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.
July has felt much more like proper allotment growing. The big clearing jobs are mostly behind me now, crops are filling the beds, and I have started bringing home some proper harvests. There have still been a few problems. Flea beetles arrived in numbers, the
June was a quieter month on the allotment, but that is not a bad thing. After the big clear-out in May, this month was more about keeping the plot moving, adding a few more crops, protecting what was already in the ground, and slowly bringing
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 This week the allotment started to feel less like a clearing job and more like an actual growing space. I managed to get up there twice, with two decent sessions, and the difference already feels huge. There is still plenty to do, but the
Introduction I finally got started on the allotment this week after the council offered me a place after waiting on the local list. The first job was clearing what was already there. What looked like a few raised beds turned out to be a mix