Stephanie's Garden Blog

Making cider is really easy and a good way to use up a glut of fruit. Some experts say use only cider apples, others mainly dessert and others mainly cooking but in reality most home cider makers use whatever apples that they have at hand.

This week In Stephanie's Kitchen Garden we will be preparing the garden for a week long absence as Jo takes her summer holidays. It's always a nervous time for gardeners going on holiday during the hot summer months, but with careful planning, it can be managed with minimal stress.

The ComposTumbler uses a unique process which can make compost in as little as 14 days. You can make compost in 3 easy steps with a ComposTumbler.

This week In Stephanie's Kitchen Garden we will be sowing crops such as spring cabbage, turnips, pak choi, autumn carrots and winter salads.

This week In Stephanie's Kitchen Garden we will be pruning our espalier apple trees. Summer is the ideal time to carry out this annual job and our apple trees have put on an enormous amount of growth this year. They are definitely ready for a haircut!

This week In Stephanie's Kitchen Garden we will be planting out some winter broccoli in to new vegetable cages. We have two identical cages put up side by side. One is covered with white insect mesh and the other in covered with new black insect mesh. We are running a trial to see if the plants grow differently according to the colour of the mesh.

With autumn not far away now it will soon be the time to pick the bountiful harvest of fruit that you have protected and nourished through the summer months. The question is, 'what do you do with all the excess apples?'

This week In Stephanie's Kitchen Garden we will be harvesting our blackcurrants in the fruit cage. This is such a low maintenance crop, with the bushes needing very little attention through the year.

Caterpillars develop from eggs laid by Moths and Butterflies. There are many different species and many that produce caterpillars damaging to plants. Some of the most damaging for brassica plants are the cabbage white caterpillars; the large cabbage white (Pieris brassicae) and the small cabbage white (Pieris rapae).