THE LATE, GREAT PLATE OF SUMMER

Late summer brings a harvest worth lingering over – Anna Cairns Pettigrew shares six seasonal favourites using plums, grapes and garlic

Welcome

Summer jamming

TOP JOBS FOR SEPTEMBER

STEPHANIE HAFFERTY EXPLAINS WHAT YOU NEED TO SOW NOW FOR WINTER AND SPRING HARVESTS

UNDER COVER

S u mmer crops are still producing harvests

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ALL THE LATEST NEWS, PRODUCTS & FACTS FROM THE WORLD OF KITCHEN GARDENING

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OUR LEANING TOWER OF PEAS-A

As a volunteer gardener at Warrington Youth Zone,

FROM THR FORUM

CREDIT: iStock/ Mila Usmanova GEOFF: Did you spot

QUESTION TIME

GOT A FRUIT OR VEG PROBLEM? ASK KG FOR HELP

BUIL DING A FOOD FOREST IN SCOTLAND

MEET THE BLOGGER

USE THE HEALING POWER OF HERBS

Nicola Sabin, trustee of The Herb Society UK, explains how easy it is to grow herbs at home – whether in beds, pots or on windowsills – and how to use them in simple teas, remedies and everyday herbal care

AFIELD FULL OF CHARACTERS

There’s something timeless about a scarecrow. Whether they’re stuffed with straw, rigged up with tinsel and old CDs, or dressed like your uncle in his Sunday best, these silent sentinels have been guarding our plots for centuries. From ancient Egypt to the modern allotment, they’ve always had one job –to look menacingly ridiculous enough to keep the birds at bay

ELEGANT EDIBLES: THE ART OF TRAINED FRUIT TREES

Neat, productive and full of old-fashioned charm, trained fruit trees are a time-honoured feature of the kitchen garden. Martin Fish shares his expert advice on choosing shapes, training your own trees, and keeping them in good form for years to come

SUN-RIPENED, SHELF-READY

From the Andes to your allotment, tomatoes have come along way –and Rob Smith shows you how to make the most of them

OUR TOP PLOTTERS

Last summer we launched a competition to find our Top Plotters, with the top three winning some great prizes and all being featured in Kitchen Garden magazine this year. Here we feature one of our runners-up, an allotmenteer from County Durham

SOW NOW, EAT L ATER!

This is the ideal time to plan and plant crops for bountiful harvests in winter and early spring. Emma O’Neill, head gardener at Garden Organic, shows you what’s good to sow now, making the most of Organic September

GREN GOLD

Are you still putting out your grass clippings for garden waste collection? Stop! says Benedict Vanheems . Here are some simple but highly effective ways to put them to fantastic use in the garden or on the allotment

SO HOW ORGANIC IS ORGANIC?

Garden Organic’s Anton Rosenfeld discusses how you can be sure what you’re doing in your garden is organic and not harmful to your soil or wildlife

Fungi Foray

Becky Searle shares her tips on cultivating mushrooms at home – and explains why they deserve a place in every veg grower’s toolkit

PUT YOUR PERENNIALS TO BED

Whether your patch is fully mature or you’re just starting out, late summer is a crucial time for perennial veg, and making sure you complete a few simple but important jobs now will ensure strong, healthy growth and great harvests on your plot next year

Great grapes in any space

Whether you’ve got a greenhouse, a pergola or just a patio, grapes can thrive with the right pruning and care. David Patch shares expert tips for training vines and choosing the best varieties for every setup

DIGING THE DIRT

TO MULCH OR NOT TO MULCH, THAT IS THE QUESTION

THREE JELLY KITS, ONE STICKY VERDICT

I love this time of year. Making jam marks the start of the slowing of the seasons, and is a great way to capture the flavours of the summer. With bumper harvests coming in at the moment, I put a few pieces of jam-making kit to the test

JELLY TIME

A piece of muslin hung from a cupboard door by a piece of string has served me well for decades, but it was time to get more professional. I chose three jelly strainers and tested them all with the same amount of blackberry pulp to see how well they measured up.

GIVE AWAYS

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