT CURRANTS

you If I want to plant some soft fruit that is easy to grow and will give you plenty of flavour, how about trying currants?

A CORNUCOPIA OF COURGETTES

It's time to sow a first batch of tender crops such as courgettes for picking through the summer months. KG editor Steve Ott has some tips for a super harvest

A SPACE APART

Instagrammer James Martin shares his love of gardening and how much it has helped him and his family both mentally and physically under very difficult circumstances

MANAGING WEEDS, NATURALLY

Weeds are never far away but you can keep them at bay without recourse to weedkillers

HITTING THE SWEET SPOT

Welcome to the wonderful world of sweetcorn as Rob Smith takes a look at both old and newer varieties, with some growing advice too

TRY AMARANTH! The dual-purpose veg

Garden Organic's research manager Anton Rosenfeld extols the virtues of amaranth and how to grow it

Meet the apple doctor

KG editor Steve Ott chats to Glyn Smith, head gardener for the National Trust's Erddig estate in Wrexham, about his career and love of the garden he has tended for 38 years

OUR PLOTTER OF THE MONTH

Kitchen Garden readers 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 talented competition winners

A NEW Kitchen garden!

It's time for sowing and planting in the new garden and while Martin is busy with that, Jill is making a tasty asparagus soup

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