Growing tomatoes is so much fun! Tomato plants will grow happily in a sunny border or in large containers of peat-free compost.
There are two types of tomatoes – cordon and bush tomatoes. Cordon (also known as indeterminate) tomatoes can form tall plants, reaching 2m or more! Don’t worry – you can ‘stop’ your plants from growing any taller by simply pinching out the tip of your plant’s stem, when your plants have reached your desired height.
Dalefoot Composts have produced the top performing peat free composts in all of the Compost Trials that I’ve run over the past seven years. Rather than just continually highlighting every year that Dalefoot Composts are the best peat free composts to use, I designed this Compost Trial to demonstrate methods you could use to get the best results from one of their products, namely Dalefoot Double Strength Wool Compost.
Every year I run Compost Trials to discover the best quality peat-free composts on the market. Dalefoot Composts have produced the top performing composts in all of my Trials, over the past seven years.
One of my favourite products is Dalefoot’s Double Strength Wool Compost, a nutrient rich, organic compost, comprised of natural materials, including bracken and Herdwick sheep’s wool.
November is an exciting month, full of opportunities in the garden. Take time out to enjoy the fleetingly beautiful glory of the moment, as leaves of burnished gold and crimson light up the landscape. At this time of year, it’s important to plan ahead and to plant trees and bee friendly flowers, for future generations to enjoy.
Home grown garlic is one of life’s joys. The best garlic is planted in autumn. So, if you’re thinking of growing your own garlic, don’t delay, this is the time to plant it!
Garlic Growing ConditionsOver the years I’ve grown a lot of garlic. The best garlic I’ve grown was planted in a free draining, sandy soil, in early autumn.
I am a passionate advocate for going peat free. I’ve always been a peat free gardener, but I’ve not always managed to find good quality peat free compost. To search for good quality peat free products, I run peat free Compost Trials every year. Dalefoot Composts have been the top performing compost brand, in all of my trials to date.
May is a wonderful month, enhanced by the uplifting serene, perfect green of all the wonderful new leaves, as they open on trees and shrubs, and the expectation and hope of the arrival of rose and peony flowers. I love to see the first rose buds of the year developing on my favourite roses.
Sowing seeds is a wonderfully cost-effective way to garden. Many hardy annual plants can be grown from seed this month, providing us with a quick and easy way to fill our gardens with beautiful flowers, in a wide range of colours and forms.
Many annual plants provide a valuable source of nectar, pollen, and food for insects.
I just adore growing fruit and vegetables! Any form of edible gardening is a soul enriching experience, which I would encourage you to try.
When to sow tomato seeds and plant tomato plants outside?Last year, I ran a Tomato Trial, to discover delicious, productive, and reliable tomato varieties. My tomato seeds were sown inside my Access Garden Products Glasshouse in the middle of March.
I love growing fruit, vegetables, and herbs. We’ve all got our favourite heritage tomatoes, but have you tried any new tomato varieties? Last year, I grew lots of new tomato varieties, as part of my quest to discover the most delicious and productive tomato cultivars available to gardeners!
The objectives of this Tomato Trial were to identify delicious, productive, disease resistant tomato varieties, and to discover whether any of the trialled tomato cultivars perform differently when planted in the ground or grown in a container.
I love growing vegetables, it’s a truly wonderful, soul enriching experience to grow your own food! Sadly an increasing number of us are without the luxury of a garden or allotment and have nowhere to grow vegetables, herbs, fruit, or flowers; while a great many others struggle to garden in small, often paved spaces, without any access to the soil.
I am sorry to say that 2018 was a terrible year for many of the daffodils grown in the UK. The daffodils that were grown for my 2018 Scented Daffodil Trial experienced snow at the end of March, at a time when many of my trialled daffodil cultivars were grown, some of my daffodils stood poised and ready, just thinking about blossoming and coming into flower.
Peatlands are extraordinary environments, which cover just 2-3% of the planet’s surface. These scarce ecosystems are also very fragile, they are dependent on sufficient moisture levels being available, and they require a slightly cooler temperature range to allow the necessary sphagnum moss, which slowly forms peat, to grow, flourish, and reproduce. Peat bogs can increase at a rate of one millimetre per year if the desired conditions are present.
There are many wild, beautiful, and fascinating areas of our planet that are diminishing due to human destruction. These precious natural areas require our protection urgently, before it’s too late and they are destroyed or lost altogether. There are relatively small areas of rainforests, peat bogs and peatlands remaining on our planet, yet these areas are continuing to be destroyed by humans.
I have found that peat free composts can vary enormously: from bags of compost filled with bark chips, which could be used as a mulch, but can’t be used as intended – as a compost to grow container plants or seedlings, right through to the other extreme – the finest quality composts, which are capable of producing prize and award winning plants, and of course, every compost in between these two polar opposites!
I treasure the joy I experience when I find the perfect gift for a special person. I hope to share this joy with you, by sharing the best products that I have tried and tested this year, to help you find superb presents for your loved ones this Christmas.
Gardening Society MembershipThere are many great local gardening societies who meet regularly across Surrey.
I love growing sweet peas! I hope to inspire and encourage you to grow your own sweet pea plants, so that you can experience these wonderful plants for yourself.
Sweet peas, also known by their botanical name of Lathyrus odoratus, are beautifully fragrant, hardy annuals. Throughout my ongoing Sweet Pea Trials, I work to provide my readers with a wealth of information to help you to learn how to grow the healthiest, most floriferous sweet pea plants, that will produce the earliest flowers, with the tallest flowering stems over the longest flowering period!
Fragrant daffodils deliver an uplifting joy and bring an unadulterated cheer into the spring garden; these scented daffodils can brighten your view and gladden your heart. Many daffodil cultivars are listed as being scented, but some daffodil cultivars are more perfumed and more pleasing than others.
In 2016, I decided to run a Scented Daffodil Trial, to showcase the most beautifully scented, long flowering daffodils.
Last summer, I ran a Peat Free Compost Trial to compare the different peat free composts available, and find out how well each of the composts performed growing dwarf French beans under the same conditions. In my trial, Dalefoot Composts Wool Compost for Vegetables and Salads, and Dalefoot Double Strength Wool Compost were the clear winners producing healthy plants with a great harvest.
I have always loved our natural world. I have always wished to protect every important habitat for plants, animals, and nature, all over the world. I am passionate about protecting the rainforests and the many other wonderful, precious environments and habitats that exist on Earth, including peat bogs. Peat bogs are amazing environments, covering just 2-3% of the planet’s surface.
