Vegetable Gardening - Is It Worth It?

Yes I do confess I asked myself this question earlier in the summer. Returning from a short break I discovered there had been an intruder in the garden – the young mange tout plants had all been eaten bar five plants, as had the lettuce and the tops of all my chrysanthemums plus the broad beans were covered in black fly which had then jumped across to the runner beans.

Countless spraying with soapy water didn’t get rid of the blackfly and I only had a few helpings of mange tout from the depleted plants. The cats got a scolding for not detering the rabbits but the consensus of opinion was that this time a deer had got into the garden whilst I was away and had a healthy dinner at my expense.

All that effort, all that nurturing from seed to young plant, hardening off, transplanting, watering etc etc had all been undone within the space of 5 days and I actually said to myself – is this really worth it??

I resorted to buying (yes parted with money) some ladybirds – you can get everything on the internet these days – which met with some derision from certain quarters but I have to say they did the trick and got rid of the invasion of blackfly on the beans – hooray! Now the beans aren’t setting very well so I’m out with the sugared water to attract more pollinators.

The jobs never end when growing your own crops – it is hard work at times so back to my original question – is it worth it??  Yes said my husband – he likes eating the produce you see but not necessarily the work that goes into producing it.   However when we looked back at this seasons successes it didn’t seem so bad – we’ve had rhubarb, raspberries, a few broadbeans and mangetout, courgettes, the potatoes are magnificent, the onions look fine and the baby carrots are delicious. There are plums and apples ripening on the trees and I am sure I will get a few runners. As my old Mum used to say “You can’t win them all”

So I’m not giving up – just revamping the veg plot a bit – as soon as I said “I might like some raised beds” to Mr Woodworker he was out there sawing and drilling making me some fine new raised beds – which at the moment, filled with compost from the overflowing compost heaps are just nurturing baby foxgloves, calendulas and wallflowers.

So YES I say to you all – growing fruit and veg is worth it on so many fronts – good exercise, good for the soul and good for the body – eating often mis-shapen veggies grown by yourself, harvested and on the table ready to eat in less than an hour. Don’t give up, however many problems you incur from pests large or small: there’s nothing like serving up a meal and saying “I grew that” and I tell you what, you don’t get that taste from the supermarket.

If you want to try growing something yourself, why not take advantage of 20% discount on the Growing Kits from Plant-n-Grow and get ready for next year or buy as a lovely gift for your keen gardener.   Plus keep your eye on our website for some very special seeds coming soon.

Men - God Bless em!!

Sometimes – just sometimes do you think the male species hales from another planet?? Couldn’t they just for once multi task or maybe recognise that women are just a tincy wincy little bit emotional at times?? Or tired?? Or tetchy?? Or are, for once, right?? During a fraught weekend when the only remaining items needed for a dinner party were 4 nectarines why did my hubby come home with a bag of clementines??? Was this the straw that broke the old camel’s back do you think? I know, I know, it doesn’t really matter in the broad scheme of things but having worked all week, cleaned, shopped, cooked, arranged our social life – did he then need to burn the meat on the barbie too!!!

Ah well Sunday dawned bright and clear and I went out into the garden for my dose of therapy. Having given some shrubs a haircut (a little too severely I admit) and pulled up some plants (fed up with those leggy offerings) I noticed my new Filigree Frog sitting on the side and, grumpy and tired as I was, it made me smile. With a little gold crown on his head he makes a natty garden ornament and you can tuck him between your patio pots where he will reside happily all year round. (And he may be the only frog who never answers you back!!)

I also weeded around the young sprouting broccoli plants and found them covered in whitefly so gave them a spray too, then used the Birds Away Kit to help shoo off the darned pigeons which made a beeline for last year’s plants and practically demolished them before I could cover them up with netting to await the sprouting tips to appear.

Unfortunately the garden helper (another man – need I say more) decided that although I had netted them they were only fit for the compost heap so pulled them all out!!!! This year I shall put up a KEEP OFF sign.

Men – don’t you just love em!!

Garden Grub!

It’s time now to start collecting all the fruits of your labour and what better way to bring them in than in the bag included in the Vegetable Garden Gift Set.

A nice hessian sack so much more stylish than the old ice cream carton you diligently washed out!! And if you are looking for a recipe for the glut of tomatoes, courgettes or beans take a look at this Gardener’s Recipe Book – “Taste the Flavours, Sow the Seeds”

Put them both together and what have you got but the Garden Divas Grub to Grow Set - a perfect present for the allotment or kitchen garden owner.
All this talk of food makes me peckish so am off to pick the dwarf beans, dig up the spuds, maybe collect a courgette or two and cook my tea. Any recipes gratefully received!!

