The Veg Grower Podcast

Welcome to Episode 664 of the Veg Grower Podcast. This week has been shaped by one thing: heat. With temperatures soaring and humidity making everything feel heavier, Richard has been adapting his gardening routine to keep both the kitchen garden and the allotment thriving during a heatwave.

In this episode, he shares how early mornings, deep watering, mulching, and a few clever tools have helped him stay on top of things during a UK heatwave. If you’re growing food in hot weather — or want to be prepared for when the next heatwave arrives — this is an episode worth listening to.

In the Kitchen Garden: Heatwave Gardening

The kitchen garden has been a challenge and a joy this week. With the house feeling like an oven, Richard has been heading outside at 5:30am to make the most of the cooler hours. These peaceful early mornings have become the perfect time to water, tidy, and enjoy the garden before the heat sets in.

In the podcast, Richard talks about:

How he’s using deep watering to keep crops alive

Why his Ryobi pump has been a huge time‑saver

Filling gaps with tomatoes, chillies and peppers

Updates from the edible pond and its oxygenating plants

Improvements planned for the chicken area

What’s been harvested despite the heat

If you want to hear how the kitchen garden is coping — and what’s thriving — tune in to the full episode.

Down the Allotment

It’s been a productive week on the allotment too, especially with a fantastic 6kg harvest of Morello cherries. Richard shares how he processed them and what’s next for the stone fruit trees now that harvesting is complete.

In the episode, you’ll hear about:

Summer pruning of cherries, peaches and plums

How straw mulch has been the hero of the heatwave

What’s growing well in straw bale beds

Sweetcorn, squash, pumpkins and onions

This week’s allotment harvests

If you’re looking for practical allotment tips for hot weather, this segment is packed with them.

Recipe of the Week

Tomato & Herb Summer Salad with Chickpeas

This week’s recipe is a refreshing, no‑cook dish perfect for hot weather and ideal for using up homegrown tomatoes and herbs.

You’ll find the full recipe in its own blog post.

From the Podding Shed

In this week’s reflective segment, Richard talks about how gardening is changing as UK summers become hotter. He shares his thoughts on adapting our growing methods, staying safe in extreme heat, and planning for the future.

Topics include:

Working early or late in the day

Staying hydrated and sun‑safe

Providing water for wildlife and chickens

Increasing rainwater storage

Growing more drought‑tolerant edible crops

Why mulch continues to be essential

It’s a thoughtful discussion about how we can all continue growing food even as the climate shifts.

This week on the Veg Grower Podcast, I took you with me on my annual pilgrimage to Gardeners’ World Live at the NEC in Birmingham — for the very last time at this venue before the show moves to a new location next year. And what a send‑off it was.

Right from the moment I stepped into the Beautiful Borders, it was clear that grow‑your‑own is becoming more deeply woven into garden design. As I said in the episode, “I’m already in the beautiful borders and I can already see there’s lots of vegetables incorporated in the design of these gardens.”

From chard and strawberries to pumpkins, herbs and even buckets of potatoes, veg was everywhere — and it looked fantastic.

Lucy’s ‘Make a Meter Matter’ Garden

One of the highlights of the show was catching up with the brilliant Lucy, who created a stunning grow‑your‑own themed border built around the idea that one square metre can make a difference.

Her horseshoe‑shaped layout featured nine individual 1m² zones, each packed with ideas for different types of growers. As Lucy explained, “If you can just convert one meter of your outdoor space into somewhere where plants can thrive and grow, then that’s a brilliant thing.”

The Kids’ Growing Zones

Lucy dedicated three metres to inspiring children to grow:

Speedy veg with egg‑head planters, quick lettuces and tactile mint

Pizza & pasta plants including basil, rocket and the adorable Micro Tom tomato

Smoothie ingredients like blueberries, strawberries, kale and beetroot

Her goal was simple: make growing fun, colourful and irresistible.

Urban & Rental Gardeners

Next came three metres designed for those with balconies, courtyards or tiny spaces:

Eco‑warrior zone with coir pots, wooden labels and guerrilla‑gardening seed bombs

Party‑goer zone complete with a mini ceramic BBQ (yes — the same one I own!)

