Episode 667- Mid‑July in the Garden: Caterpillars, Leeks and Soft Fruit
About this episode
Richard discusses pest control, planting leeks, summer harvests, and kitchen garden updates.
This week on the Veg Grower Podcast, Richard tackles caterpillars on the brassicas, gets his leeks planted at last, enjoys a strong run of summer harvests, completes a few kitchen‑garden jobs, shares a simple stir‑fried bean recipe, and looks at the best ways to store soft fruit. Allotment Update The allotment kept Richard busy with pests this week. While tending the broccoli, he spotted cabbage white caterpillars chewing through the leaves. Instead of using pesticides, he checked each leaf, picked off the caterpillars by hand, destroyed the eggs and took the caterpillars home for the chickens. Netting helps keep butterflies out, but it also makes day‑to‑day care awkward, so Richard plans to attract more birds to the plot with feeders and bird houses. The leeks — sown back in January — finally went into the ground after the garlic came out. Each leek dropped into a dibbed hole and received a good soak. Daily watering will help them settle in. Harvests this week included courgettes, tomatoes, blackberries, currants, rhubarb, cabbage and second early potatoes, which performed much better than the first earlies. The soil remains very dry and the allotment badly needs rain. Kitchen…
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- Episode 663- Gardeners’ World Live 2026: Inspiring Designs, Mushroom Magic & Growing for Every Space
- Episode 662 — A Week of Growth: Garlic Harvest, Garden Tidying & Feeding Our Plants
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