It really is so exciting each year to see the fantastic veg exhibited at local village and town shows. The superb displays have got me thinking – how best to prepare the veggie beds for my own bumper crops next year. It is also time to think about which veg to plant now, for a tasty early harvest next year.

SeeHow’s new interactive vegetable gardening book, SeeHow – Veg, is full of ideas!

Let us know if you are thinking about growing any veg to exhibit - we’d love to know more! 😊🥜🫛🍄‍🟫🥕

This year, most areas of the UK have been affected by the drought. This has left quite a few plants with crisped leaf edges and given biodiversity a very hard time too. Many trees have suffered early leaf loss. This should give us pause-for-thought regarding our garden flower choices – combining resilient plants which also support biodiversity.

Countless hectares of monoculture farming practices over the last 50 years have crushed biodiversity levels. Farming practices need to change. This will require top-down political pressure. But we gardeners can make our own small changes to support biodiversity, from the bottom up. There are approximately 23 million gardens in the UK - that potentially adds up to a big effect! Today, I did my bit by picking some wild blackberries and turning them into a homemade blackberry flan. A small celebration of the abundance nature still offers – and a reminder of why it’s worth protecting. 🌱🖤🥧 

What about you? Let me know what you love to cook using nature’s fruits and if you want to read more of my ‘Bring back the Buzz’ Blog head over to the website by clicking the link in the Bio.

What a beautiful country Romania is, offering the opportunity to get away from the usual tourist destinations. Choose the right areas and you will glimpse landscapes that are a reminder of the way the countryside used to look across much of Europe and the UK too.  For anyone who loves nature, in Romania, it is possible to see permaculture farming at work enabling people and nature to co-exist in balance. 

As I wandered around a monastery garden in Romania, somewhat to my surprise, I realised that the majority of the plants and flowers were ones we all know and grow in the UK. In fact, if it were not for the different architecture, I could have been in Perthshire, Scotland!

Aren’t we a bit like bees, attracted by the colours of flowers. But unlike bees, driven by instinct to search for nectar as food for the hive, we are driven by our search for beauty – food for the mind.

We live in a world of processed foods and processed lives – conformities forced on us that often seem to detach us from the natural world all around. Growing veg and foraging for wild food can help counter these stresses, declutter our lives in a natural way.

SeeHow’s latest gardening book is now out! SeeHow – Vegwas launched at the @RHS Hampton Court Flower Festival on 01 July 2025. It includes 107 of the most widely grown vegetables, each one illustrated to show the its whole life in the veg bed, with all the required technical information on the back of each illustration. Follow the notes on the back and enjoy eating what is shown on the front! Happy veg growing!

Gardens can flourish throughout all of the seasons of the year. Winter is no exception and there are many plants that have evolved to be at their best at this time. Some also provide an important source of winter nectar and habitat for our biodiversity. SeeHow’s latest blog looks at a selection of reliable winter-flowering plants and bulbs.

Winter gardens can be full of colour and structure while also supporting our beleaguered biodiversity. And yet few gardeners specifically plant with winter colour in mind - perhaps a missed opportunity. It is just a matter of selecting the right shrubs, plants and bulbs. There are plenty of options to choose from to give a garden a colourful boost during the short chilly winter days. This blog looks at some shrubs and small trees that provide superb winter garden colour. The next blog will look plants and bulbs that flower during winter and early spring.

The mild microclimate running along the north Aberdeenshire coast meant the end of ice harvesting almost 60 years ago. Instead, the area is attracting tourists, artists and gardeners, drawn by the dramatic scenery and superb growing conditions. It is not too hot in the summer and not too cold in the winter - a ‘goldilocks zone’ for plants. The times may be a-changing, but there is a silver lining too!

Many plants are beginning to fade – becoming passed their best. It is easy to become a little despondent, thinking that the gardening year is almost over, whereas we are really just transitioning from one season to the next. But even now, there are many plants still in flower … reasons to be cheerful …