This archive brings together practical, experience-led articles from The Backyard Farmer, covering gardening, DIY, indoor growing, foraging, reviews, and sustainable living. Each post is written with real-world use in mind — focusing on working with nature, building practical skills, and making sustainable choices more accessible.
Growing courgettes in the UK is one of the quickest ways to get a decent harvest from a small space. They germinate fast, grow quickly, and one good plant can easily give you more courgettes than you expected. That said, courgettes are also easy to
Introduction Most gardens don’t fail because of what you plant — they fail because of how they’re laid out. If you’ve ever stood in your garden and thought, something’s not quite right here, you’re not alone. I see it all the time — decent plants,
Introduction Knowing when to harvest onions in the UK can feel like a guessing game, especially when the usual advice is to “wait until the tops fall over.” That advice is useful, but it is not the whole story. In a real bed, some onions
Knowing when to plant onions in the UK makes a bigger difference than most people think. Get it right and they’ll grow away nicely. Get it wrong, and they can just sit there doing nothing — or worse, rot off before they even get going.
Introduction If you’ve ever tried growing onions in the UK and ended up with tiny bulbs, plants that bolt early, or sets that seem to disappear into the soil — you’re not alone. Onions often get labelled as one of the easiest crops to grow.
Why I Was Invited to Speak Recently, I was invited to give a talk at the Cheshire Smallholders Association after being featured in the NAS (National Allotment Society) magazine. The Chairman’s father — a previous chairman himself — had read the article, tried the allotment
Potatoes are normally planted between late March and May in the UK. First earlies go in first, followed by second earlies and maincrop varieties. These dates are only a guide. Light, sheltered ground may be ready in March, while cold, wet or heavy soil may
Introduction If a tree in your garden suddenly starts leaning, dropping leaves early, or showing fungus at the base, it’s easy to wonder whether something is seriously wrong. In many cases, the issue is less dramatic than it looks — trees are resilient, and seasonal
Introduction If your grow tent humidity is too high, you’re definitely not alone. In fact, high humidity in a grow tent is one of the most common problems indoor growers face, especially once plants move into the flowering stage. Plants do need some moisture in
Carrots are best sown outdoors in the UK from March to July, once the soil has started to warm. February sowings are possible under cloches, fleece, cold frames, or in a greenhouse bed, but unprotected outdoor soil is often too cold for reliable germination. For
Learning how to grow carrots in the UK is mostly about getting the soil right. Carrots grow easily from seed, take up little space, and do well in gardens, raised beds, allotments, and containers. They can seem tricky if you end up with forked, tiny,
Knowing when to harvest carrots in the UK mostly comes down to timing, size, and a quick look at the root shoulder. Pull them too early and they’ll be thin and underdeveloped. Leave them too long and they can become woody, split, or lose some