Come dine with me

Come dine with me – or not when it’s so hot. After a busy week working the last thing I want to do is spend ages in the kitchen so at the end of last week we just had salad – no ordinary salad mind you as I had plenty of salad leaves in the garden courtesy of The Seedbed Roll an ingenious method of growing. The seeds are impregnated onto a rather bright blue matting which you just lay down onto well cultivated soil and then water it. But what I really like about it is that it has its own miniature polytunnel built in – brilliant - as I found all my yummy leaves were clean, slug free, and not nibbled by the countless rabbits that seem to congregate in my garden until my lazy cats decide to chase them away. And you can just cut it to size to fit into a planter or small space.

So here is the finished result,


looking rather delicious if I may say so, with the addition of some spicy chicken courtesy of good old M & S, crispy bacon, new potatoes, broad beans (from my garden of course) plus cucumber, peppers, tomatoes, celery – basically anything decent found in the bottom of my fridge. Just add salad dressing of your choice and tuck in.

I love this time of year in the garden when all my hard work is coming to fruition – picked a few raspberries yesterday for breakfast, had broccoli for Sunday lunch and have had broad beans galore (– a favourite dish with these is to fry a chopped small onion with crushed garlic if desired, and bacon lardons, lightly cook the beans, then stir it all together and serve piping hot.)

Luckily I’ve always been able to grow some veg or fruit even when I only had a postage stamp sized garden – growbags were the norm then. It can be time consuming I suppose but at this time of year it sure is worth it.



My veg patch!

Easter Hols!

Well that was it – the Easter Holidays!! It went by in a flash and not a morsel of chocolate has passed my lips!!! Gave it up for lent and feel so much better for it that I have decided to try not to eat any although it is proving hard with the mounds of Easter Eggs in this house!! Hopefully some of that will disappear when my son goes back to University next week!!Traditionally for me Easter is the time to really get on with my vegetable growing. I always like to set my seed potatoes on Good Friday and although it was not the best of weathers I managed to set a salad variety – Charlotte, as well as some red and white onions all in a nice straight line thanks to the Vegetable Row String Line

I am also trying out the Dig It™ Garden/DIY Gloves this season and they are proving to be very comfortable indeed particularly for the heavier jobs around the garden helping my hands stay clean and mud free particularly when spreading the well rotted stable manure – lovely jubbly!!!

I thought I would also trial an English Summer Salad Seedbed Roll as salad leaves, although not difficult to grow, soon get eaten by slugs and the rabbits who find their way down our drive – obviously words spreads that there is a good dinner going here.

Now I have to say it was a rather unusual way to set seeds but I am really hopeful that I may get some jolly nice crops as it has its own built in mini polytunnel no less, which should keep those pesky creatures away. I will let you know!

If I don’t get good results though I may just have to go back to the chocolate!!

Congratulations Kew Gardens- Bang on Target with the Pink Banana!

This week Kew Gardens hit their target of collecting and preserving 24,200 species of seeds from 10% of the World’s plant species. Kew Garden met this target 14months ahead of schedule and well within their set budget! The last seeds to be collected were that of the endangered pink banana (Musa itinerans) and they will now join the other seeds collected after 17 years of hard work! Garden Divas would like to say huge congratulations to Kew Gardens for this fantastic achievement in global conservation. We wish them the very best of luck in meet their 2020 target of collating 25% of world plant species! The seed bank is not based at Kew Gardens due to a fear of flooding but if you fancy a day out to the Royal Botanical Gardens please visit the website.

At Garden Divas we may not have anything as exotic as pink bananas (by the way did you know they are frequently eaten by Asian elephants) but we do have a few seeds you can grow yourselves! Choose from one of three American Modern Seed Kits- Fragrant Flower, Garden Market and Culinary Herb. Or if you’re after the perfect English Salad, take advantage of our new Seedbed Roll, an all in one grow mat, seed and polytunnel developed in England for commercial growers and now available in the kitchen garden. Alternatively you can also plant any seeds of your choice in our brilliant new Sticklebag- a lightweight decorative planter just awaiting your plants!

Take a taste of Microleaves

Well today (1st September) officially marks the end of summer but at least the sun is still shining here today (although I have already noticed the evenings getting darker earlier :-( ). However there is plenty more work for me to do at work and in the home and garden. In fact, with Christmas looming there’s even more multitasking ahead. Facing pressures from every angle, it's difficult to dedicate the time to keep healthy and grow your own produce. However at Garden Divas we have just taken on a fabulour new product to try and make life a little easier, meaning you can grow your own super foods with very little effort!

