The Veg Grower Podcast

This Easter weekend has been a rare treat. Four full days in the garden, decent weather, and plenty of progress across both the allotment and the kitchen garden. In this week’s episode, I share what’s been happening on the plot, the projects completed at home, and my thoughts on the hunger gap as we move deeper into spring.

Allotment Update

I spent two full days on the allotment and made a real dent in the to‑do list. The first job was cutting the grass. My allotment mower failed last week, so I brought the kitchen‑garden mower down to stand in for now. The old Ryobi will get a closer look soon, but six years of allotment life is not bad going for a budget machine.

With the grass sorted, I moved on to potatoes. This week I planted ‘Nicola’, a second early variety I’ve grown many times. That brings me to one and a half beds planted, with the same amount still to go. The compost from the corrugated‑iron bin has mulched the beds beautifully, although that bin is now empty. Next week I’ll find out whether the remaining compost is ready to use.

The allotment greenhouse also had a tidy. A large pile of plastic pots has finally been taken home, freeing up space for tomatoes and cucumbers soon. Outside, the beds have been hoed, fed and prepared for the busy month ahead. The brassicas are ready to go into the taller corrugated beds, where netting can be added easily to keep pigeons away.

Watering has been important this week. The soil is drying quickly, so the potatoes, onions and garlic have all had a good drink. The garlic looks especially strong, and I’m hopeful the straw mulch may help reduce leek rust by stopping soil splash. The carrots and parsnips in the concrete drainpipes aren’t showing yet, but they’ve been watered and left to settle.

With the fruit trees in blossom and the straw bales ready for conditioning, the allotment feels set for the season ahead.

Kitchen Garden Update

Back home, the other two days of the Easter weekend were spent on long‑planned projects. The biggest job was finally getting electricity into the potting shed. Instead of running mains power, I’ve chosen to use the AllPowers S2000 battery pack — the same one that powered the chainsaw during the tree removal. With an LED overhead light and safe cabling installed, the shed is now a proper workspace for potting on during darker evenings.

I also tackled the plastic pot collection. With a new council dustbin arriving, the old bin has been cleaned with Jeyes Fluid and repurposed for pot storage. Clearing this area gave me access to the two‑tier cold frame, which has now been moved beside the greenhouse. It’s already being used to harden off young plants.

Inside the greenhouse, the AutoPot system has been cleaned, refilled and planted up with tomatoes, cucumbers, chillies, peppers and strawberries. The peach tree and grapevine are still being moved in and out to avoid peach leaf curl, but the greenhouse is now fully in action.

In the Kitchen

Chef Scott brings an Easter‑themed recipe this week: a roast vegetable hash with herby eggs. It’s a great way to use up leftover veg from Easter lunch, and everything in the dish was home‑grown. Carrots, parsnips, potatoes, leeks and cabbage are chopped, crisped in a pan, mixed with fresh herbs and finished with eggs cooked in small wells. Simple, delicious and perfect for reducing waste.

The Hunger Gap

In the potting shed, I’ve been thinking about the hunger gap — that awkward stretch where winter stores are almost gone and the new season’s crops aren’t ready yet. The last leeks are looking tired, the kale is bolting, and the freezers are emptying. Meanwhile, the greenhouse is full of seedlings that promise abundance… just not yet.

To soften the hunger gap in future years, staggered sowings make a big difference. Overwintered onions, garlic, leeks and hardy salads help carry us through winter. Monthly sowings of leeks, carrots and cabbages spread the harvest across the year....

This Week in the Kitchen Garden

Richard opens this week’s episode by describing that classic early‑spring rush — the moment when the light improves, the soil warms and suddenly everything seems to need doing at once. As he puts it, “everything at the moment seems to be growing at double speed” .

He talks about how the overwintered peas under cloches have suddenly surged, even showing their first flowers. With flowers come tendrils, so he’s been adding pea sticks to keep them upright and protected from the wind. Indoors and outdoors, he’s been sowing even more peas to keep the harvests rolling.

