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What Vegetables to Plant in February

You’ll want to split what vegetables to plant in February into where you’re going to sow the seeds and how you’re going to grow them.  So we’ll look at vegetable seeds to sow in February inside and what to sow outside.

As I’m writing this, I realize how much of what we grow is started inside, so I think it’s a good idea to mention that we start things off inside the house.  Warm window sills and the front porch.   But this is also a good time to think about whether a small greenhouse or a polytunnel would help your vegetable growing endeavours.  They’re a great (and small) investment and both will last for years.  A mini greenhouse can take up a very small footprint, and a polytunnel a little more space, but they both come in a variety of sizes.   I’ve written about the best of both.

• Best Polytunnel Kits for the UK
• Best Mini-Greenhouses for the UK

Top PRODUCT PICK

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The Best Mini Greenhouse

This mini greenhouse is small, compact and easy to put up and store in the winter. It’s not expensive and its reasonably robust.

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We’re both hands-on when it comes to the garden, so everything we select is easy to put together and doesn’t need any special tools other than what you’d have in a regular toolbox.

Vegetable Seeds to Sow inside in February

February is a great month to start sowing vegetable seeds for those summer harvesting veggies that need a longer season.  Whether your inside is a windowsill, porch, greenhouse or polytunnel, you’ll want to take into account the actual temperature of the “inside”.  If it’s minus 4 outside then the polytunnel or greenhouse will provide some protection, but it is not going to be as toasty as your kitchen windowsill.  Here are our recommendations of what you can easily sow inside in February.

Grow Mushrooms Inside in February

If you read some of my other guides on what vegetables to plant throughout the months, then you’ll see I write about mushrooms a lot.  And that’s because they’re so easy to grow.  Once we bought our first mushroom growing kit we never looked back.  They’re so easy to manage, just add water (regularly) and crop your first mushrooms in about 3 weeks.

Top PRODUCT PICK

Chestnut Mushroom Growing Kit

The Best Mushroom Growing Kit

This excellent Mushroom Growing kit from the folks at Merryhill Mushrooms is the perfect starter mushroom growing kit and it’s so easy to get started with full instructions

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Plant Chili Peppers Inside in February

We use a lot of chilli in our cooking and it’s one of the ways we save money by growing our fruit, vegetables and spices, we grow what we eat.  So we try and start a chilli plant a month over the winter months – especially seeing as we love to see the chillies growing and adding a splash of colour to the window sills.  (We have crowded windowsills!)

Top Chilli Growing Seed Packs

Chilli Seed Mix

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Chilli Growing Kit

Growing chillies is easy.  You’ll need warmth, sunshine and regular watering.  It’s seriously easy to get started growing chillies with a chilli growing kit – and they help you experiment with new chilli seeds without having to buy a large seed packet. Chilli seeds should start to germinate in about 10 days and then you’ll want to check them regularly and make sure they get enough warmth.  The hotter the chilli on the Scoville scale the warmer the environment they need.

Chit or Sprout Potatoes Inside in February

Growing potatoes in bags is one of the easiest things you can grow.  And digging out your own potatoes is just fabulous.  They taste different from what you’ll buy from the supermarket.  January and February is a good time to start chitting potatoes – again inside – and it’s not hard.  Get your early potatoes started sprouting by standing them in a cardboard egg box on their end on an inside window sill of the porch.  

Once the potatoes have sprouted then we put them into the potato grow bags in the backyard.  If it’s cold, like it is this year, then we’ll keep the potato grow bags inside the mini greenhouse that lives in the backyard until the weather warms up a bit more. Our full guide on how to grow potatoes in bags is here.

Start Tomato Seeds inside in February

Ever since our first year of fruit and veg growing when we grew 480 tomatoes (for the two of us to eat), we’ve loved growing tomatoes.  I adore going outside and picking a ripe tomato off the vine and eating it there and then. The smell and taste are divine.   We invested in a jam and chutney making kit that year to turn the glut of tomatoes into incredible chutneys and tomato relishes that became presents for family and friends that year.  These days we’re somewhat more controlled about how many seeds we plant, but tomatoes are always one of the seeds that we started indoors on the windowsills.  We’ll try and mix it up by trying new varieties, but our out and out favourites for taste and flavour are here.

• Moneymaker Tomatoes
• Gardeners Delight Tomatoes

You can also read some of our tomato growing secrets here.

