Despite being relatively easy to grow, and even easier to cook, beans have long confused gardeners thanks to their wide-ranging habits, and the cross-classification between runner beans and green beans, and pole beans and bush beans. In this article, we explain the key differences between runner beans and green beans, as well as how to…
There is no pest I hate more than the dreaded aphid. Greenfly or blackfly, this sap-sucking insect isn’t welcome in any garden, but every single year it never spares mine. So I learned to just accept it and prepare my arsenal of weapons for when it’s time to fight it. The internet is filled with…
Growing indeterminate tomatoes is not easy. Allowing them to do their own thing will result in a tangled mess and diseased plants. But even if you decide to train them vertically and prune them regularly, if you don’t use the right type of support, you’ll still be facing challenges. For a couple of years now…
It’s important to know what to look for when buying tomato seedlings. Healthy tomato seedlings will vary depending on the time of year, and it’s easy to fall into the trap of buying plants with tomatoes already on them but, should you buy tomato plants with fruit already ripening? Or is it best to buy…
For the last couple of years, we’ve grown so used to unpredictable weather that we now sow nearly all of our seeds indoors. But, for those crops that need to be directly sown in the garden, like turnips, potatoes, radish and lettuce, there are a few tricks to improve germination rates outdoors. In this article…
Have you ever anxiously sifted through a bin of watermelons at the grocery store, wondering which one was the ripest? Or have you grown your own watermelon at home, and been unsure when was the right time to pick the perfect melon?