Innholdsfortegnelse for Winter 2022 i Kitchen Garden

In this special winter edition of Kitchen Garden magazine we have lots of great features to help you get the best from the plot during the cold months and to prepare the ground for a super successful growing year ahead. And if you are new to growing fruit and vegetables, be sure to check out our four-page feature starting on page 6 which gives you all the advice you need to take your first steps into this great hobby. We all know that growing your own food can offer a great way to fill your freezer and feed your family for less, and in this issue we have lots of advice to help you make your food budget go further. In his new series Martin Fish uses a lifetime of…

Where space is limited stick to your favourites and those which are expensive to buy. If you only have room for pots or small raised beds, try: POTATOES: can be grown in bags or large pots. BEANS: especially dwarf beans which need no support and are self-pollinating. Easy to freeze. Expensive in the shops. TOMATOES: so many delicious varieties and make great soups and sauces. ROCKET: quick to grow and plentiful, yet relatively expensive and packed in plastic by the stores. Grow year-round on the windowsill. LETTUCE: and other mixed leaves can be grown in a pot as cut-and-come-again crops, again, year-round. CHARD: colouful chard can be used as a spinach substitute or stir-fry veg but is slow to bolt (run to seed) and pretty enough to grow in the…

YOU & YOUR PLOT Get in touch by post, email or via our Facebook page: Facebook.com/kitchengardenmag STRIPPED TO A SKELETON During the growing season, all the leaves on my gooseberry and raspberry bushes were stripped to a skeleton. David Withenshaw, Weymouth ★ STAR ★ QUESTION WINS £25 VOUCHER STEVE SAYS: It is likely that your plants have been attacked by caterpillars – perhaps of two different species. Gooseberries are commonly stripped by a pest called gooseberry sawfly and this damage can start early in the season. The caterpillars are well camouflaged but if you look closely you may see green larvae with black spots (see main picture) and they can strip a plant in days once they get going. They also attack currants, but there are plenty of other species…

Parsnips are a great veg to enjoy over the winter months as they are high in vitamin C, fibre and antioxidants. Waiting for the first frosts before you dig your parsnips means you'll get sweeter roots but I'm afraid I'm usually too impatient to wait! They're extremely versatile and can be steamed, boiled or roasted, added to stews and casseroles or grated in fritters. All sorts of flavours can be used with them. Maple syrup and brown sugar will bring out the sweetness of the root veg whereas garlic, pepper, parsley or thyme will bring out their earthiness. This parsnip recipe is definitely a sweet treat though! MAKES 15 servings Preparation time: 20 minutes Cooking time: 40 minutes 4 clementines or 2 oranges, zest and juice 140g (5oz) sultanas 300g…

NEW SERIES When it comes to winter food, it's those rich and hearty dishes that defrost your chilly fingers and warm your cockles that we all crave. From casseroles and stews to roasts and soups, there are certain fruit and veg that we grow all summer in anticipation of snuggling up on the sofa with a bowl of something scrumptious. LEEKS One of the most versatile of winter staples has to be the leek, with its ability to crop for months, while shrugging off the worst that winter can throw at it. When choosing which variety to grow I like to pick one for autumn and one for winter, giving me enough to harvest from August right through to the following March. Heritage varieties such as ‘Musselburgh’ can be sown…

Your new allotment site opened in 2018 and developed over the following years. How many plots do you have now and is there a waiting list? We have 48 full-size, five small and 12 raised beds. Yes, we do have a waiting list at the moment. Has the site been popular with families? Yes, this last 12 months we have developed a real community feel with the introduction of younger families with children taking on plots. How would you describe your membership in terms of age and background? We have all walks of life up at Vicarage Lane and a mix of ages and backgrounds, from retired members, young families and also wheelchair users. Having raised beds has enabled people who are less able to enjoy growing their own fruit…

SPRING PLANTING ONION, SHALLOT AND GARLIC COLLECTION An essential part of any kitchen garden has to be alliums. With endless culinary uses, onions, shallots and garlic have become a real staple in virtually every cuisine throughout the ages. This specially selected collection contains some of our best-selling spring planting varieties, picked for their flavour and performance in British gardens. The collection contains two bulbs of garlic ‘Picardy Wight’, a popular softneck variety, a 500g pack of shallot ‘Bistro’ and a 250g pack of onion ‘Stuttgarter Giant’. Take advantage of this collection now to ensure a tasty supply this summer. **You can claim this collection FREE when ordering at least one additional product off the page. WORTH £15.15…

I like to check and re-label my plants in pots at this time of year. I have some perennial plants that die back for the winter such as liquorice and chives and I hate having pots full of compost with no signs of life and no label to identify them. I have started to recycle ice cream lolly sticks to use as labels but I was rather horrified by the amount of sticks I have accumulated. It made me think maybe I should reduce my ice cream intake and buy some wooden labels instead. Well I think I know the answer to that one.…

