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.
Crop rotation gets overcomplicated fast. On a real UK allotment, you do not need a perfect chart to make it useful. The main job is much simpler than that: avoid putting the same problem crop groups back into the same patch year after year. For
Introduction If you’ve ever stood in front of a tray of seeds in March and thought ‘I’ve got way too many seedlings, ‘ you’re not alone. Most of us start a vegetable garden full of enthusiasm. However, by late summer, that same garden can quickly
Introduction If you’ve ever stood in your garden and thought, “What if I had just a bit more land?” — you’re not alone. In fact, most people researching how to start smallholding UK don’t begin with a field. They begin with raised beds, a compost
Introduction Summer planting on these grand isles is special, and even beginners will notice the shift straight away. By June, most beds are producing an abundance of courgettes, peas, beans and tomatoes. Then, by July or August, it almost feels like its time to pause
Introduction April marks the real start of spring harvest momentum in many UK gardens. The days are noticeably longer, the soil begins to warm, and growth speeds up across the plot. As a result, there’s a clear jump in both variety and quantity compared to
Introduction March sits right in the middle of the UK’s “hungry gap” — that stretch where winter crops are winding down but true spring abundance hasn’t quite arrived. However, that doesn’t mean your beds are empty. In fact, there are still plenty of vegetables ready
Introduction This UK harvest calendar shows you what to harvest each month, whether you’re growing on an allotment, in a back garden, or under cover in a greenhouse or polytunnel. It’s a practical month-by-month guide to help you see what’s in season and recognise when
Introduction This article is to help you when you wake up a bit fuzzy on a Sunday, get to the Allotment, and realise you have no idea what to do! (We’ve all been there) Most gardeners on these little islands don’t need more theory or
Introduction: It’s not just you If you’ve ever opened an allotment planner and felt instantly overwhelmed, you’re definitely not alone. Most gardeners — especially those new to allotments — expect an allotment planner or allotment planning software to make things clearer and easier. However, what
Intro: Why This Planner Exists I’m a working gardener based in the UK, and I built this free vegetable garden planner for a simple reason: I needed a practical, reliable way to plan real food growing — not just tidy diagrams that look good on
Intro: Why This Planner Exists I’m a working gardener based in the UK, and I built this free vegetable garden planner for a simple reason: I needed a practical, reliable way to plan real food growing — not just sketch tidy diagrams that look good
Intro: Why This Planner Exists I’m a working gardener based in the UK, and I built this free vegetable garden planner for a simple reason: I needed a practical, reliable way to plan real food growing — not just sketch tidy diagrams that look good