Vegetables to Start in the Greenhouse or Polytunnel in February

If you do have a greenhouse or polytunnel then there are a variety of seeds that you can sow undercover.   Always take into account the regional variations in the temperature and check the seed packet, but you should be able to sow these veggie seeds undercover.

• Leeks – these heirloom leek seeds are fab – buy now
• Spinach – these perpetual Spinach seeds are fabulous
• Carrots – these are a great option for growing carrots in pots
• Rocket and Mizuna Salad Leaves – this rocket is really tasty and easy to grow
• Beetroot – Boltardy beetroot seeds are such a great option
• Early Peas > Read about how to grow peas in a pot here

Don’t have a greenhouse yet? Check out our guide to mini-greenhouses and get started this year!

Vegetable Seeds to Sow Outside in February

I’ll preface this section by saying, sowing vegetable seeds outside in February very much depends on whereabouts in the UK you are, what the local conditions are and what the weather is like that year.   Realistically, it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to plant any vegetables outside in February without a cloche, greenhouse or polytunnel. As I write the ground is frozen here and looks set to be for the next week or so.

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BIRCHTREE 6M(L) x 3M(W) x 2M(H) Polytunnel Greenhouse Pollytunnel Poly Polly Tunnel Fully Galvanised Anti Rust Steel Frame 6 Section

The Best Polytunnel Kit

This polytunnel is a great starter kit for your first tunnel. It’s easy to construct, pretty robust and a good price too!

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Plant Rhubarb Crowns in February

We’re a big proponent of making it easy to grow fruit and veg and that’s why we’d recommend buying a rhubarb crown rather than growing rhubarb from seed.  That’s because you shouldn’t harvest rhubarb until its second year.  So a rhubarb crown (a year old plant) means you can skip the “early years” and get right to the harvest at the end of your first year. 

Check Availability Here

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You can plant rhubarb crowns in the spring and autumn months and plant dormant crowns in February, assuming that the ground isn’t frozen.  We get around the vagaries of the weather by growing rhubarb in pots and keeping them inside the polytunnel until it’s a little warmer.

All our monthly vegetable planting guides

• What vegetables to plant in January
• What vegetables to plant in February
• What vegetables to plant in March
• What vegetables to plant in April
• What vegetables to plant in May
• What vegetables to plant in June
• What vegetables to plant in July
• What vegetables to plant in August
• What vegetables to plant in September
• What vegetables to plant in October
• What vegetables to plant in November
• What vegetables to plant in December

Final words on Vegetables to Plant in February

February in the vegetable garden is a great time to get a head start on those vegetables that have a long growing season.  Tomatoes are a great example, get them started inside ready for summer harvesting.   If you’re lucky enough to have a greenhouse or polytunnel, then you’ll be able to sow many vegetable seeds inside so that they’ll be ready to transplant later in the year.  Get the potatoes chitting, and keep your window sills full – whether it’s glorious smelling herbs or the colour of a chilli plant.  It may be cold outside, but there’s a whole lot of hope for the garden in the year ahead!

LetsGrowCook is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.ca. Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates

The post What Vegetables to Plant in February [What to Sow Inside, Outside] appeared first on Lets Grow Cook.

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Top PRODUCT PICK

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The Best Food Dehydrator

This excellent food dehydrator is perfect for drying all your favourite fruits, vegetables and meats. It’s a great efficient machine.

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Why Do You Need a Food Dehydrator

One of the challenges of growing your own fruit, vegetables, and herbs is that you often get a glut of produce.  Or that the season for growing vegetables in the UK is relatively short – and your harvests all happen in a few short months.  Dehydrating your produce will help you to preserve your harvest for longer.  This is nothing new in the world of food preservation.  The Peruvian Incas have been freeze-drying potatoes for more than EIGHT centuries – Chuño is a Peruvian potato dish that was freeze-dried in the Andes mountains and then reconstituted as and when they were needed.  It’s still a popular dish in Peru today!

The type of food dehydrator that you buy will depend on the frequency of use that you’ll have for it, as well as the types of fruit and vegetables (and even meat) that you want to dehydrate. I’ve written here about the best fruits to dehydrate.

