Stephanie's Garden Blog

For so long given a bad press, and cast as the perennial villain of the piece, the humble British Chip has it’s annual opportunity to fight back. For this week, beginning on Monday 13th February and continuing through to Sunday 19th, is National Chip Week.

The fluctuating winter weather is proving havoc with the country’s insect population – and ladybirds in particular are feeling the cold, according to the UK Phenology Network.

Many view the growing of fruit on trees as a romantic journey back through time, with childhood memories of long summer days in traditional orchards, bursting with blossom or ripening fruit, and wonderful scents and smells filling the air, depending on the time of year.

This remarkably named moth (plodia interpunctella), which measures 10mm long, lurks in the larder. The adult moths are are grey/white colour at the front and the lower half is a rusty brown; the moths like to fly at night and lay eggs on grain and dried food.

As the summer slips away and mornings grow noticably cooler, culinary thoughts turn to hearty, warming, autumnal soups and broths.

Stephanies Kitchen Garden has been the subject of various articles and features in the gardening press over recent years and inviting a single gardening journalist to the garden takes plenty of planning, preparation and general tidying up – so imagine the effort involved when eight representatives of the country’s leading gardening publications and highbrow daily newspapers are due to drop in! Martin Fiddes was on hand to witness preparations...

What will you require? To gain the full benefit of a greenhouse, a source of heat (other than the sun) is essential. This level of heat varies greatly, from the bare necessity of preventing frost damage, to the expense of providing high temperatures for exotic plants.

July was a testing time as I was busy fending off attacks from mice (chief suspects) whilst battling against tropical temperatures.

You might recall the visit of Splash Broadcast to Stephanie's Kitchen Garden last August and the footage of the garden and Harrod Horticultural products they shot back then has been helping our customers understand and assemble the more technical items we supply ever since, thanks to the video clips located on the product pages of our main site.