Harvesting has been the predominant activity this week. The second largest of our Brandywine tomatoes weighed in at 700g or 1½ lbs. It provided a thick slice of fruit - with some to spare - for each of three sandwiches. There is an even larger sister awaiting harvest. Both of our monster tomatoes were growing [...]

One of my ‘Russian Giant’ sunflowers is flowering like the clappers at the moment. Not content with being about 13ft high, it has produced about 13 flowerheads. The apical (main) flowerhead was dinner-plate sized, but about four or five feet down the trunk, there are auxiliary flowers coming into bud as well. I never intended [...]

As you know, a beautiful vegetable garden is just as important to me as a productive vegetable garden. And one of the key plants is coriander. In cooler months, this herb keeps its head down in the vegetable patch, good for cooking and deterring pests such as carrot fly. But come hotter weather and the [...]

The harvesting highlight of the week has been the Oullins gage plums, many of which have been turned into jam. A degree of caution has to be exerted when harvesting as the plummy aroma has aroused the taste buds of the wasps. The Victoria plums are now beginning to ripen. The effect of blight has [...]

Ever since the weather started to buck its ideas up, our plum tomatoes have been blushing and ripening. I am an enormous fan of these ‘San Marzano’ tomatoes, as they have such thick flesh. They are perfect for cooking as they do not shrink so much when heated, and are fat, big fruits. I have [...]

Here’s your chance to snap up a garden prize. The lovely people at the AA are offering this amazing book, The International Garden Photographer of the Year to five photography-mad readers. The book is simply stunning, and includes the winning image of Tresco Abbey gardens by Jonathan Berman and 15 year-old Kat Waters’ Young Garden [...]

Blight has continued to do its worst this week. Some outdoor tomato plants have been wiped out and there are signs of it having infiltrated the plot greenhouse. In an attempt to prevent the potato tubers from being affected we have cut back all the haulms. Although Sarpo Mira potatoes have some signs of blight [...]

Dahlias can be a little overwhelming at times. I prefer to stick to single blooms, such as this ‘Bishop of Auckland’ and ‘Happy Single Date’. The latter may have a rather off-putting name, but both have gorgeous dark petals, and will continue flowering well into autumn. ——————————————————————————————————————————- Fennel & Fern readers can get 10% off [...]

It’s best to be honest from the start: this is not my orchid. My orchid is sitting in the study in a furious sulk. This orchid belongs to my mother and is so entranced with its life that it keeps flinging out more flowering stalks. At present, it has two enormous branches covered in white [...]

When the lovely Debbie Webber from Carrots and Kids visited West Dean, she was so taken by the extraordinary kitchen garden that she decided to share her gorgeous photos with Fennel & Fern readers. ——————————————————————————————————————————- Fennel & Fern readers can get 10% off on flower, vegetable and fruit seeds and plants at Victoriana Nurseries. Just click here [...]

Last week, the garlic leaves started to turn yellow, which was their little way of telling me they needed harvesting. So I carefully pulled them all up, clutching the stem as far down as I could. I always handle garlic as though I am carrying eggs: bruises when harvesting and storing can lead to rots [...]

I’ll be honest: I am an unashamedly girly girl. I love shoes, I like earrings, and I have a pink filofax. I even have a pair of wellies with pink and blue flowers on them (which I bought because stilettos and the muddy track taking me from student halls to lectures didn’t get on terribly [...]