GIVE US YOUR FEEDBACK AND WIN PRIZES! We love to receive feedback from our readers so that we can be sure we are always giving you the advice and information you need. With this in mind we are launching a reader survey and we'd love as many of you as possible to take part. This is your chance to tell us what you like most (and least) about the magazine and whether there are things you'd like to see more of on its pages. In return for your time, you will be entered into a free prize draw for the chance to win more than £100 worth of top-notch gardening goodies! It's easy to take part – simply scan the QR code below using your mobile phone or tablet or…

PARSNIPS GET GROWING NEW SERIES Parsnips are a reliable and tasty winter vegetable that can remain in the ground all through the winter months. They are sometimes considered difficult to grow, but when given the correct growing conditions you can get some great results and tasty, nutritious roots from October through until the following spring. I always look forward to lifting the first roots of autumn to have with a roast dinner, but of course they can be cooked in many different ways and Jill has some very tasty recipes to make good use of our crop. SOIL CONDITIONS To grow well parsnips like a deep, sandy soil to allow the roots to grow straight down without obstructions. In heavy clay soils, it helps to improve the soil by working in…

GET GROWING NEW SEED VARIETIES Here you will find some totally new varieties and others that are not so new but new to a particular catalogue if you have a favourite one. Happy sowing! SPILLING THE BEANS (AND PEAS!) FRENCH BEAN (DWARF) ‘ATLANTA’ Compact and bushy, this plant produces large and flat, stringless pods with a crisp texture. Fast growing, so a good one for late sowing. 50 seeds for £3.29. (DT Brown) PEA ‘JOHAN’ If you want very a reliable, high-yielding pea plant than this one is a good option. An early/maincrop variety with very good disease resistance, plants will produce 8-10 peas per pod. 300 seeds for £2.80. (Mr Fothergill's) RUNNER BEAN ‘POLESTAR’ This scarlet-flowering runner bean produces a plentiful supply of stringless, tender pods up to 25cm (10in)…

OUR VISION Is that the allotment site is a place where people of all abilities can come and enjoy growing their own produce. To build friendships and promote health, well-being and sustainability. OUR MISSION Is that the allotments will be a welcoming community place where our focus is on people, sustainable organic cultivation in a supporting and learning environment. OUR VALUES Are to be kind, honest, inclusive, enthusiastic and fair. To achieve our Visions, Mission and Values we will Encourage allotment members to achieve their goals Include our members in decision making in line with our values Act against discrimination – treating everyone as ‘equal’ with respect Be accountable for personal behaviour Promote exercise and enjoyment of the outdoors Provide a space to help with relaxation and alleviate stress Act…

Call the credit card and debit card order hotline on 0333 003 0869* (Monday to Friday – Sam to 6pm; weekends – 9am to 5pm (subject to change). To qualify for the free item at least one item must be ordered. Only orders above £10 by phone please. *Calls cost 3p per minute plus your phone company's access charge. Please contact your phone provider for confirmation of your agreement. Or send a cheque made payable to D T Brown Seeds to: Kitchen Garden WINTER Offers (KG22WINT), D T Brown Seeds, Unit 8, St Leger Drive, Newmarket Business Park, Newmarket, CB8 7DT. Orders will be despatched in January, 2023. Otter subject to availability, only one FREE collection per household. D T Brown reserves the right to substitute with a product of…

GET COOKING GARLIC PANCETTA SPAGHETTI This dish is simple, but it is excellent when time is of the essence! SERVES 4 Preparation time: 5 minutes Cooking time: 15 minutes Can be frozen 10Og (3½oz) pancetta, diced 4 cloves garlic, minced ½ lemon, juice of 300g (10oz) spaghetti 100g (3½Oz) grated Parmesan A good grinding of pepper 1 cup pasta cooking water 1 tbsp olive oil 1 bunch of parsley 1. Bring a large pan of water to the boil and cook the spaghetti for 7-10 minutes. 2. Preheat a large frying pan on high heat. Add the diced pancetta and stir with a spatula to prevent it from sticking. Cook for about 4-5 minutes until the fat is rendered and the pancetta pieces are just starting to crisp. 3. Turn…

If you are lacking time but have a little space, consider perennial fruit and veg. You can even plant them in a garden border to create your own version of a forest garden. Once planted these need little attention and being deep-rooted need much less water – a big advantage with hotter, drier summers predicted: LAYER ONE: Tree fruit – plant a fruit tree on dwarfing or semidwarfing rootstocks such as an apple, pear, plum or cherry. These can also be used to shade and shelter or even support a climbing crop such as beans once established. LAYER TWO: Planted around the tree. Perennials such as rhubarb, globe and Jerusalem artichokes, perennial types of onion and kale, asparagus, herbs such as mint, oregano and chives. LAYER THREE: Annual crops such…

