Community questions

I know us girls have a reputation for changing our minds, but when it comes to the garden design doesnt it have to be a living organic idea? Something that changes regularly, mine seems to be changing alot this week. The rain has been regular and fortunatly so has the sunny spells so everything is shooting up (including the weeds) I am now harvesting Broad beans, French Beans and hundreds of...

This is the first year that I have been growing my own vegetables that I really feel at one with my garden, I come home from a hard day at work and only begin to start feeling more human again when I have had my bum in the air weeding for about an hour. I think my friends started thinking I was a garden bore as thats all I ever talk about, thats until I started sharing my produce with them! The...

Another week of tidying up. Another bed completed and covered. I've got 12 beds in all and about half have been tidied and covered. Still when it is all done I will be able to get on with other stuff. I'll spread the manure and compost on the beds that will grow potatoes and beans/peas/courgettes/marrows etc. keeping them covered and hoping that the worms will incorporate it into the soil and I...

Nursing the last of the bramble foraging scratches, I can’t believe it's October already!  Despite the shortening days and cooler temperatures, the plot and polytunnel continue to be a source of gorgeous growing-ness.  Autumn’s a good time to reflect on what the garden’s given us over the months, and continues to provide now.  Fresh greens and salads, potatoes...

Do pumpkins need to be pollenated like courgettes do? I seem to have loads of male flowers but few female flowers

Last night tech-savvy food lovers across the UK were found hopping around their kitchens with a pack of pumpkin seeds in one hand and an iPhone in the other as they took part in our first River Cottage cook-along, twEATs. Working with our friends at River Cottage, Central Station and NVA, we published a list of ingredients needed for the mystery recipe last week. By 7pm last night, the...

Pumpkins are Smashing! Always save your seeds from any fruit, flower or vegetable, plant & have a go, you'll never know what you'll get! The pumpkins are coming on magnificently this year. The weather has been good and the plants are gorging themselves on the well rotted horse manure dug into the ground underneath them. The "Pumpgettes" are doing rather well too. What is a "Pumpgette"? Well,...

The Landshare Team are chuffed and basking in the reflective glory of Hugh winning Campaigner of the Year in the 2010 Observer Ethical Awards for his work on Landshare.  The Grassroots category winner was Abundance. Hugh met Abundance last year, but I have to admit I’d not come across them before.  Their growing grassroots project has teams of volunteers across the UK...