Stephanie's Garden Blog

We have been busy preparing for a photoshoot this week and everything is now looking lovely with the hedges trimmed into shape and lots of weeding and tidying done. It is very satisfying to look round the garden and see what has been achieved with all our hard work.

If you have a sunny patio you can grow an amazing variety of fruit and vegetables in very little space. You won't be self sufficient but you can certainly make a good contribution to your kitchen table.

It has been a very good week in the kitchen garden everything is growing well and yielding lots of produce. We have red currents, spinach, courgettes, broad beans, rhubarb, sprouting broccoli, and cucumbers and the shallots are ready to be lifted and dried.

This week in the kitchen garden it has been a week of planting out, the last of the runner beans (Enorma) have been put in. This year we are doing more successional sowing, to give a longer harvest period and to hopefully avoid a glut of any one vegetable.

The last of the cauliflower (Romanesco) has now been planted out under the cover of butterfly netting to protect them from the butterflies, and the caterpillars that will eventually follow.

Themes at this years RHS Chatsworth Flower Show centred on mental health, reconnecting with nature and the creation of biophilic meditation spaces. The Harrod Horticultural Moon Gate Arch was a stunning feature on the Gold Winning 'Space Within' Garden.

This week has been very productive in the kitchen garden the first of our broad beans have been harvested along with some very juicy strawberries and the rhubarb I feel like a crumble might be on the cards the only decision is cream, custard or ice-cream.

The kitchen garden is thriving and a lot of work has been done this week, the celery and celeriac have been planted in their final positions and seem to be very happy. The last of the courgette plants have been planted now too

It's been lovely in the kitchen garden this week plenty of blue skies and sunshine, this of course means no rain and an awful lot of watering, as this has been a week of planting.