Best Food Dehydrators UK Purchases

Food Hydrator Name	Highlights	What It Looks Like	Read Reviews & Buy Now!
Excalibur Food Dehydrator	• 9-Tray dehydrator, 15 square feet of drying space • Built-in on/off switch and adjustable thermostat with 26-hour timer • Easy to clean Polyscreen tray inserts • 7-inch fan, 600 watts, • Unit Dimensions: 12-1/2 H x 17 W x 19 D (inches)	Check Prices Here	Check prices and buy now
Klarstein Fruit Jerky 6	• Temperature and timer setting gives even dehydration as the fan circulates warm air • Adjustable display on the upper surface. • Adjustable temperature from 35-70°C. • Adjustable timer from 0:30 – 19:30 hrs	Get More Information Here	Check Prices here
MisterChef Circular Food Dehydrator	Temperature- setting. easy to clean plastic trays and lid On/off switch on the unit base. Settable temperature from 35-70°C.	Buy Here	Buy the best Circular food dehydrator here

What is a Food Dehydrator?

A food dehydrator is simply a combination of a heat source and an airflow within a machine where the warm air is pumped around and circulated in the enclosed space.  And yes, that’s exactly the same type of process that you can undertake in your oven if you so wish.  Food dehydrators are more efficient and built specifically for this purpose, they use a lot less energy than your oven.

What to look for in a Food Dehydrator

Your requirements for a food dehydrator and what features to look for, will depend on the use you anticipate.  Here are some questions to ask:

• How often will you use your food dehydrator? Go for great quality if you’ll use it a lot – this Excalibur is best in class in the UK 
• What material do you want it to be made from? This stainless steel food dehydrator is long lasting and classic looking (it is seriously durable!)
• Want the Lets Grow Cook Readers favourite Food dehydrator?  More people buy this food dehydrator than any other – check it out now and get your own!. 
• Will you use your food dehydrator overnight? And will you need a timer?
• How big do you need it to be?

What accessories do you need to use with your food dehydrator?

As you grow more accustomed to dehydrating your produce then you’ll find what works best for you. Here are the gadgets and accessories that we’ve found are the most helpful when getting started.

Food Dehydrator Accessories

Food Sealer Bags

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A Cookbook for Dehydrating Food

The best place to start when it comes to dehydrating fruits and vegetables is with an expert guide. So we recommend picking up the Ultimate Dehydrator Cookbook – it covers virtually everything you need to know. Buy the Ultimate Dehydrator Cookbook here.

Reusable Non-Stick Silicon Steamer Sheets

Wherever possible we make life as easy and as green as possible. So having non-stick mats that are easy to wash and reusable is an absolute must. These non-stick steamer mats are essential. Check out dehydrator steamer mats here. These are rectangular, but they also do round ones if you have a circular dehydrator.

An adjustable Mandolin Slicer

Successful food dehydration relies on great prep. And getting all your fruits and veggies to the same size so that they dehydrate at the same rate is key. This fabulous mandolin slicer is great for doing that. It comes with a cleaning brush and some fabulous no-cut gloves, which if you’re anything like me around sharp objects is essential! Buy this mandolin slicer here.

A vacuum sealing machine

When you’re drying food to last longer you need to give some attention to how you’re going to store it. Airtight is the way to go. The more airtight the better and you can’t get more airtight than a vacuum-sealed bag. This vacuum sealing machine is your BEST option for getting all the air out and sealing it tight, giving your dried foods the best possible chance of long-term storage. Buy a vacuum storage sealing machine here now.

Vaccum Sealing Essentials

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See Availability Here

Buy these now

Vacuum Sealing Bags for Dried Food or Sous Vide Cooking

This stash of vacuum sealing bags will see you through your experiences in dehydrating food. You can also use these high-quality vacuum bags – along with the vacuum sealing machine – for sous vide aka boil in the bag – cooking. Buy these food vacuum bags here.

What can you use a food dehydrator for?

If it’s a foodstuff and you can dry it, you can use your food dehydrator.  So think about what you might like to dry or make in your food dehydrator.  Here are some suggestions

• “Sun” dried tomatoes – read our 10 tomato-growing secrets here
• Fruit Leathers
• Jerky
• Dried Mushrooms – Read our guide on growing mushrooms here
• Courgette Crisps – Get our tips on growing courgettes here
• Dried Banana Chips – Read about drying fruits here
• Dried Apple Slices
• Drying oregano – my guide is here
• You can read how to dry sage here
• Dried herbs – Here’s our top easy herbs to grow

What’s the Best Material for a Food Dehydrator?

