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.
Wednesday 2 December 2020
The Lawncare Guide - December
To mow, or not to mow? That is the question.
It’s unlikely you will need to mow in December but grass still grows in temperatures above 5ºC (41ºF) so there is a chance in milder areas you need a final cut. If that is the case, don’t cut too short, just a trim to neaten it is all that’s needed. You can lightly aerate with a fork or solid tines, if the soil is not too wet, to aid winter drainage in heavy or prolonged rainfall. Lawn Care: Questions & Answers
A. After treatment, moss should be left for around three weeks to die because raking it can spread the spores. In spring apply calcinated sulphate of iron or lawn sand containing iron sulphate. Scarifying and aerating will help.
The Vegetable Plot - December
Feast on your Christmas veggies
The keen vegetable gardener should be enjoying an abundance of seasonal crops from Brussels sprouts to cauliflower, leeks, parsnips, celery and celeriac to Jerusalem artichokes, Savoy cabbage and kale. Winter doesn’t stop you growing onions, peas, potatoes, spinach, radishes and rhubarb. In the greenhouse or on a windowsill you can grow herbs such as mint, basil, chives and dill. Winter hardy salad leaves can be grown under cover.The Big Glut Recipe - December
VEGAN WELLINGTON
A vegan take on the beef version from BBC Food.
Ingredients
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 2 medium sweet potatoes (around 375g/13oz), peeled and cut into roughly 2cm/¾in chunks
- 1 onion, finely sliced
- 1 leek (around 200g/7oz), trimmed and thinly sliced
- 2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
- 100g/3½oz young spinach leaves
- 125g/4½oz fresh, or frozen and thawed, cranberries
- 75g/2½oz pecan nuts, roughly broken
- 180g/6oz cooked and peeled vacuum-packed chestnuts, roughly crumbled
- 1 large orange, finely grated zest
- 4 large Portobello or flat mushrooms, each roughly 9cm/3½in in diameter
- 375g/13oz ready-rolled puff pastry (vegan-friendly)
- 2 tbsp soy milk, or other plant-based ‘milk’
- ½ tsp poppy seeds (optional)
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
Monday 2 November 2020
This Month in Your Garden - November
"Autumn is marching on: even the scarecrows are wearing dead leaves." Otsuyu Nakagawa
Well, they are saying we’re in for a mild winter, but this is Britain and we’re all experts at talking about the weather. November starts a little wet but nothing like 3rd October, the wettest day on record for the UK, with enough rain in a day to fill Loch Ness.The Lawncare Guide - November
Not a patch in sight
The Vegetable Plot - November
Dig that!
An old gardener (he was in his nineties) interviewed in a well-known TV gardening programme said, “always use a spade, son, that’s what my old dad used to say”. True, when you are digging your vegetable plot. If the ground has not been dug before or is very hard, use the double-digging technique.The Big Glut Recipe - November
Beetroot cured cod with fennel and kohlrabi slaw
By the BBC Good Food Team.
Ingredients
- 150g grated raw beetroot
- 1 lemon , zested
- 25ml gin
- 1 tbsp sea salt
- 1 tbsp golden caster sugar
- 2 tbsp roughly chopped dill fronds
- 1 fresh skinless fillet of cod , about 240g
Thursday 1 October 2020
This Month in Your Garden - October
‘The winds give me enough fallen leaves to make a fire.’ Ryokan Taigu
The Fall is the more than apt description for autumn’s annual leaf deposit and there are many parts of our island that rival New England’s spectacularly colourful display. After the great show, we do of course have the task of clearing up and adding all those leaves to the compost or filling plastic sacks to make leaf mould.
Lawn Care: Questions & Answers
The Vegetable Plot - October
The Big Glut Recipe - October
Pumpkin soup with Gruyere and fried sage
By Sally Clarke for House and Garden
Enough for 4 – 6 people for lunch and you can add other ingredients such as roasted wild mushrooms.
Ingredients
For the stuffed pumpkin
- 1 x 2kg ironbark, blue hubbard or onion squash, or similar pumpkin
- 300ml double cream, plus a little extra if needed
- 50ml vegetable or chicken stock
- 1tbsp finely chopped sage
- 3 garlic cloves, crushed with salt
- 100g Gruyère or Cheddar
Tuesday 1 September 2020
This Month in Your Garden - September
A late summer garden has a tranquillity found no other time of year. William F Longgood
The Lawncare Guide - September
The green, green grass of home
If you have prepared the ground for a new lawn you can start seeding or do it nearer the end of the month into October depending on the weather. If you have sown a new lawn it should germinate after ten to fourteen days and when it reaches 2 to 3cm (1”) high it will benefit from a light rolling.The Big Glut Recipe - September
Orchard crumble
Ingredients
- 400g apple, peeled, cored and cut into small pieces
- 400g stoned plum, cut into chunky wedges
- 2 tbsp sugar, any type
- 300g fig, woody stalks trimmed, quartered
- 300g blackberry or brambles, washed well
- Cream, custard or ice cream, to serve
Monday 3 August 2020
This Month in Your Garden - August
In summer, the song sings itself - William Carlos Williams
The Lawncare Guide - August
The grass is greener where you water it – Neil Barringham
The South and South West are likeliest to be drier this August, we are told, so it may be time to get the hose sprinkler on the lawn if you want to keep it green. Give it a good, long soaking each week. If you don’t want to use the water and it goes a little brown don’t worry, it will perk up with a bit of rain.