These Microleaves are tiny tonics packed full of nutrients and flavour, really healthy, helping to make you feel great. They are a new super food to be eaten like cress, using only the first most tender leaves and stems. The great news is these sets come with everything you need including fool proof seed mats in containers perfect for the kitchen window ledge! There is a choice of two selections Green- Celery, Mizuna and Tatsoi or Red- Amaranth, Red Basil and Broccoli! Such a simple way of growing your own leaves, keeping you healthy and great to be part of the growing new trend of super foods!! Always keen to keep on trend we are trying them out on the windowsill of the GD office... hope it's going to look like this in a few more weeks :-)

Grow your own..Potatoes

As you all know at Garden Divas we always try our best to fully test out our products (what a chore to have such luxurious gardening equipment- it’s a tough job but someone’s got to do it!). So we started a little experiment involving one single lonely potato and the Burgon and Ball Potato Planter .

Yes you guessed it- back in April we planted this one potato into the planter and watered it over the last four months to see how well it would grow. This Sunday we decided to see exactly how many potatoes we produced and were thrilled with the results- take a look at the picture below!Sitting in our very own Bradley’s rose trug, are approximately 10lb of potatoes produced in the single planter. This goes to show that you really can grow your own produce and save some pennies, even if you have very limited garden space.Of course a large part of the Garden Divas garden is dedicated to vegetable growing so here is a quick snap of all the other home grown veggies we are enjoying at the moment. Happy gardening (and eating)!

Holiday/ Returning to Veg!!!

Well we all went off on our hols to Spain and we have now returned to Hertfordshire. The weather was beautiful and it was lovely to take a well deserved rest! Here are a few snaps showing the glorious sunshine we could only wish for at the moment.

Since we've been back the rain has been a bit of a hinderence for getting out in the garden but we were thrilled to return to some tasty veg from the garden and since then we've been feasting like Kings :-). Going to get out in the garden this weekend and get some snaps of all our produce which I will put on here asap. Anyone else have any successes/ troubles with growing veggies?

“Home Allotments” Are a Quick Alternative to a 40 Year Waiting List!

Latest research shows that the allotments in areas of London are now demanding a 40 year waiting list to get a patch of land. What’s more throughout the country for every allotment there are 30 people waiting to get hold of one. Investigations have shown that a university student in Camden, London, who registers for a plot on completing their Degree should expect it around retirement age!This might seem laughable but we are thrilled gardening is so popular! If you are lucky to enough to have your own allotment, why not be the envy of your fellow gardeners and treat yourself to a few of our tools. Gardeners estimate you save approximately £950 a year through growing your own so spoil yourself a little! Plus it’s important to ensure all your produce is labelled correctly so why not use a pack of the following...

However if you aren’t lucky enough to have your own plot...do not fear, we have the perfect alternative! Whether you live in a flat, or have a patio, you can still participate in this growing trend... with the Home Allotment range from Burgon and Ball- choose from the Potato Planter, http://www.gardendivas.co.uk/details.php?prodId=230&category, Salad Planter, http://www.gardendivas.co.uk/details.php?prodId=229&category or Vegetable Planter http://www.gardendivas.co.uk/details.php?prodId=231&category. To read the related news article in full please click here. http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2009/jun/02/allotments-shortage-waiting-lists

Join Obama and Grow Some Vegetables with our Home Allotment Planters!

With President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle visiting England for the first time this week it was great to read that the First Lady has reportedly set aside 1,100 sq ft of the White House lawn to dig up and grow vegetables – 55 varieties in fact!! Not many of us have access to this much land, nor the time (and help I suspect) however, but Garden Divas is really keen that all of us should have the ability to grow a few edible items and the Home Allotment Potato Planter (http://www.gardendivas.co.uk/details.php?prodId=230&category=5) and Salad Planter (http://www.gardendivas.co.uk/details.php?prodId=230&category=5) are now in stock are just perfect where space is limited. With Easter fast approaching, it’s the perfect time for planting so why not make use of our special offer of an introductory 10% off these two items. Plant them up, keep them watered and then sit back and look forward to better days, a fresh steak from the barbeque with your own home grown new potatoes and salad – perfect!!

Blooms In A Bag For The Novice Garden Diva!

At the moment it would seem I cannot turn the Television on, open a newspaper or listen to the radio without hearing about the Recession. This week I happened to notice a feature on Anglia News encouraging a scheme titled “Get Digging”. The programme featured celeb gardener Monty Don speaking about the benefits of growing your own produce. Here at Garden Divas we are a huge fan of this concept! Not only will it save you plenty of time and money at the supermarket, it’s also a fun form of exercise.

The feature focussed on the aspect that not everyone is a “natural gardener”. Although we believe everyone can succeed, we have some products that are perfect for the novice gardener. So if you are new to gardening but would like to give it a go, why not try the American Modern Blooms in a Bag. We’d recommend the Tomato option to grow some extra sweet Red Robin tomatoes. http://www.gardendivas.co.uk/details.php?prodId=168&category Alternatively if you’d like to try and grow some herbs, the Basil, Parsely and Chives would be perfect left to grow on your windowsill. http://www.gardendivas.co.uk/details.php?prodId=122&category

Do let us know how you get on!