Most home food dehydrators are made from a combination of plastic and stainless steel. The budget end of the market is mainly plastic. Food dehydrators that are made from stainless steel tend to be more durable and long-lasting. Stainless steel dehydrators can withstand high temperatures for a longer time than other materials. For a dehydrator to be made from stainless steel you’ll want both the chassis AND the trays to be made from stainless steel.

This food dehydrator is the best in class. It’s durable and long-lasting and it looks amazing, without costing a fortune! Check it out now!

What’s the Best SHAPE of Food Dehydrator

There are in general three different shapes of food dehydrators – they are either circular or square or rectangular.  The benefits and advantages of the square and rectangular-shaped food dehydrators are the same.

Circular Food Dehydrators

The heat source and the fan on circular food dehydrators are located at either the top or bottom of the machine.  This has the potential for the food closest to the fan to be dried quicker than food at the opposite end.  You’ll need to learn how this particular shape of food dehydrator works and might need to move your foods around within the dehydrator to ensure that you get a consistent finish.  Here’s the best circular food dehydrator. 

Square or Rectangular Food Dehydrators

In the majority of food dehydrators that are square or rectangular, the fan and heater are usually located at the back of the unit.  This gives the effect of a fan oven – it creates regular and even flows of warm air throughout the entire machine.  You’ll generally get much more consistent dehydrated food from a square or rectangular food dehydrator than a circular one.  Because of this consistency, you don’t have to monitor the device as much as you would with a circular dehydrator.  Equally, you don’t have to move food around throughout the process to achieve consistency.   Usually, with this shape of device, you can also remove specific trays to make spaces bigger if necessary.  Here’s the most popular rectangular food dehydrator amongst our readers 

What are the benefits of a Food Dehydrator?

Food dehydrators have a host of benefits and if you do have a lot of produce you’ll find them invaluable.  Here are the main food dehydrator benefits for gardeners with excess produce.

Food Dehydrators Help you Save Money

You can preserve excess fruit, vegetables (read the best vegetables to dehydrate here) and meat to be used when you need it.  There’s no need to throw away leftovers, or gluts of harvest from your garden.  Simply dehydrate it and use it in the future.  You’ll not only lower your shopping bills but also extend the life of your produce.

Food Dehydrators Concentrate the Flavour of Fruit and Vegetables

Many fruit and vegetables have a very high water content, by removing a large percentage of that water you’re concentrating the flavour of it.  Homemade “sun” dried tomatoes (read our guide to dehydrating tomatoes here) or chips made from courgettes or potatoes all have an amazing flavour, made even better as you know exactly what you’ve put into them!

Food Dehydrators Extend the life of your Produce

Any fruits and vegetables keep fresh for only a short time.  And of course, they’re all usually ripe at the same time!  Dehydrating your garden produce lets you extend the life of your produce.  Sure you can freeze it, but dehydrating vegetables and fruit gives you another option and a different way of storing the results of your vegetable growing.

Food dehydrators let your fruits and vegetables retain MORE vitamins and goodness than other methods of preserving.

Dehydrating fruit and vegetables actually retains much more of the vitamin and mineral content of your harvest than boiling or roasting them.  It concentrates flavour and goodness.

Top Food Dehydrator UK Reviews

We’ve looked at the best dehydrators UK wide and here are our recommendations for the best dehydrators for you.

Klarstein Fruit Jerky Plus 6 Food Dehydrator – Favourite Food Dehydrator amongst our readers

The German-branded Klarstein Dehydrator manufacturer has a variety of different food dehydrators and we’ve selected two of them for our Best Buy guide to food dehydrators.  This Jerky Plus 6 is a versatile machine with a timer that allows settings from 30 minutes up to 19.5 hours.  This Klarstein food dehydrator is known for giving even dehydration.  Read more Klarstein Fruit Jerky Plus 6 Food dehydrator reviews here. 

Get More Information Here

Read more Klarstein Food Dehydrator Reviews and Buy the Klarstein Fruit Jerky Food Dehydrator NOW! 

Best Circular Food Dehydrator – MisterChef 5 Tray Dehydrator – Food Dehydrator

If you want to opt for a circular food dehydrator, then this dehydrator from MisterChef is a great option and gets fab reviews (read more of them here).  Easy temperature settings, 5 available trays and temperature settings from 35-70 degrees. This is a budget option and has no timer, it is, however, one of the best budget food dehydrators in the UK.

