My kitchen garden in 2025

More detail and photos will be added to this blog throughout the year.

This year I’m growing two varieties of broad beans (Aquadulce, The Sutton) and two varieties of peas (Hurst Green Shaft, Kelvedon Wonder). I did the first sowing in pots on 8 February with successive sowings in March. I always start them off in pots as otherwise the slugs eat any new growth that appears.

I’ve planted swede (Marian), turnip (Snowball) and round cabbage (Mozart). These I bought as plug plants, rather than sowing from seed. I’ve also purchased globe artichokes (Green Globe) and sweetcorn (Minipop) as plug plants.

This year’s potatoes are Maris Peer, Charlotte and Rocket which I’m growing in bags. I’m also trying oca for the first time – I’ve started them off in pots and, late in May, I transferred them to the bags which I use for the potatoes. Oca (oxalis tuberosa) are also known as yams in New Zealand.

I’m growing three varieties of climbing beans (Blauhilde, Cobra, Python). These were sown in pots on 12 April and planted out on 10 May.

I’m trying swiss chard (Bright Lights, White Silver) for the first time this year, which were sown in pots on 19 April.

I’ve sown dwarf French beans (Purple Queen) in a container which I’ll keep on my patio – to keep it away from any slugs. Last year the slugs had more of the dwarf French beans than I did. Also on my patio (to keep them away from the slugs), I’m growing lettuce (Baby Leaf Mixed, Radicchio – Leonardao, Red Little Gem) and radish (French Breakfast).

In the greenhouse, I’m growing cantaloupe melon (Honey Bun Hybrid), cucumber (Crystal Lemon), sweet pepper (Black Night), chili peppers (Bishops Crown, Hot Banana, Gusto Purple) and tomatoes (Ailsa Craig, Alicante, Honeycomb, Lucinda, Roma, Shirley, Sunset). All of these were purchased as plug plants which I have grown on.  The tomatoes are all cordon, that is, I pinch out any sideshoots and tie in to a pole. I don’t use growbags, each tomato plant is grown in its own large pot with a its own pole. The melon and cucumbers are grown in large pots and the vines grow along the staging, I don’t train the vines vertically. The variety of melon that I’m growing this year needs to be hand-pollinated which I’ve never done before. The chili peppers are relatively mild varieties – Bishops Crown rated as a mild-medium chilli (Scoville rating of between 5,000 to 30,000 shu’s), Hot Banana described a spicy (Scoville rating about 500 shu’s), Gusto Purple rated a medium heat (Scoville rating about 10,000 shu’s).

I also have citrus plants which I keep in the greenhouse (lemon, lime).

In the kitchen garden area, I also grow asparagus, blueberries and autumn-fruiting raspberries. I have the following fruit trees: apples, cherry, pear and plum.