Organic Gardening Magazine

Features

6 Real fast food
Grow an (almost) instant salad garden! Christina Maxfield checks out the varieties on offer for gardeners who want results – fast.

10 Sweet success
Sweetcorn has a reputation as an advanced-course crop – but growing it isn’t that difficult, and the taste is in a different league from the corn in the shops, says Joyce Russell.

14 Strange fruit
Ready to branch out from apples and pears? Take your pick from quince, medlar and mulberry – all well worth a place in the adventurous fruit gardener’s plot, says Paul Hending.

20 Beyond organics
Helen Gazeley talks to Matthew Adams, Director of the Good Gardeners’ Association and a man with a mission – to prove that no-dig methods are the way to restore the mineral content of our crops.

24 Raising the stakes
50 square metres of raised beds for under £50? It can be done – and Dave Bevan shows us how.

28 Spring into autumn
Don’t forget that bulbs have a second season, says Gunars Ulmanis. It’s time to be planting the bulbs, corms and tubers that will give your autumn garden a new lease of life.

36 Protection business
If it feels like your garden is under siege, don’t panic, says Ann Somerset Miles – there’s a whole range of organic strategies to keep the pests off your plot.

44 Wild about scabious
If you want butterflies in your wildlife garden, what you need is scabious, says Jenny Steel.

48 Free to good garden
It’s time we took a step towards reducing consumption, says John Walker – by obtaining everything we need in our gardens for free.

Offers

16 Special offer fruit trees
Save up to £10 on our special offer quince, medlar and mulberry trees.

19 Subscribe!

Reserve your personal copy of OG each month.

54 OG offers
Pot-grown fruit to plant now, weeding tools, organic fertiliser and more – all at special reader prices!

63 Giveaway
Win tickets to Gardeners’ World Live!

Regulars

18 Runner beans on a page
Christina Maxfield tells you all you need to know – on just one page!

32 This month in your garden
Helen Penrose checks off jobs coming up in May.

40 Letters
Your news, views and comments.

42 Gardener in the kitchen
Seasonal recipes from Anna Corbett.

46 Q&As
Christina Maxfield answers your queries.

50 Organic news
John Greenway and Kate Chancellor report.

52 The permaculture plot
Shade can be a limitation – but apply permacultural principles to the problem and it can also be an opportunity, says Paul Jennings.

56 Plot line
If the 2012 Olympics are to be the most sustainable in history, why is an allotment site being sacrificed to make way for them? asks Mark Patterson.

57 Gardening bug
The Bug is back – it’s time for young gardeners to get plotting!

58 Tom Petherick’s garden diary
Biodynamics moves into the realm beyond rational explanation – but Tom Petherick is increasingly convinced.

60 Resources
What’s new in the organic marketplace?

62 Out & about
Upcoming events for gardeners.

65 Next month
A look ahead to what’s coming up in the July issue of OG, out June 7th.