The Gardener's Journal is a free monthly gardening guide delivered direct to your inbox.
Each month, receive tips on the top jobs needed in your garden as well as a wealth of information on a range of gardening topics. From sowing seeds to picking fruit, each month get access to information on the care and maintenance of your flowerbeds, vegetable plot and lawn. As with your own gardening diary, the journal is split into separate sections, each covering a different area of garden care.
Monday 2 December 2019
This Month in Your Garden - December
The Lawncare Guide - December
The early bird catches the worm
The Vegetable Plot - December
Lost to frost
The Big Glut Recipe - December
Goose risotto from The Hairy Bikers’ BBC ‘Twelve days of Christmas’
Great for Boxing Day and you can use turkey if that’s what you’ve cooked.Ingredients
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 4 shallots, peeled, finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 1 litre/1¾ pints chicken stock
- 400g/14½oz risotto rice (such as arborio or carnaroli)
- 1 tbsp whole green peppercorns
- 2 tbsp butter
- 250g/9oz chestnut mushrooms, finely sliced
- 500g leftover goose meat, finely chopped
- 1 tbsp chopped mixed fresh herbs (sage, rosemary, parsley, tarragon, chives)
- 4 tbsp freshly grated parmesan
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Dressed green salad, to serve (optional)
Wednesday 13 November 2019
Monday 4 November 2019
Battery power vs petrol power
There was a time when it seemed petrol powered outdoor tools would always reign supreme. Battery powered tools were regarded by gardeners as no competition. They couldn’t match the power and uninterrupted operation of their two-stroke counterparts. That time has passed.
Today’s Lithium-ion batteries have revolutionised the way we work with battery powered tools. Now they can produce the power to equal petrol equipment while producing zero emissions at the point of work. Noise levels are also greatly reduced and the benefits don’t stop there.
This Month in Your Garden - November
‘Dull November brings the blast, then the leaves are whirling fast’. - Sara Coleridge.
The Lawncare Guide - November
Still growing? Keep mowing.
The Big Glut Recipe - November
Maple glazed parsnip and chestnut loaf
Ingredients
- 150g unsalted butter, plus an extra knob and a little to grease
- 150-200g parsnips, trimmed and cut lengthways into 1.5cm slices
- 50g pecan halves or pieces
- 50g blanched almonds
- 30g pine nuts
- 2 large leeks, sliced
- 200g button or chestnut mushrooms, quite finely chopped
- 200g chestnuts, roughly chopped
- 2 large garlic cloves, crushed
- 3 fresh rosemary sprigs, finely chopped, plus extra to garnish
- ½ small bunch fresh sage, finely chopped
- 4 fresh thyme sprigs, finely chopped
- Small bunch fresh parsley, finely chopped
- 100g fresh breadcrumbs
- 50g plain flour
- 100ml maple syrup
- 200g feta cheese
- 3 large free-range eggs
The Vegetable Plot - November
You might be relieved to know if your soil is light, sandy loam, it’s best to leave digging it over until the spring, whereby it won’t lose too much moisture. For those of us where the subsoil is heavy clay then, sorry folks, we’ll need to take a fork to it and turn it, leaving it rough to break down in the frosts.
Where the ground has not been dug for a long time, we’ve talked before about using the double digging technique so here it is again. Use a spade to dig a trench one spade deep then fork the bottom to the depth of the fork. Dig the next trench and turn the soil into the first and so on until the last trench is dug and you use the soil from the first trench to fill it. Keep off the dug area until spring planting.
Where the ground has not been dug for a long time, we’ve talked before about using the double digging technique so here it is again. Use a spade to dig a trench one spade deep then fork the bottom to the depth of the fork. Dig the next trench and turn the soil into the first and so on until the last trench is dug and you use the soil from the first trench to fill it. Keep off the dug area until spring planting.
Friday 27 September 2019
This Month in Your Garden - October
‘Everyone must take time to sit still and watch the leaves turn.’ Elizabeth Lawrence
The Vegetable Plot - October
Jack Frost is nipping at your nose
Vegetable like parsnips and celeriac actually benefit from a little frost so it’s no bad thing to leave them in a while longer. Carrots, beetroot and turnips, however, need lifting now. Potatoes should also come up and be allowed to dry before they are stored, preferably in paper bags or sacks.The Big Glut Recipe - October
October roasted vegetables with Halloumi
Makes a nice, simple veggie dish or as a side. Use other veg as you wish.
