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 basil in the UK can be surprisingly frustrating. It’s often sold as an easy herb, but if you’ve ever brought a supermarket plant home only to watch it collapse within a week, you’ll know that’s not the full story. The reality is simple: basil
Growing aubergines in the UK sounds simple enough? You just have to sow, plant and harvest them right? In reality, the aubergine is one of those crops that can be tricky to get right here in Britain. You usually end up with healthy plants, plenty
Growing asparagus in the UK looks straightforward — until you actually try it. This is where a lot of gardeners slip up early on. It’s a perennial vegetable, so once it’s established, it can crop for 10–20 years. However, that also means early mistakes —
Growing ash gourd in the UK isn’t something you see on most allotments — and there’s a reason for that. It’s a tropical vine that thrives on heat, long seasons, and steady warmth… three things we don’t always get here. So the obvious question is:
Growing apple trees in the UK sounds simple — and to be fair, it can be — but most issues don’t come from the tree itself. They come from how it’s set up in the first place. Choosing the wrong rootstock, planting it in a
Courgettes are one of the easiest vegetables to grow well in the UK once they have warmth, space and consistent moisture. A couple of healthy plants can produce heavily through summer, even in a fairly small garden. The main problems usually come from planting too
For most UK gardens, onion sets planted in spring are best planted from March to April, once the soil is workable and no longer waterlogged. If you are growing onions from seed, sow indoors from January to March or direct outdoors from March to April.
Growing onions in the UK is fairly simple once the basics are right. Most poor crops come down to wet soil, overcrowding, weak early growth or excessive nitrogen, so the key is getting plants established strongly before bulb formation begins. Onion Sets or Seeds? Both
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
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