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.
Introduction Spinach is one of those crops that looks dead easy on paper until it suddenly is not. One week it looks great, and the next it is bolting, sulking in dry soil, or giving you far less than the space felt worth. The big
Introduction Brussels sprouts can be a brilliant winter crop, but they are not one of those veg you can half-get-right and still expect much from later. They take a while, they get bigger than plenty of people expect, and by autumn they have a habit
Introduction Growing cauliflower in the UK can be really satisfying, but it is also one of those crops that quickly shows you where things are going wrong. If the plants get checked by cold, drought, weak seedlings, poor spacing, or pest damage, the heads usually
Introduction Growing cabbage in the UK is fairly straightforward once you understand what tends to go wrong. That is the part that catches people out. You can do a nice neat sowing, raise decent seedlings, and still end up with a patch that gets hammered
Introduction UK frost dates confuse a lot of gardeners because, although the UK is small, it does not behave like one neat growing zone. A sowing date that works in Cornwall, coastal Devon, or a sheltered London garden can still be too early for Scotland,
Introduction Growing broccoli in the UK is one of those jobs that looks easy on paper, then catches people out in real life. Usually, it is not because broccoli is especially difficult. More often, the plants get checked, the timing is off, pigeons or caterpillars
Introduction Dwarf French beans are one of the easiest beans to grow in the UK once the weather has warmed up properly. They are compact, productive, and much easier to fit into pots, raised beds, and small allotment spaces than climbing beans. In the UK,
Introduction Runner beans are one of those crops that make you feel like you have got the hang of gardening when they take off. In a decent UK summer, they climb hard, fill out fast, and keep cropping if you stay on top of them.
Introduction Peas are one of those crops that just suit the UK. They like cool conditions, get moving early in the season, and fresh-picked peas taste miles better than the shop-bought ones most people are used to. If you have only ever had peas from
Introduction A healthy lawn still matters, but lawn care in hot weather is getting harder. A lawn still earns its place in plenty of gardens. It frames the space, gives children and dogs somewhere to play, softens hard landscaping, and generally makes everything feel more
Introduction May was the first proper month on the allotment, and looking back, it already feels like the plot has turned a corner. At the start, it was still more of a clearing job than a growing space. There were old beds to pull apart,
Introduction When I first started gardening for work, I did not see it as some grand life plan. It was temporary. A side hustle. A practical way to bring money in while I worked out what I was really meant to be doing. The odd