What Will I Do with All Those Courgettes?
– Over 150 recipes for soups, salads, main courses, casseroles, breads and cakes — enable this easy-to-grow vegetable to be transformed into easy-to-make and delicious dishes.

This book will help you deal with all the courgettes you grow. Some years you’ll have so many and the neighbours will run and hide when they see you carrying sacks of them up the road. Once fellow plotholders have got bored with them to then it’s down to you to do something with them!

I made chutney from my courgette surplus last year. My family have been scoffing the chutney this year and say it’s delicious. I’ve opened a jar myself and it was very nice and espcecially good on cheese on toast!

Other books you might like include: Veg Patch: River Cottage Handbook No.4

What Will I Do with All Those Green Vegetables

Preserving, cooking and enjoying what you grow is the end point for many gardeners. Being able to produce a chutney or jam and store it away for the winter is a fantastic feeling. Eating your own home made strawberry jam can’t be beaten! Strawberries are the thing I’ve not had a glut of until this year. I only managed to make a couple of jars of jam so I haven’t given any of that away! The blackcurrent and raspberry though was in surplus so it was mostly that jammed that people have had. I did make some mixed fruit jam – this was very much like a popular fruity drink! Delicious!

Nemaslug Slug Killer 40 sq m – same-day despatch
This will solve your slug problem. This year is exceptionally bad for slugs! Well, good for slugs, bad for gardeners.

Nemaslug Slug Killer 40 sq m – same-day despatch

Uses microscopic worms (nematodes) which prey on slugs and kills them
Gives up to 6 weeks protection
Totally organic and harmless to wildlife, pets and children
Very easy to apply – just water in
Same-day first-class despatch (Mon-Fri, excl. bank holidays)

The easy and completely harmless way to rid your garden of one its most troublesome (and hungry) pests.
Packed in an easy-to-use powder form, Nemaslug contains a species of microscopic worms called nematodes which feed on the slugs and kill them.

Simply dissolve the pack into the required amount of water, and spray over the soil.

One application lasts up to six weeks, and there’s no need to re-apply after wet weather.

This pack will treat up to 40 square metres. The product is live, and has a shelf life of up to 4 weeks. Refrigerate on receipt, and until use. Nemaslug will remain effective for around 6 weeks, and will need to be re-applied throughout the growing season.

orders received before 2pm will be despatched first-class the same day. Working days are Monday-Friday.

Kurtis Taunton Outdoor Garden Bench

Classic Design
Wooden Slatted Bench
Steel Frame
122cm x 60cm x 80cm
Easy to assemble

Bosch ART 23 Easytrim Electric Grass Trimmer (23 cm Cutting Diameter)

Easy and ergonomic handling thanks to perfectly balanced design and weight of just 1.6 kg
Powerful 280 W motor
Second handle for convenient guidance in any work position
With a 100 cm-long shaft, the longest in its class
Reliable “Pro-Tap” spool which prevents the line getting tangled up when the spool is changed – plus Pro Tap spool
The ART 23 is fitted with a Pro Tap spool to enable efficient line feed. To lengthen the line, simply bump the spool to the ground and this will release more line.
Handy hooks for power cable

Cheap, lightweight, gets the job done.
Get your grass strimmed with this grass trimmer. Everyone calls them strimmers – but officially it’s a grass trimmer.

Do you strim before you mow? The advantages of this are the mower will pick up any stray grass!

Grass trimmers at Amazon

Got to be closer to actually digging some up.


Whilst you can count in weeks you’re best waiting until they have flowered and the flowers are starting to finish.
You can always have a test scrape around carefully with your fingers and see what you can find. If you only find tiny ones then leave them a bit longer.

Generally main crop spuds are ready in August or September.

Remember that 2012 has been a strange year weatherwise (And we’re only at July) so things aren’t going quite as they would do normally. Be patient.

First earlies can be ready in 12-13 weeks – they are meant to be quite small.

Pick your potatoes just before you want to eat them – vital for getting the best flavour from first earlies – or new potatoes as they are known!

If you get a poor crop then you can blame it on several things. There are several pests that attack potatoes – slugs will eat tubers. This year we have had lots of potato foliage eaten – we think by slugs as we have seen slugs on plants.

Putting a fork through a spud when you are digging them up is annoying.

When harvesting main crop pick a nice day and leave them to dry in the sun. This hardens the skins a bit and makes them store better.

Storing – empty out periodically and remove any soft or manky ones.

Buy radish seeds now.
Dobies has these new items today

Radish Albena Seeds Average Seeds 450 £1.05
A superb radish producing scrumptious, pure white spherical roots. High resistance to bolting. Grow it indoors or outside. Maturing time approximately 5-8 weeks from sowing..