Ingredients
- 4 small uncooked beetroots
- 3 medium sweet potatoes, peeled
- 3 small red onions, quartered
- 4 carrots, peeled and halved lengthways
- 3 whole heads of garlic
- Olive oil
- 150g (5oz) Halloumi cheese, cut into 2cm (3/4in) cubes
- Coriander seeds, ground
- 1 heaped tsp sumac (see tips)
- 1 x 400g (13oz) tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- Parsley leaves, to serve
- Extra virgin olive oil, to serve
Monday 2 September 2019
This Month in Your Garden - September
Gardening adds years to your life and life to your years. Anon.
The Lawn Care Guide - September
The green, green grass of home
The Vegetable Plot - September
"To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves." Mahatma Gandhi
The Big Glut - September
Layered aubergine and lentil bake
Ingredients
- 2 aubergines, cut into ½ cm slices lengthways
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 140g Puy lentils
- 2 onions, finely chopped
- 3 garlic cloves,finely chopped
- 300g cooked butternut squash
- 400g can chopped tomato
- ½ small pack basil leaves
- 125g ball of mozzarella, torn
Friday 2 August 2019
This Month in Your Garden - August
'Ah, summer, what power you have to make us suffer and like it'. Russel Baker
The Lawn Care Guide - August
Weed away, feed away.
The Big Glut - August
Pork tenderloin with rhubarb, onion and tarragon
Ingredients
- 2 x 600g pork tenderloins, trimmed
- 50g salted butter
- 4 shallots, peeled and cut into wedges
- 200g rhubarb, cut into 2cm pieces
- 50g caster sugar
- 1tbsp whole black peppercorns, crushed
- 10 sprigs tarragon
Friday 5 July 2019
Monday 1 July 2019
The Vegetable Plot - July
Spilling the beans
It’s easy to think of July as month when you don’t do too much in the vegetable garden. Depending of course on the size of your plot you can still be sowing summer and winter salad crops, spring cabbage and root crops. Parsley can be sown for a winter supply. It may take a bit of time to germinate – up to six weeks for seedlings to appear, so be patient.
The Big Glut Recipe - July
Aubergines in tamarind sauce with baked halloumi and saffron rice
By Sabrina Ghayour from Saturday Kitchen
Ingredients
For the aubergines
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil, plus extra for frying
- 2 large onions, thinly sliced into half moons
- 1 garlic bulb, cloves peeled and smashed
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 3 tbsp tamarind paste
- 2 x 400g tins chopped tomatoes
- 4 tbsp runny honey
- 6 aubergines, halved and cut into large wedges
- Sea salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper
Tuesday 28 May 2019
This Month in Your Garden - June
‘I wonder what it would be like to live in a world where it was always June.’
- L. M. Montgomery
The Lawn Care Guide - June
Mow as you mean to go on
Wednesday 1 May 2019
This Month in Your Garden - May
'Every spring is the only spring - a perpetual astonishment'. - Ellis Peters
The Lawn Care Guide - May
Early warning: weed attack
The Vegetable Plot - May
And sow on
The Big Glut Recipe - May
Creamy broccoli and bacon spaghetti
Super, simple midweek dish serves four, courtesy of Delicious Magazine.Ingredients
- 400g spaghetti
- ½ large head broccoli, cut into small florets
- Olive oil for drizzling
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 4 British free-range unsmoked streaky bacon rashers, roughly chopped
- 100ml half-fat crème fraîche
- 5 free-range egg yolks (freeze the whites in a labelled freezer bag)
- Grated cheddar to serve (optional)
Tuesday 2 April 2019
This Month in Your Garden - April
‘Sweet April showers Do spring May flowers.’ - Thomas Tusser, A Hundred Good Points of Husbandry, 1557
The Lawn Care Guide - April
Cut and come again
It’s only natural to want the lawn looking its splendid self after the winter and so there is a tendency among us all to cut too close, too early. We should mow as the growth dictates, remembering the higher the cut the healthier the plant will be. So we should expect to lower the cutting height gradually down to 3cm (1.25”) cutting height by the end of the month.
The Vegetable Plot - April
Variety is the spice of life
All things nice grow in your vegetable patch and more than fill your five a day. Succession sowing will see you stocked with veg right through to autumn and beyond. What a list it is! Carrots, turnips, beetroot, spinach, radishes, Brussels sprouts, peas, parsnips, broad beans, leeks, broccoli, summer cabbage, cauliflower and lettuce.
The Big Glut Recipe - April
Lamb Fillet with walnut pesto
Ingredients
- Handful of basil leaves
- Handful of flat-leaf parsley
- 50g (1 ¾oz) freshly grated Parmesan
- 1 clove garlic
- 100g (3 ½oz) walnuts
Tuesday 5 March 2019
This Month in Your Garden - March
‘Autumn arrives in the early morning, but spring at the close of a winter day.’ - Elizabeth Bowen
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