Back in the potting shed, Richard explains that the seedlings — tomatoes, chilies, aubergines, celery — are growing so fast that some “seem to suddenly outgrow their pots overnight” . Space is tight, so the cold frames are now full, helping to harden off young plants while still shielding them from chilly nights.

Seed of the Month: Beetroot

Richard’s seed of the month for April is beetroot, with Boltardy taking the lead thanks to its reliability and resistance to bolting. Although beetroot traditionally prefers direct sowing, he admits he gets great results starting them in plug trays, especially on his cold, heavy clay soil. Once they have a couple of true leaves, they transplant beautifully.

He also highlights Chioggia for its candy‑stripe rings, Burpees Golden for its non‑bleeding roots, and the fun rainbow mixes. As Richard reminds listeners, “once the beetroot are in the soil, we’ve just got to make sure they don’t dry out” .

Down on the Allotment

Richard continues his potato‑planting marathon. Last week’s Rocket potatoes have now been joined by Swift, filling the first‑early bed. Between the two varieties he’s sown a row of peas — a nitrogen‑fixing divider and part of his mission to grow more peas than ever this year.

He’s also sown another row elsewhere on the plot, simply creating a drill, scattering peas and watering them in. Once they germinate, they’ll get their own pea sticks too.

Another job this week was clearing the final leeks from one bed. With that space now free, Richard can weed it and mulch it ready for the season ahead. Mulching remains central to his low‑maintenance approach, though compost is expensive and hard to produce in large quantities. Straw continues to be a major part of his system.

He also talks about straw bale gardening, which requires conditioning with high‑nitrogen feed. With urea becoming expensive, Richard is turning to homemade alternatives — particularly nettle tea. As he explains, “nettles, when they are growing, are absorbing nutrients from the soil… that water then takes on the nutrients” .

In the Kitchen: Spring Green & New Potato Hash

Inspired by all the potato planting, Richard shares a simple, budget‑friendly spring green and potato hash topped with a fried egg. Soft onions, garlic, crisped potatoes, kale, chard and spinach come together with a touch of paprika. The egg adds richness and protein, making it a hearty early‑spring dish.

Book of the Week: A Year on the River by Fiona Sims

Throughout March, Richard has been reading A Year on the River, a book he describes as “a celebration of seasonal food and sustainable living along the inland waterways” .

He explains how Fiona Sims structures the book around the seasons, weaving together growing, foraging, storing and cooking — all from the perspective of life on a canal boat. With over 40 recipes and plenty of practical advice, it’s a book that aligns beautifully with the ethos of the podcast: growing food wherever you are, in whatever space you have.

Next month he’ll be reading the RHS title Can I Grow Potatoes in Pots?, which already sounds promising.

Spring has finally arrived on the south coast, and with it comes that unmistakable lift in energy across the allotment and kitchen garden. This week’s episode was packed with sunshine, soil, potatoes, pots, and even a first look inside the beehive for 2024. Here’s everything that unfolded.

Down on the Allotment: Grass Cutting & First Potatoes of the Year

The warm, bright weather made the allotment an absolute joy. With the sun out and the soil workable, the first big job was tackling the grass. The strimmer handled the edges beautifully, but the battery mower decided to misbehave — a loose connection, by the feel of it. The top half of the plot is now looking sharp, and all those clippings have gone straight into the compost.

But the real highlight was the start of potato planting.

This year, instead of planting all eight varieties in one exhausting session, the plan is to stagger them over several weeks. First in the ground were the Rocket first earlies, planted into beds that had been sown with potato-friendly green manures last autumn. After cutting the green manure back six weeks ago and letting it rot down, the soil was in great condition.

Each planting hole received a sprinkle of potato fertiliser — potatoes are hungry plants, after all — before being covered with compost. Once the shoots appear, they’ll be mulched with straw to help retain moisture and suppress weeds. With luck, the first harvest should be ready by June.

The garlic and onions also received a drink, just to keep everything moving nicely as the season wakes up.

In the Kitchen Garden: Spring Tidy-Up & Fresh Starts

Back at home, the spring clean-up is well underway. Weeding, mulching, and general tidying have transformed the space, and the removal of the old tree a few weeks ago has opened up new possibilities.