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Lettuce Winter Gem (Vaila) Seeds Average Seeds 200 £1.95

Lettuce Webb’s Wonderful Seeds Average Seeds 1400 £0.90

Lettuce Webb’s Wonderful Seeds – Triple Pack Average Seeds 4200 – Triplepack – SAVE 75p! £1.95

Lettuce Valdor Seeds Average Seeds 950 £1.40

Lettuce Tom Thumb Seeds Average Seeds 1400 £0.85

Lettuce Sweetheart Seeds Average Seeds 150 £1.80

Lettuce Salad Bowl Seeds Average Seeds 1400 £1.10

Lettuce Salad Bowl – ORGANIC SEEDS Average Seeds 300 – ORGANIC £1.30

Lettuce Rosetta Seeds Average Seeds 100 £0.95

Lettuce Robinson Seeds Average Seeds 200 £1.45

Lettuce Relic – Red Deers Tongue Seeds Average Seeds 200 £1.80

Lettuce Red Salad Bowl Seeds Average Seeds 1400 £1.20

Lettuce Red Iceberg Seeds Average Seeds 200 £1.70

Lettuce Nymans Seeds Average Seeds 220 £1.75

Lettuce Mixture Seeds Average Seeds 1400 £1.25

Lettuce Lollo Rossa Seeds Average Seeds 1250 £1.60

Lettuce Little Gem Seeds Average Seeds 1400 £0.95

Lettuce Little Gem Seeds – Triplepack Average Seeds 4200 – Triplepack SAVE 80p! £2.05

Lettuce Lakeland Seeds Average Seeds 850 £1.20

Lettuce Granada Seeds Average Seeds 550 £1.80

Lettuce Edox Seeds Average Seeds 200 £1.70

Lettuce Diana Seeds Average Seeds 500 £1.75

Lettuce Delicato Seeds Average Seeds 500 £1.55

Lettuce Cancan Seeds Average Seeds 220 £1.60

Lettuce Buttercrunch Seeds Average Seeds 1550 £1.15

Lettuce Ashbrook Seeds Average Seeds 500 £1.60

Lettuce All-The-Year-Round Seeds Average Seeds 1450 £0.85

Leaf Salad Lettuce Mixture Seeds Average Seeds 1600 £1.55

Leaf Salad Lettuce Falbala Seeds Average Seeds 350 £1.10

Leaf Salad Lettuce Bronze Arrowhead Seeds Average Seeds 580 £1.10

Leaf Salad Italian Mix Seeds 1.50g Pack of seeds £1.70

Leaf Salad French Seeds 1.50g Pack of seeds £1.75

Corn Salad Large Leaved Seeds Average Seeds 480 £1.35

Corn Salad Gala Seed Average Seeds 330 £1.45

Dobies has these new lines today

Cut-and-Come Again Twin Pack Pack of 72 Plug Plants + 2 Packets of Seed £13.99
A bumper pack that combines both our salad and veg collections.Cut-&-Come Again Winter Salade Collection – Three excellent varieties that can be picked continuously throughout winter. Ideal for salads or stir-fries. Chard Rainbow Mix – Delicious and attractive stems in an array of bright shades. 18 Plug Plants. Lettuce Mix Plants – A mix of different tastes, leaf colours and shapes. 18 Plug Plants. Wild Rocket Seeds – Provides a good supply of strong-flavoured leaves. 1 Packet of Seeds.Cut-&-Come Again Winter Veg Collection – Three first-class varieties that can be picked regularly all through winter. Kale Cavalo Nero – Tasty leaves to pick young and use in salads or boil/steam in the usual way. 18 Plug Plants. Kale Red Russian – Nutritious deeply-lobed leaves for use in salads or as a cooked vegetable. 18 Plug Plants. Mustard Red Frills – Attractive deeply cut, dark red leaves with a mild mustard flavour. 1 Packet of Seeds.. OCT-2012

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The seed packet says sow thinly. What does that mean?

Imagine how big the final plant will be and how far apart it will need to be from its neighbour.

It’s always easier to thin things out – things like carrots are best sown as thin as possible as pulling them up creates the smell of carrots which can trigger carrot fly to appear!

Grow onions next to carrots to help avoid this anyway! The smell of the onion puts them off.

To sow thinly you need to be careful. Put seed into your palm and sprinkle on carefully with your fingers. Tiny seeds are very hard to do.

I love beetroot!
This isn’t in very straight lines – I don’t use a line when I’m sowing, I’m a bit more freehand. For some things that’s ok – but sometimes it can be hard to tell the difference between weed seeds and the seeds you want to grow. A proper straight line allows you to see which is which more easily.

Sow regularly so you can keep picking it rather than it getting big and woody! The smaller ones cook quicker too. You can microwave them too rather than boil!
Eat cooked in salad or make a chutney with it!