The Vegetable Plot - August
Push and pull
There’s plenty you can sow now if you have the space. Why not push in some seeds and grow cauliflower, endive, corn salad, red cabbage, radishes, spinach, stump rooted carrots and turnips?If you have grown garlic you can be harvesting it along with shallots and herbs for drying. Maincrop celery could do with earthing up and endive, leeks and celery can be blanched. If you have grown cucumbers in frames and they are spent, clear them out now.
The Big Glut Recipe - August
Asparagus salad with Ricotta, watercress and lemon
By Sybil Kapoor for House & Garden
Ingredients
- 2 bunches medium to large asparagus, approximately 12-18 thicker stemmed spears
- 2 bunches watercress
- 400g fresh ricotta
- Maldon salt
- 1tbsp finely chopped chives
- Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling
- 2 lemons, one zested and the other cut into 6 wedges
Monday 6 July 2020
This Month in Your Garden - July
Gardening requires lots of water, most of it in the form of perspiration. Lou Erickson
Thursday 2 July 2020
The Lawncare Guide - July
For the avoidance of drought
It’s sorrowful. You’ve worked hard on the lawn with a firm regime of aerating, scarifying, cutting and collecting or mulching with the cutting deck or mower at precisely the right height – going by the book. You’ve treated for weeds and moss and given the grass good feed and fertiliser.The Big Glut Recipe - July
BURRATA WITH MARINATED COURGETTES AND AUBERGINES
Serves 6.
Ingredients
- 2 medium courgettes (about 300g)
- 1 aubergine (about 300g)
- Olive oil, enough for frying and drizzling
- Small bunch of mint
- 1 red chilli, finely chopped
- 1–2tbsp best-quality red-wine vinegar (Volpaia, Forum or Unio Cabernet Sauvignon are all excellent)
- 6 balls of burrata (or mozzarella)
Monday 8 June 2020
This Month in Your Garden - June
If you have a garden and a library you have everything you need. Cicero 106 BC – 43 BC
The Vegetable Plot - June
And sow on
The Big Glut Recipe - June
Beef and asparagus salad, honey dressing, radishes and cherry tomatoes
Ingredients
FOR THE DRESSING:
- ½ a cup of extra virgin olive oil or pomace oil
- 2 tbsp of white wine vinegar
- 1 tsp of honey
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1 tsp wholegrain mustard
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 8 stems of asparagus (hard root removed)
- 1 x 8oz Ribeye steak
- Sea salt
- 6 radishes
- 100g of fresh watercress or baby leaf salad
- 10 cherry tomatoes
Friday 1 May 2020
This Month in Your Garden - May
‘If it’s drama you sigh for, plant a garden and you’ll get it. Edward A. Guest
The Lawncare Guide - May
Topdressing is the fashion in May
The Vegetable Plot - May
Sow by now
It’s time to reap the rewards of your earlier sowings and harvest spring onions and cabbages sown last year. There’s plenty of sowing to be done to harvest maincrop beetroot, late broccoli, peas and parsley, cucumbers and pumpkins. You can sow Savoy and winter cabbage all in nursery rows, and on to outdoor sowings of cauliflowers, cabbages, Brussels sprouts, parsnips and swedes, along with maincrop carrots for autumn.The Big Glut Recipe - May
Barbequed courgettes with dill, goat’s cheese, mint and yoghurt
Ingredients
- 4–6 medium courgettes
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
- ½ tsp dried chilli flakes
- 2 tsp fennel seeds, toasted and crushed
- 3 tbsp natural yoghurt
- 150g soft goat’s or ewe’s cheese
- ½ small garlic clove, peeled and grated
- A small bunch of chives, thinly sliced
- 6–8 sprigs of dill, chopped, plus extra to garnish
- 2 tbsp chopped mint, plus whole leaves to garnish
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Tuesday 7 April 2020
Wednesday 1 April 2020
This Month in Your Garden - April
‘Spring makes everything young again except man.’ Richter
The Lawncare Guide - April
Keep Off The Grass
The Vegetable Plot - April
Sow here we go
The Big Glut Recipe - April
Lamb kefta with herb salad and spicy yoghurt
Ingredients
For the kefta
- 11/2kg minced fatty lamb
- 1 medium white onion, grated
- 3tbsp ground cumin
- 2tbsp ground turmeric
- 1tsp smoked paprika
- 1/2tsp chilli powder
- 10g mint leaves, finely chopped
- 10g parsley, finely chopped
- 2eggs
Tuesday 3 March 2020
Monday 2 March 2020
This Month in Your Garden - March
‘Loveliest of trees, the cherry now is hung with bloom, along the bough.’
A.E. Houseman, Shropshire Lad
One of the loveliest and earliest of cherries, Prunus incisa Kojo-no-mai, usually begins to blossom in February and is in full bloom in March. It’s a dwarf, growing to about five feet high and lending an oriental touch to the garden. Following the wettest February in six years and lamentable flooding in many parts of the country, we hope this month will turn the corner to the start of spring and drier weather.