Chard

Overwintering chard in your raised bed: decide now, harvest till December

If you don't pull your chard out now, you can keep harvesting well into November and December. Chard is hardier than its reputation. Here's what to do — and what to leave alone.

Beetroot in the raised bed: when it's actually ready — and why you shouldn't wait for it to get big

Mrs Schneider let her beetroot grow until the roots were the size of tennis balls. Now they're woody and difficult to cook. The thing most people get wrong: with beetroot, smaller is usually better — and the right moment is written right above the soil.

Chard in the raised bed: why it gives you more the more you harvest

Mrs Schneider harvested her chard once in mid-June. Then she left it alone, thinking it needed time to recover. By July it was fifty centimetres tall. She thought she had done something wrong. She hadn't — she'd just stopped harvesting.

The garden in July: what to sow now — and what's already on the plate

July is the loudest time in the raised bed: the first courgettes, cucumbers and tomatoes, and at the same time your last chance to sow for autumn. What still goes in now, what comes out, and the one trick that keeps freed-up gaps from sitting empty.

What goes into the bed in June — and what's already too late

June isn't the final sprint, it's a second start. What you can still plant, what you sow directly, and which crop to skip because that ship has sailed.

The raised bed in the first heatwave: when shade helps — and when it hurts

The first 30-degree week arrives earlier every year than you'd think. What in the raised bed really needs shade, what the sun can handle, and why a shade net is sometimes the wrong move.