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AKG064 - Blueberries

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Vote for your favourite gardening blogs, websites and podcast over at Mouse & Trowel.

Grow your own superfood! Blueberries are easy to grow (at least in theory ;) and happy in containers. You will need a water butt, though, so check out episode 14 on water-wise gardening (not episode 13, as I mentioned in the show).

Leave me a comment, send me an email or join our Facebook group. You can also download a PDF transcript of this show.

Out in the garden

If there are any topics you would like the AKG to cover, or you have any hints and tips or stories that you would like to share, leave me a comment, send me an email or join our Facebook group.

AKG063 - Achocha

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Vote for your favourite gardening blogs, websites and podcast over at Mouse & Trowel. And don’t forget that it’s Earth Day on April 22nd.

This episode is all about growing Achocha, Cylantera pedata or C. brachystachya and their close relative the exploding cucumber (C. explodens).

In the UK you can get achocha seeds from Real Seeds and Garden Organic’s Heritage Seed Library.

Leave me a comment, send me an email or join our Facebook group. You can also download a PDF transcript of this show.

New promo - the aliens have landed!

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Alien oca, invading the Eden Project

Pete and I have had some fun recording a new promo for the AKG. I hope you enjoy it!

Mouse & Trowel nomination

The AKG has been nominated for ‘Best Gardening Podcast’ in the Mouse & Trowel Awards, so thank you for your nominations.

You can now vote for your favourite gardening podcasts and blogs, until May 13th. The winners will be unveiled on May 15th.

AKG062 - Chickens

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Chickens make a real difference in a garden, eating pests and weeds, providing fertilizer and laying eggs. They can also be destructive, eating things you didn’t want eating and scratching around.

Ours live in a fancy eglu chicken house, made by Omlet and available here in the UK and in the US.

Pictures of my chickens in 2006 and 2007 are available on Flickr.

Leave me a comment, send me an email or join our Facebook group. You can also download a PDF transcript of this show.

AKG061 - Potatoes

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What’s the difference between First Earlies, Second Earlies, Early Maincrops and Late Maincrops? How do you grow potatoes and what problems are you likely to encounter? This week’s episode covers the basics of growing your own spuds.

If you’re in to growing unusual varieties of potatoes (or other vegetables) then pop along and check out Daughter of the Soil, a great blog with lovely photos.

Leave me a comment, send me an email or join our Facebook group. You can also download a PDF transcript of this show.

AKG060 - CAT Cold Composting

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CAT Cold Composting, (AKA High Fibre Composting and ‘Feed and Forget’ composting) is a composting process ideal for households and small gardens, developed at the Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales.

It’s very low maintenance, and produces perfectly good compost – even in plastic compost bins. We talked about other methods of composting in episode 3 and episode 26, but if you’re looking for more composting options you could do a lot worse than to buy a copy of The Little Book of Compost by Allan Shepherd.

Leave me a comment, send me an email or join our Facebook group. You can also download a PDF transcript of this show.

AKG059 - Weeds

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Organic gardeners don’t use herbicides and weedkiller, so how do they control the weeds in their garden? Learn about digging, No Dig gardening, mulching, hand weeding and stale seedbeds in this episode.

Joanna from Michigan has sent in a link to a web page about her least favourite weed: Creeping Charlie.

But weeds can also be useful plants – adding wildlife value to your garden and making a useful addition to your compost heap. Madeleine from Mad About Herbs is also keen for you to eat some of them! If you want to get into foraging, you’ll need a good guidebook – Madeleine recommends Wild Food by Roger Phillips.

Coming up on Saturday 29th March is Earth Hour, a chance to join in an international environment event simply by turning off the lights.

And listeners in North America might find the new Seed and Plant Finder from Mother Earth News useful for tracking down particular varieties of seeds and plants.

Leave me a comment, send me an email or join our Facebook group. You can also download a PDF transcript of this show.

AKG058 - Cold frames

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A cold frame is a handy thing to have – it’s a cheap and very environmentally friendly way of extending your growing season and providing your plants with some protection.

Cold frames are just one method of extending the season – check out Eliot Coleman’s book Four Season Harvest for more information on cold frames and other methods of protected cropping.

This episode also contains an email from a listener who has some information to add to episode 55 on peppers, and a reminder that my bookazine is being published this week.

Leave me a comment, send me an email or join our Facebook group. You can also download a PDF transcript of this show.

Home improvements

As the Alternative Kitchen Garden show has been mentioned in both my bookazine and the new Wiggly Wigglers catalogue, it’s possible that a few new listeners might be stopping by.

So (with the help of hubby) I’ve made some improvements to the site that are long overdue. You can now play episodes directly from the site (yay!), and I’ve added the online player to all of the 2008 episodes.

There’s a big fat iTunes button to help new subscribers and for regular listeners I’ve created an archive page, so that it’s easy to download old episodes you might have missed.

AKG057 - Sprouting broccoli

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Sprouting broccoli is one of the delights of a kitchen garden in spring. In this episode I talk about how to grow it, and why you might not want to. Alternatives include broccoli raab (AKA cima di rapa and rapini) and kailaan (AKA Chinese broccoli, Chinese kale).

There’s also an update on what’s been happening in the Grow Dome this week, and some hints on getting a head start on pest reduction.

Leave me a comment, send me an email or join our Facebook group. You can also download a PDF transcript of this show.

AKG056 - Aubergines (eggplants)

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Aubergines (known as eggplants in many parts of the world) are not an easy plant to grow in the UK climate – they need a long growing season and a sunny, sheltered position. Early varieties are most likely to be successful – check out the selection available from Real Seeds. The photos above are from my greenhouse last year, and the variety shown is Calliope F1.

In the show I mention the big writing project that I’ve been working on since Christmas – a thick, glossy magazine about growing your own vegetables, aimed at kids. Check out my blog for more details, including pictures of the front and back covers.

Leave me a comment, send me an email or join our Facebook group. You can also download a PDF transcript of this show.

AKG055 - Peppers

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Peppers (sweet and chilli) are very ornamental plants, and easy to grow – although they do appreciate a long season or some protection. The Real Seed Catalogue has a selection of sweet and chilli peppers that have been selected because they grow well in cool climates.

You can also grow peppers from seeds that you save from store-bought fruit.

Peppers are usually grown as annuals in the UK, but I have been experimenting with overwintering pepper seedlings to get a head start on the growing season.

Over the winter I’ve also been working on a series of articles on green gardening for Country Gardener magazine – and the first article appears in the March edition, published on March 1st.

And Madeleine from Mad About Herbs is back with some advice about growing herbs on your allotment or in your kitchen garden.

Leave me a comment, send me an email or join our Facebook group. You can also download a PDF transcript of this show.

AKG054 - Tomatoes

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Tomatoes are one of the highlights of the summer. In today’s episode you’ll learn how easy it is to grow your own. There’s also another story from Greenprints and a chance to find out about a new show, Froggy Coffee, which is a fun and easy way to learn French.

If you want to save seeds from your tomato plants, then check out episode 28, on seed saving. Go back to episode 7 to learn how to grow comfrey, a plant that you can use to make your own tomato fertilizer. And if you need a refresher course in seed sowing, that’s in episode 5, from this time last year.

Leave me a comment, send me an email or join our Facebook group. You can also download a PDF transcript of this show.

May 12th 2008
2:16 AM GMT

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