Well, bit of a problem when I came to plant my broad bean plants in the polytunnel. The soil was rock hard, so hard in fact that no fork or spade would ever penetrate it. This – I realised somewhat belatedly – was the result of this year's very hot summer and the fact that I used self-watering pots for my tomatoes and cucumbers. Consequently, very little water got to the soil. Still, armed with my trusty weapon of choice and with a bit of hard graft, I'll be breaking up the surface and giving the soil a good drenching. And maybe then, I'll be able to plant my young ‘Aquadulce Claudia’. A lesson learned however!…

TROMBONCINO FANTASTICO We love reading the magazine, and my daughter Milly has had a huge amount of fun planting our free seeds. This year we tried growing ‘Tromboncino’ squash, not really knowing what to expect. We were amazed by the success of our efforts and we've been living off the results for months! We had so many we decided to leave a couple on the plants to see if we could get any taller than Milly, and we just about managed it with our best effort standing at 4ft 3in. We can't wait to grow them again next year and we're already planning for how we can get them even bigger. Thanks so much, and keep up the good work! Chris Ralph, Manchester STAR LETTER WINS £25 VOUCHER WONDER-WOOL The…

■ If you've problems getting parsnips to germinate, try starting the seeds off on damp kitchen paper in a plastic container. Stand this in a dark, warm place and when the seeds have germinated and produced a short root, carefully transplant into the garden. ■ Some people also start their parsnips off in old toilet rolls filled with compost in a greenhouse and then plant out when the seedlings are a few inches tall. ■ Unlike many other vegetable seeds, parsnip seed doesn't keep once opened, so it's best to start with a fresh packet each year. ■ If very frosty weather is forecast it's a good idea to cover over part of the row with straw or a mulch of leaves to prevent the ground from freezing, allowing you…

USE COMPOST SPARINGLY Seed and potting composts are a main expense when growing your own if you like to start off some veg seeds in pots. It is possible to reduce the amount of compost you use as you don't need a lot of compost to germinate seeds in. Once they have germinated, they can be transplanted into other pots and at this stage you can decide how many plants you actually need and therefore only use the compost you need to grow plants on to maturity. Ideally, start off a few seeds in very small pots, small, celled trays or shallow seed trays. SAVE SEEDS This is a great way to save money because seeds are so expensive. If the variety name you have grown has F1 in the…

We all like to experiment in the garden. In fact, most of us do it all the time, perhaps without realising it. An experiment doesn't have to involve sophisticated equipment, clipboards or people in white coats. Anything that compares different growing methods or varieties can be classed loosely as an experiment. The advantage of experimentation in the garden is that you are tailoring your knowledge and experience to your own personal set of growing conditions such as location, aspect, microclimate and soil type. SOME PRACTICAL GUIDELINES ■ Compare side-by-side, and only change one thing at a time. Too often people make comparisons between varieties or techniques grown in different seasons, so you're not giving them a fair trial. For example, the flavour of a potato can be influenced by the…

(AGM is the RHS Award of Garden Merit. Under RHS garden trials these varieties performed particularly well) SAVE UP TO £24.20 ALSO IN THE KG SHOP THIS MONTH SPRING PLANTING GARLIC COLLECTION There's still time to get your garlic planted for this coming season and we've selected three varieties we think are more suited to spring planting. ■ ‘PICARDY WIGHT’: – This variety copes really well with cooler and wetter conditions and will grow in all areas of the UK. Plump and juicy cloves full of flavour. (Two bulbs) ■ ‘SOLENT WIGHT’: This superb softneck strain yields large, fragrant bulbs. Plus, they keep extremely well. (Two bulbs) ■ ‘MERSLEY WIGHT’: This variety has proved to be great for the UK gardener. It has larger cloves and an outstanding vigour, better…

WORTH OVER £1116 DOBIES SEEDS FOR A PRODUCTIVE PLOT Dobies is introducing a range of outstanding new seed varieties for 2023, adding 44 cultivars to its collection. Highlights include cauliflower (Amoresco) ‘Amo 125’ F1 – the first orange Romanesco-type cauliflower. It boasts beautiful conical curds with a bright orange surface and a lighter orange colour throughout the curd – even when cooked! Beetroot ‘Jolie’ F1 is one of the sweetest and best-tasting beets, measuring up to 13.5 Brix. It produces strong plants with dense foliage that provides good ground cover. Turnip ‘Silky Sweet’ F1 is so sweet and juicy it can be eaten like an apple, but with the texture of a firm peach. The plants mature in 35 to 40 days, and the roots stay sweet and tender even…