A new chainsaw blade made processing the remaining branches much easier — a reminder that sharp tools really do make all the difference.

Potatoes in Pots

Although most crops go into the ground these days, a few potatoes are being grown at home this year to mix up the planting. Four Rocket seed potatoes went into a large bucket in layers of compost and fertiliser. It’s a simple method and a great way to add extra growing space without sacrificing beds.

Refreshing the Front Garden Pots

After last year’s driveway replacement, the old mismatched pots at the front of the house were looking tired. Over winter, new decorative grey-and-black speckled pots have been gradually added. They complement the driveway beautifully and will hold fruit trees and bushes that can be moved when needed to make space for parking.

A Surprise Behind the Shed

A quick trip behind the shed revealed that the water butts were running low — not because of the weather, but because the downpipe had fallen off and dropped inside one of the butts. After fishing it out and refitting it, the hope now is for just a little rain to refill the system. Water is precious, after all.

Recipe of the Week: Cheesy Leeks

This week’s kitchen creation was a simple but delicious dish to accompany Saturday night’s steak: cheesy leeks.

Leeks were gently softened in butter, then folded into a homemade cheese sauce made from a classic roux. After a short bake in the oven, the result was rich, comforting, and full of flavour — with plenty left over for the next day. A brilliant way to use fresh allotment leeks.

Beekeeping Update with Mark from Buzz Into Beekeeping

With the first warm days of spring, Mark was finally able to open the hive for a proper inspection — and the news was excellent.

Inside the brood box, the frames showed everything a beekeeper hopes to see at this time of year:

Eggs, larvae, and capped brood in neat concentric circles

Plenty of pollen and nectar stores

A growing population

Drone brood developing, signalling the approach of swarming season

Although the queen herself stayed hidden (as she often does),

Spring is finally starting to show itself in Richard’s garden this week, with early sowings going into the ground, the greenhouse warming up, and both the allotment and kitchen garden shaking off winter. From experimenting with early carrots to juggling seedlings on every available surface, and finishing with a fascinating conversation about soil health and wool‑based fertilisers, it’s been a week full of momentum and inspiration.

In the Allotment

Richard began the week with a touch of gardener’s guilt after a rare day away at a photography show. But despite that, the allotment is progressing well. Cloches and black membrane have been warming the soil, creating ideal conditions for the first early carrots of the year. As he explained, “when you have consistently same soil… the carrots don’t fork” — the reason behind his decision to grow them in concrete tubes filled with fresh compost.

Parsnips also went in, earlier than he would normally attempt, but with the hope of an early harvest. Around the site, spring is unmistakably arriving: nettles, gooseberries, blackberries and even the neighbour’s plot are showing signs of life.

Compost continues to be added to empty beds, and Richard reflected on the ongoing debate about whether spring or winter is best. As he put it, “adding compost to the soil is a good thing… when the beds are empty is when we add the compost”. Green manures are still doing their job too, being chopped and dropped to feed the soil before a layer of compost goes on top.

In the Kitchen Garden

Back home, the mix of frosty mornings and warm afternoons has created perfect conditions for more sowing. Carrots and parsnips have gone in again under cloches, acting as a backup to the allotment.

Richard also shared how his polyculture experiment is progressing. It’s a learning curve, but already proving interesting: “You really do have to think about what you’re sowing and where and when those plants are going to be ready for harvesting.”

The veggie pods are now filled with lettuce, spring onions and cut‑and‑come‑again salads — a setup he has relied on for years. Indoors, tomatoes, courgettes, pumpkins and more are filling every available space, with cold frames warming up ready for the next wave of seedlings.

Inside the greenhouse, watering has become a daily reminder. As Richard noted, “a greenhouse doesn’t get rain on the inside” — something many gardeners forget at this time of year.

Recipe of the Week

This week’s dish was a bright, seasonal plate of purple sprouting broccoli with lemon butter and orzo. Quick, simple, and a perfect way to celebrate one of the best crops of early spring.

