The 'no dig method' of gardening is a growing trend, try it before the main vegetable planting season arrives

So, here we are, more than three quarters of the way through January already. Grow your own enthusiasts and those with an allotment will already be champing at the bit, eager to start sowing and growing. Let’s look at what you can be getting on with right now. It’s a great month for preparing the plot. For some, this means digging. This helps to bury weeds and loosen the soil. Digging the vegetable garden or allotment in order to prepare for spring  growing and sowing is the traditional way to go about things, but with the benefit of ecological understanding together with science, it might not be necessary.

Anyone with a kitchen garden or allotment should be enjoying a harvest glut in September. Apples are ripe for plucking, courgettes are still coming, onions are ready for drying, tomatoes are ripening on the vine and potatoes are inviting you to dig for their delicious treasure. There are still runner beans hiding amongst the climbing green foliage, autumn-fruiting raspberries and tayberries are luscious, blackberries taste beautiful and beetroot is bursting from the soil. But how do you cope with a glut of wonderful produce?

Ready, steady, grow your own when the major growing season arrives each spring. When the danger of frost has passed, there's no time to waste down on the vegetable plot and the sooner you start growing, the faster your crops will be making their way to the kitchen table. Are you a newbie to kitchen garden vegetable growing?

Here's our selection of five easy crops that can be sown and grown now.

Have you ever fancied having an allotment? It's definitely become a growing trend. There's no time better than NOW to get involved in your local community growing area, should you be lucky enough to have one. It seems that grow your own has enjoyed a surge in popularity over the past decade or so as people appreciate the value of organically-grown, top quality produce together with the enormous satisfaction that can be gained from the entire growing process.

Plumcot anyone? Do you have any idea what this even is? But why the weird and unusual fruit? Perhaps you have tasted some of the many strange fruit crosses, or hybrid fuiits, that are now available and maybe you are tempted to plant your own unusual fruit tree or bush?There are many different crosses of fruits now and we have selected just 11 fruit trees and bushes for the experimental gardener. 

Here's six reasons why a crab apple could be the tree for you!

Here's six wonderful features of a tree that's so easy to please:

Scared to enter the season of spirits? Here's how to cope with the dark forces that are coming.

Have you ever noticed how some people seem to smile a lot? How does this make you feel?  Perhaps you are envious or maybe you think they are foolish. You might not even have noticed that  there's a whole heap of people out there who look happy most of the time. Are you one of them?

Grow your own unusual edible plants

‍ Grow your own edible plants! But why stop at the predictable produce when you can grow unusual fruit and vegetables too?