Gourmet zone featuring Malabar spinach, cucamelons, Japanese parsley and more

Fruit in Small Spaces

Lucy’s final three metres championed fruit — something she feels is underrepresented. She showcased:

Beautifully trained apples

Compact currants and strawberries

A one‑metre forest garden of “super fruits”

Micro‑fruit options for pots

As she put it, “Fruit is so underrated and underrepresented in the gardening world.”

Exploring the Show & New Ideas

After dragging myself away from the show gardens (never easy!), I wandered the stalls, picked up a few tools and plants, and soaked up the atmosphere. I love how these events spark new ideas — even if they make me want to redesign my entire garden.

Mushroom Growing with the K Brothers

I also sat in on a fascinating talk by the K Brothers, known for their mushroom‑growing kits. Even though I’m allergic to mushrooms, I’m always intrigued by how accessible mushroom cultivation has become.

Jodie explained that mushrooms will grow on almost any organic material: “They will grow on any organic material… books or straw or sawdust or cardboard or your old jeans.”

Their kits use hardwood sawdust for maximum nutrition, and with daily misting you can harvest mushrooms in as little as three weeks.

Plant Expert Stand with Saul Walker

To round off the episode, I caught up with Saul Walker, who shared insights from the plant expert stand. Climate change, unpredictable weather patterns and plant establishment issues dominated the questions this year.

As Saul noted, “The key with gardening is you need that stability… now that things are changing every year… I don’t know what to say sometimes.”

Aphids, scale insects and general plant stress were also common topics — all reminders of how important diversity, observation and early intervention are in our gardens.

This week on the Veg Grower Podcast, I’ve been making the most of a week off work — and it’s amazing how much difference a few focused days can make. Daily visits to the allotment have helped me get on top of all those little jobs that build up, and the plot is looking better than it has in a long time. It really has been a week of garlic harvest and garden tidying, and everything is thriving for it.

Allotment Progress

The highlight of the week has been the garlic harvest. The bulbs grown on the allotment have outperformed those at home, with bigger bulbs and stronger stems. They’re now curing in the greenhouse ready for long‑term storage.

I’ve also been cutting back large clumps of comfrey for the compost bin. It’s growing vigorously at the moment, and while the bees love the flowers, the leaves make fantastic compost material.

Kitchen Garden Improvements

Back home, the kitchen garden has had a proper tidy and reset. I’ve moved the HotBin composter to a more practical location and set up a new Autopot Spyder watering system — a product I genuinely rate highly. If you’d like to try Autopot yourself, you can use my affiliate code AUTO10RVG for 10% off on the Autopot website.

I’ve also spent time checking supports, tying in plants, and trimming back anything getting unruly. We’ve even had a nest of bumblebees set up near the chicken coop, which has been fascinating to watch.

Recipe of the Week

This week’s recipe is a simple but delicious pea and mint crostini — perfect for using those early‑summer harvests and ideal as a quick garden‑side snack.

In the Potting Shed

In the potting shed, I’m talking all about feeding our plants — when to feed, what to use, and how to avoid overdoing it. If you’re looking for reliable plant feeds, I recommend Empathy products.

They offer excellent seaweed feed, tomato feed, and specialist blends.

Early June has brought that classic mix of heavy rain, strong winds and sudden sunshine — and the garden has certainly felt it. In this week’s episode, I’m sharing how the weather has shaped everything from seed sowing to weeding, plus an exciting update from the beehive as the colony continues to grow.

Kitchen Garden Update: Wild Weather and Big Sowing Sessions

The kitchen garden has taken a real battering from the weather this week, but the plants are still powering on. Inside the shed, I’ve been making the most of the rain by sowing cucumbers, sweetcorn, kale, cabbage and beans in plug trays. Out in the Veggie Pod, more spring onions, radish and carrots have gone in — ideal quick crops for this time of year. There’s also been another round of cutting back the invasive climber along the fence line, which has taken full advantage of the warm, wet conditions.

Allotment Update: Growth Spurts, Weeds and Potato Progress

Down on the allotment, everything has that early‑summer energy. The rain has made weeding incredibly satisfying, and the beds are looking much tidier for it. My early potatoes are still recovering from the May frost, while the main crop is thriving with strong, healthy foliage. The beans are climbing well, the boundary weeds are putting up their usual fight, and I’ve even planted some forgotten seed potatoes for a late experiment. It’s one of those weeks where the plot feels full of potential.

