HOW WE WORK
Honest growing advice from a real garden
When you come to Diary of an Organic Grower with a question, we want you to leave feeling better informed, reassured and more confident about what to do next.
There is an enormous amount of gardening advice online. Some of it is excellent, but much of it is repeated without being properly questioned, tested or explained.
Chinese whispers don’t work in gardening.
Diary of an Organic Grower exists to offer something different: calm, practical guidance based on credible information, careful observation and what has actually happened in the garden.
WHERE MY EXPERIENCE COMES FROM
My interest in growing and the natural world began as far back as I can remember. As a small child, I went blackberry picking with my mother and learned which berries were ready and why the green ones needed to be left alone. At home, I sowed quick-growing radishes so I could see the results for myself.
Wherever I have lived, I have found a way to grow something—from pots on balconies and a London roof garden to runner beans in a polystyrene box.
My experience includes allotments, private gardens, running a grounds-maintenance business in the UK, volunteering as a Master Gardener with Garden Organic and membership of the Chartered Institute of Horticulture.
Today, my family and I live on four hectares in southern Hungary. Around one hectare is used for our vegetable garden and orchard. The climate, soil, pests and increasingly extreme weather continue to test what I know—and teach me something new every season.
HOW WE DECIDE WHAT ADVICE TO GIVE
Before recommending a method, treatment or growing practice, we try to establish where the claim came from and whether credible research supports it. Whenever practical, I also test it myself.
Advice from another grower may give us something worth investigating, but reputation and repetition are not proof. Even advice from a respected expert may only work within a particular climate, soil type or growing system.
We explain what the original advice says, what credible research tells us, how I tested it, the conditions in my garden and what happened afterwards.
Something working in my garden does not guarantee that it will work in yours. That limitation is essential information.
WE SHOW WHAT HAPPENS AFTERWARDS
Wherever possible, we return to the same plant, bed or growing space and show what happened next—including treatments that failed, crops that struggled and plans that had to change.
An honest failure can be more useful than an apparent success that was never followed up.
OUR APPROACH CAN CHANGE
Growing methods should serve the garden. The garden should not be forced to serve a particular doctrine.
I have described myself as a no-dig or no-till grower, but my approach has developed towards minimal soil disturbance. There may be occasions when the soil, climate, pest pressures or condition of a growing space require a different response.
If something we previously recommended proves wrong, incomplete or no longer represents our preferred approach, we will correct it openly and direct readers towards the newer information.
Changing an opinion in response to better evidence is not a weakness. It is an essential part of responsible growing.
WHAT ORGANIC GROWING MEANS TO US
Organic growing means considerably more than avoiding synthetic chemicals. It means working with nature, protecting and improving the soil, encouraging biodiversity and understanding the growing space as a connected ecological system.
We draw useful ideas from organic horticulture, no-dig growing, permaculture and other approaches, but the overall health of the growing space matters more than loyalty to a label.
COMMERCIAL INDEPENDENCE
We will not promote a product simply because someone offers us money or sends it to us. If it is not something we would genuinely use, it does not belong here.
Before accepting a product, service or sponsorship, we may investigate the item, the company, its ownership and whether its wider activities are compatible with our principles.
Any payment, free product, affiliate relationship or sponsorship will be disclosed clearly. Commercial involvement will never guarantee a favourable conclusion.
The same applies to Your Growing Companion, our own gardening app. We will recommend it when it can genuinely help—not force it into unrelated advice.
HOW WE USE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Artificial intelligence helps us research subjects, organise ideas, develop drafts and produce some video content. We use it openly.
AI does not replace personal knowledge, judgement or experience. Material is reviewed before publication, important factual claims are checked, and nothing produced with AI is presented as something I personally experienced unless it genuinely happened.
What matters is whether the finished information is honest, checked and useful.
QUESTIONS AND DISAGREEMENT
Genuine questions and respectful disagreement are welcome. Different gardens, climates, soils and growing methods can produce different results.
I am happy to explain the reasoning behind my advice, consider credible evidence and continue the discussion. Personal attacks, nastiness and trolling are not part of constructive debate.
If you cannot find the guidance you need on the website, you can contact us.
HOW EVERYTHING WORKS TOGETHER
The website holds our most complete, dependable and lasting growing guidance. The YouTube channel provides practical visual explanations and shows what is happening in the garden. Substack gives us room to explore opinions, observations and the wider story behind our work.
Your Growing Companion takes that guidance further with continually updated information, planning help and support relevant to the individual grower and their garden. You do not have to use the app to benefit from the website.
OUR PROMISE
We will not pretend to possess one universal answer for every garden.
We will investigate carefully, explain honestly, show our reasoning and distinguish credible information from personal experience. We will tell you when something worked, when it failed and when we changed our minds.
If we cannot provide a definitive answer, we will try to offer something useful that helps you decide what to investigate or try next.
There is already enough fear, hype, recycled advice and mistrust online. Diary of an Organic Grower will not add to it.
Our aim is simple: to help you feel informed, reassured and more confident about what you do next in your own growing space.