Organic Gardening Magazine

Features

6 Smile – it’s pumpkin time!
They look great, grow like magic and are delicious in the depths of winter – pumpkins have to be the ultimate feel-good crop, says Joyce Russell.

10 Sun flowers
If your garden basks in the sun, make it a magnet for butterflies with buddleias, lavenders, Mediterranean herbs and cornfield annuals, says Jenny Steel.

14 A cloche with class
You can’t have too many cloches… but where looks and size matter, the cost can be prohibitive. Toby Buckland turns his hand to making his own.

18 Cut miles off flowers!
Where did that bunch of florist’s flowers come from? You might be surprised! So grow your own cutting patch and fill your house with colour, says Caroline Mills.

22 NEW SERIES
A fresh take on herbs
Anna Parkinson sets out to reinvent the contemporary herb garden using knowledge garnered from old herbals.

24 A Royal shade of green?
John Walker talks recycling, renewables and carbon footprints with Bob Sweet, the key decision-maker behind the RHS flower shows.

32 Get set!
Terry Marshall provides a month-by-month guide to your tomato season. This month: how to ensure that those all-important flowers translate into fruit.

36 Thinking outside the garden
Short on space to grow your own food? Ann Somerset Miles explores the options for gardening beyond your boundaries.

40 Weeder’s digest
It’s May, and everything’s growing madly. Much of it, you didn’t plant. Helen Penrose provides a timely run-down of organic options on weed control.

50 Planting for the long haul
It’s all too easy to put the seed packets back in the drawer come May, says Mike Clark – but now is the time to sow the brassicas that will keep you fed through winter ’09.

56 The future’s local
Ann Somerset Miles meets Future Farms, a village food-growing co-operative which sells to local people at a weekly market.

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76 Giveaways
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28 10 things about… lettuce
Christina Maxfield digs up facts and folklore on our kitchen garden crops.

34 Q&As
Your gardening questions answered.

44 This month in your garden
Anna Corbett provides the essential guide to work in your May garden.

48 Bird’s eye view
Despite their misdemeanours, sparrows are endearing garden visitors… and cause for serious concern, says Gunars Ulmanis.

54 Garden to kitchen
Seasonal recipes from Gaby Bartai.

58 Backyard botany
Lucy Halliday untangles a metabolic catch-22.

60 May cut down to size
What to prune this month, with Paul Hending.

62 Tom Petherick’s garden diary
Tom offers an insight into the biodynamic approach.

66 Organic news
John Greenway and Kate Chancellor report.

72 Resources
News from the organic marketplace.

74 Out & about
What’s on for gardeners?

76 Webwatch
Virtual gardening with Helen Gazeley.

77 Book reviews
The pick of the new titles.

78 Letters
Your news, views and comments.

79 Down the garden path
Mat Coward has the last word.

80 Next month
A look ahead to what’s coming up in the June issue of OG, out May 29.

Next month reminder!

THE JUNE ISSUE OF ORGANIC GARDENING IS ON SALE FROM THE 29 MAY 2008 - AND EVERY LAST THURSDAY OF THE MONTH THEREAFTER