Recipe of the Week: Chard and New Potatoes

This week’s recipe is a simple early‑summer dish using chard and new potatoes fresh from the garden. Soft potatoes, sweet onions, garlic and colourful chard, finished with butter and lemon — a quick, fresh plate that tastes like summer. You’ll find the full recipe on the podcast page.

From the Podding Shed: Successional Sowing Explained

There’s exciting progress in the beehive this week as I add the colony’s first super, giving them space to expand and store surplus honey. I’m also diving into successional sowing — how often to sow different crops, what you can still sow right now in the UK, and how this simple habit keeps food coming all summer long. If you want steady harvests and fewer gluts, this is the segment to listen to.

Early summer has truly arrived, and with it comes one of my favourite celebrations in the gardening calendar—Tomato Fortnight. As I shared in this week’s Veg Grower Podcast, the allotment and kitchen garden are bursting with activity, from staking tomatoes to sowing French beans, harvesting peas, and even spotting new life on my citrus tree.

Tomato Fortnight: Why I Grow So Many Varieties

Down on the allotment, the heat has been intense, but the tomatoes are thriving. I grow around eight different varieties, each chosen for a specific purpose—beefsteaks for sandwiches, salad tomatoes for everyday use, cherries for hanging baskets, and plum tomatoes for passata. As I said in the episode: “There are so many different varieties, hundreds and hundreds of varieties… that is why I grow so many different varieties of tomatoes.”

Between home and the allotment, that adds up to around 30 plants—and honestly, I could still grow more.

Greenhouse vs. Outdoor Tomatoes

Greenhouse tomatoes crop earlier but lack the depth of flavour of outdoor-grown fruit. Outdoors, I rely on blight‑resistant varieties like Crimson Crush and Crimson Blush to help avoid devastation from late‑season blight. “Any tomatoes growing outside, unless they are blight resistant, are susceptible… it can literally rot your crop within a week.”

Watering & Feeding

Consistent watering is key to avoiding split fruit and blossom end rot. I mulch heavily with straw to lock in moisture and feed weekly with seaweed until flowering, then switch to tomato feed.

Sweetcorn, Squash & Straw Bale Growing

The allotment beds are now fully planted. Sweetcorn has gone in as a block, not rows, to ensure good wind pollination. Squash and courgettes are thriving in the straw bales, settling in nicely after the recent cold snap.

Interestingly, my maincrop potatoes have overtaken the first earlies due to that cold spell: “The cold snap… just set those first earlies back a little bit.”

Catching Rainwater in a Dry Year

Back home, I’ve been racing to put out buckets and containers ahead of the forecast rain. “It has been a very dry year so far… I want to catch as much rainwater as I can.”

With 16 water butts running low, every drop counts.

Seed of the Month: French Beans

June’s seed of the month is one of my absolute favourites—French climbing beans. They’re fast, productive, and perfect for filling gaps as spring crops finish.

Sowing is simple:

Sow direct 2 cm deep or

Start in modules for quick germination (7–14 days)

Beans aren’t hungry plants, but they do need something to climb. I use hazel-stick frames, drilling holes with a soil auger to get the sticks firmly into the ground. “They simply curl their way up around the stick… I find it fascinating.”

I also grow Borlotto for both fresh pods and dried beans—beautiful, versatile, and easy to store.

Kitchen Harvests & Courgette Fritters

Harvests are rolling in: lettuce, radish, spring onions, peas, strawberries, raspberries, and the first courgettes of the year.

To celebrate the courgette glut, this week’s recipe is Early Summer Courgette & Mint Fritters with Lemon Yoghurt—crisp, fresh, and perfect for lunch. “These fritters are crisp on the outside, soft in the middle… lifted beautifully by fresh mint.”

Bee Update: A Calm, Growing Colony

My weekly apiary visit brought brilliant news: “The bees have incredibly settled in… we’re now up to eight frames of bees.”

Even better—I finally spotted the queen. Supers will be going on soon, meaning honey isn’t far away.

Book of the Month: Home Brewing by Kevin Forbes

May’s unexpected Book of the Month was Home Brewing by Kevin Forbes. With elderflowers in full swing, I used it to make cordial and even started elderflower wine. “This book made it sound very, very easy.”

For June, I’ll be diving into The Victorian Kitchen Garden by Jennifer Davies.