Kitchen Garden

Kitchen Garden Magazine - UK's No.1 for growing your own fruit and vegetables. KG also offers great monthly give-aways, special gardening offers, recipes, growing tips and much more.

Welcome

TOP JOBS FOR APRIL • Stephanie Hafferty shares her top jobs for the month, from sowing melons and planting hardy crops to stretching your lettuce harvest

UNDER COVER

WHAT'S NEW? • ALL THE LATEST NEWS, PRODUCTS & FACTS FROM THE WORLD OF KITCHEN GARDENING

HAVE YOUR SAY • SEND US YOUR LETTERS AND TIPS: KG.ED@KELSEY.CO.UK

Kitchen Garden

QUESTION TIME • GOT A FRUIT OR VEG PROBLEM? ASK KG FOR HELP

Luscious lovelies • Reliable, resilient and delicious, leeks most definitely earn their keep in the veg patch, says Benedict Vanheems. Best of all, now is the perfect time to get this exceptionally hardy hero started

OUR TOP PLOTTERS • Last summer we launched a competition to find our Top Plotters, with the top three winning some great prizes and all being featured in Kitchen Garden magazine this year. Here we meet one of the runners-up…

BROAD BEANS IN FULL COLOUR • Rob Smith explores the overlooked beauty of coloured broad beans – from crimson to chocolate blooms – and shows how these productive spring stalwarts can earn their place as ornamental highlights as well as reliable kitchen garden crops

GETTING AHEAD IN THE GREENHOUSE • Martin Fish explains how to raise strong cucumber plants under cover – from sowing and planting to feeding, training and avoiding common problems

FIX YOUR OWN FERTILISER • Dr Anton Rosenfeld, from sustainable gardening charity Garden Organic, explains how working in partnership with bacteria can help to improve your soil quality

SLUG CONTROL IN SPRING • If you've had a mild, wet winter, you can almost hear the slugs gearing up, ready to start munching. An early biological treatment can reduce numbers before seedlings are shredded - but timing and expectations matter

KEEP CALM AND GET SOME FEEDBACK… • This month Stephanie Hafferty offers permaculture principle 4 - what we can learn from getting it wrong!

SEAWEED BUILDING BETTER SOIL • Charlotte Sterland examines the claims, the history and the reality of using seaweed in productive gardens

WORTH THE SPACE? GROWING STONE FRUIT UNDER GLASS • David Patch weighs up the real costs and rewards of growing peaches, nectarines and cherries under glass - from avoiding peach leaf curl to managing red spider mite - and asks whether they deserve permanent greenhouse space

TRY CONTAINER GROWING TREES

PEST DETERRENTS FOR THE GARDEN • From neighbourhood cats to pigeons and rabbits, unwanted visitors can undo weeks of work. Here's how to discourage common garden intruders using practical, non-lethal methods that protect both plants and wildlife

BUILD A WILDLIFE POND IN A POT • Becky Searle explains how to create a low-maintenance container pond that works beautifully in any size garden

GIVEAWAYS • TO ENTER OUR GIVEAWAYS SEE PAGE 67 OR VISIT THE KG WEBSITE

GARDEN STORE PLUS SUBSCRIBER SAVERS • Are you a subscriber to Kitchen Garden magazine? Then visit mudketeers.co.uk for details of how you can take advantage of the exclusive subscriber-only deals on these pages!

READY, STEADY, SOW! • Sophie Atkins from Garden Organic's Heritage Seed Library gives a glimpse into the seed sowing process at the library – and shares tips for your own propagation preparation

IS A FLEECE CLOCHE RIGHT FOR EARLY SPRING CROPS? • Horticultural fleece is one of the simplest ways to protect early crops, but just how much difference does it really make? KG editor Rachel Graham puts it to the test

READER OFFERS • EXCLUSIVE SAVINGS TO HELP MAKE YOUR MONEY GO FURTHER

FRESH FLAVOURS FOR...