 Friday, March 12, 2010 by Jeremy Dore (1 comments)
Kitchen gardening has undergone a revolution over the past decade as garden companies, keen to exploit the resurgence of interest in healthy home-grown vegetables, have pushed the idea of ‘convenience gardening’. This has led to some strange excesses such as the recent expose by Gardening Which magazine that found carrot plug-plants being sold at £1.09 each ($1.60) – more than a whole bunch of organic carrots would normally cost. There is definitely a place for plug plants and convenience but sometimes the traditional methods are worth reviving and the art of creating a seedbed is one of those methods definitely worth learning... Read more...
Categories: organic gardening seeds |
Friday, February 06, 2009 by Jeremy Dore (9 comments)
I love choosing seeds for the coming year. Spending time browsing through the pages of various seed catalogues is a dreamy experience: it is all about buying into the vision of summer filled with perfect crops and a beautiful garden. This year, I got my orders in early and now have my treasure-box of seed packets, all neatly sorted, waiting for the weather to warm up sufficiently to get sowing. So I thought it would be worth reviewing what some of the best criteria are for buying seeds... Read more...
Categories: seeds, organic, F1 hybrid, GM, heirloom |
Friday, March 14, 2008 by Jeremy Dore (18 comments)
Potting compost is vital to starting off vegetable seedlings early and is something that nearly all gardeners buy. Yes, in theory you can make your own by sieving and sterilising your home-made compost and then mixing it with sand and some moisture-retaining ingredients. But few of us have the time or equipment to do so. So each year we buy millions of bags of potting compost without really knowing what goes into the bag. This week I set out to find out... Read more...
Categories: organic gardening seeds compost |
Friday, February 15, 2008 by Jeremy Dore (4 comments)
For many people Harvest is the part of the growing year that they most look forward to: finally all the hard work they have put in results in a wonderful crop of delicious fresh produce. But for me, even the pleasure of late summer comes second place to that time in early spring when I sow my first seeds in pots of fresh compost on a windowsill. What is it that transforms such a seemingly mundane task into one of delight? I think it must be the promise of nature – the wonder of growing productive plants from the tiniest of seeds, the opportunity to be part of the creative process. Perhaps this is why some people talk to their plants (Prince Charles being the most famous example.) Read more...
Categories: vegetables growing seeds |
Friday, January 25, 2008 by Jeremy Dore (0 comments)
One of the luxuries of growing your own fruit and vegetables has to be the wonderful range of varieties available. In this age of standardised supermarket produce it’s delightful to have such a great choice of seeds. Why do tomatoes always have to be perfectly round? Why must lettuce always be available in the same standard sized type each week? When you grow your own vegetables become so more interesting! Read more...
Categories: growing vegetables seeds |
Friday, December 28, 2007 by Jeremy Dore (0 comments)
After the rush of Christmas, there are two things that arrive in the letterbox in my household: travel brochures and seed catalogues. Now these may seem like unrelated items but I think there are strong parallels between the two. Both offer glossy photographs of an idealised result from your purchase, both have beautifully composed write-ups about the benefits of choosing their offerings and such escapism is particularly attractive on dismal wet January days! Of course, there are many types of travel brochure – and gardener – which set me thinking about similarities with where I get seed from... Read more...
Categories: gardening seeds |