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 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 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 I tried to avoid using garden netting for vegetable beds for a while. Not because I had anything against it. I just wanted the softer, more natural methods to work first. Like a lot of growers, I liked the idea of sorting pest problems
Introduction Leeks are one of those crops that do not look like much early on, but they properly earn their space later in the year. They sit quietly through spring and summer, bulk up slowly, and then become one of the most useful vegetables in
Introduction Most garden projects do not go wrong because the original idea was bad. More often, it is the practical details that catch people out. In real UK gardens, that usually means something simple has been missed: That is where garden landscaping materials really matter.
Introduction Parsnips are not difficult once they get going, but they can be awkward at the start. If you have ever sown a row, waited patiently, and ended up staring at bare soil for weeks, you are not alone. The main challenge with growing parsnips
Introduction Learning how to store potatoes properly sounds simple enough, until you have a sack of muddy spuds, a damp shed, and no clear plan for what needs eating first. For UK gardeners and allotment growers, potato storage is rarely about having the perfect root