Interview: Eddie from Traditional Garden Growers

In the podding shed, you welcomed Eddie from traditional Garden Growers — a grower with a passion for soil science and regenerative methods. His journey from Harper Adams to market gardening, and now to producing natural fertilizers, made for a fascinating conversation.

One standout moment was his explanation of wool pellets. Older farmers used belly wool and daggings on their veg patches, and Eddie has revived that tradition in a modern form. As he explained, wool pellets:

Increase water‑holding capacity

Boost microbial activity

Release nutrients slowly

Provide natural nitrogen and potassium

He also introduced other products:

Power Plant Pellets — digestate‑based rocket fuel for hungry crops

Thatcher’s Mulch — pelletised straw that expands into a weed‑suppressing, moisture‑retaining mulch

Compost Booster — a brown‑matter solution for slimy, green‑heavy compost heaps

It was a brilliant discussion on soil health, sustainability, and making the most of undervalued natural resources.

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This week’s episode has been a satisfying mix of big winter jobs finally completed, steady progress in both the kitchen garden and the allotment, and the start of the busy seed‑sowing season. Here’s a written look at everything covered in Episode 648.

Kitchen Garden Update

The biggest achievement this week was removing the large elm tree that had taken root beside the greenhouse. What looked manageable from the ground turned out to be around five metres tall, meaning a scaffold tower was needed to safely take it down. As you said in the episode, climbing up reminded you that heights still aren’t your favourite place to be, but the job needed doing and it’s now complete.

With the stump cut low, a Dalek compost bin has been placed over the top. This is a method you’ve used many times before. By excluding light and keeping the area damp with added compostable material, the stump slowly rots away over a year or two. It’s simple, inexpensive and avoids the need for heavy machinery.

The thinner branches have already been shredded for woodchip, which will be used around the garden and in the chicken coop. The thicker pieces will dry out and become winter fuel later in the year. It’s another step toward making the garden as self‑sufficient as possible.

Elsewhere in the garden, weeds are being cleared and the chillies and peppers moved to the potting shed last week are looking strong and dark green. Seed potatoes also arrived this week. Eight varieties in total, now chitting in the potting shed and greenhouse. Chitting isn’t essential, but as you explained, if potatoes are going to sprout anyway, it makes sense to control the process and encourage sturdy, healthy shoots.

Down on the Allotment

A mostly dry week had raised hopes for good soil conditions, but Friday’s rain left the ground claggy in places. Beds that haven’t had much organic matter added over the years were noticeably harder to hoe, while beds enriched with compost were far easier to work. It’s a clear reminder of how much difference organic matter makes to soil structure.

The strimmer came in handy for cutting weeds where hoeing wasn’t possible. After that, homemade compost was spread on the poorer beds. Each bed takes around five wheelbarrow loads, and one compost bin filled only three beds, showing just how much compost a productive allotment needs. The long‑term goal remains the same: to produce enough compost on site to avoid buying any in.

A new dwarf variety of Jerusalem artichoke called Small Wonder has also been planted. These grow to around 80cm tall, far more manageable than the towering varieties grown in previous years. Planting them in a large pot should help contain the tubers and make harvesting easier.

Recipe of the Week

Chef Scott returned with a seasonal dish: a warm salad of chargrilled spring vegetables with feta, mint and chilli. It features purple sprouting broccoli, spring cabbage, asparagus and peas, brought together with lemon zest, chilli, mint sauce and crumbled feta. A simple, fresh recipe that pairs beautifully with spring lamb chops. The full method is available on the Veg Grower Podcast website.

Main Topic: Tips for Successful Seed Germination

With March underway, seed sowing is now in full swing. Over the years you’ve developed a reliable routine for achieving strong germination, and this week’s episode shared those key principles.

The first is to use seed that is in date. Older seed can still germinate, but fresh seed gives the highest success rate. The second is to read the packet. Every seed has its own requirements, whether that’s light, darkness, warmth, soaking or chilling. The packet contains all the information needed to give each seed the right start.

A good quality seed compost is essential. A fine, free‑draining mix with added perlite and vermiculite creates the ideal balance of moisture and air. Checking seeds regularly is important, but patience is equally vital.