Buy Here

Here are the vital statistics of this circular food dehydrator from Misterchef

• Temperature- setting. easy to clean plastic trays and lid
• On/off switch on the unit base.
• Set temperature from 35-70°C.

Read More Circular Dehydrator Reviews and Buy the MisterChef Food Dehydrator NOW!

Excalibur Dehydrator UK Market:  9 Trays, 26 Hour Timer, Excellent Quality and Results.

The Excalibur dehydrator is the most expensive of our reviewed food dehydrators.  It’s also the best in terms of quality, expected lifetime, and functionality.  With the Excalibur Dehydrator, you’ll get 9 trays – which means 15 square feet of drying space, a BPA-free mesh screen to stop sticking, a great adjustable thermostat, AND a 26-hour timer.  Want to read more Excalibur Dehydrator reviews?

There are a variety of Excalibur food dehydrators available – from a stainless steel Excalibur food dehydrator to a 10-tray Excalibur food dehydrator, but when it comes to which Excalibur food dehydrator is best we’ve gone for this 9-tray option.  This is the best Excalibur dehydrator for the price.     

Check Prices Here

Here are the vital statistics of the dehydrator from Excalibur.

• 9-Tray dehydrator, 15 square feet of drying space
• Built-in on/off switch and adjustable thermostat with 26-hour timer
• Easy to clean Polyscreen tray inserts
• 7-inch fan, 600 watts
• Unit Dimensions: 12-1/2 H x 17 W x 19 D (inches)

Read More Excalibur Dehydrator Reviews and Buy the Excalibur Food Dehydrator NOW! 

FAQs on the Best Food Dehydrators UK Markets

Got a question about food dehydrators?  Put your dehydrator UK wide queries in the comments, or shoot us an email.  We’ll answer and then add your questions to these, our UK food dehydrator FAQs.

How long do food dehydrators take?

Food dehydrators generally take between 5 and 14 hours to complete the task of dehydrating your produce.  The length of time depends on what you are dehydrating and the end effect you are looking for.

How does dehydrating food work?

A heat source or heating element within a food dehydrator raises the temperature inside the machine, a fan then circulates the warm air and removes the moisture from the air and any food you have placed on the trays within the dehydrator.

Do food dehydrators use a lot of electricity?

No, when we looked at the question of does a food dehydrator use a lot of electricity, the answer is no!  Food dehydrators do not use a lot of electricity.  Food dehydrators are efficient machines.  It can cost less than £1 to run a food dehydrator for 24 hours.  Many times this is a lot less especially if you are drying food at lower temperatures.

Can you leave a food dehydrator running overnight?

Yes.  Electric food dehydrators are designed to be left running for up to 24 hours.  It’s always best with any electrical machine to ensure that it’s on a hard fixed surface, such as a kitchen worktop.  Do not site your food dehydrator on towels or in an area where it can be affected by water.

Which dehydrator is best? What is the best dehydrator to buy?

The best dehydrator to buy for you depends on your usage and the volume of fruit and vegetables that you want to dehydrate.  Please check out the reviews above for the main features and benefits of each of these best UK food dehydrators.

All our guides to the best garden equipment

• Our Garden Tools Essential List
• The best potting benches in the UK
• The best gardening gloves in the UK
• The best garden kneelers in the UK
• The best food dehydrators in the UK
• The best potato grow bags in the UK
• The best strawberry planters in the UK
• The best hydroponic starter kits in the UK
• The best gardening audiobooks for vegetable growers
• The best vegetable gardening books in the UK
• The best grow your own herbs kits in the UK
• The best expandable hoses in the UK
• The best compost bins in the UK
• The best polytunnel kits in the UK

Final Words on the Best Food Dehydrators in the UK

Food dehydrators are a fabulous way to extend the useable life of your garden produce.  Dehydrating fruit and vegetables enables you to enhance flavours, save money and retain vitamins and minerals within the vegetables and fruit for longer.  Food dehydrators are efficient and effective ways of helping to ensure your garden produce doesn’t go to waste and we hope you have great fun experimenting with your harvest!

LetsGrowCook is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.ca. Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates

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My version of this cheera moru recipe uses spinach and baked tofu, which gives the dish a bit more substance while keeping everything fresh and balanced. Traditional cheera moru recipes don’t include tofu, but its a great source of plant based protein. The key thing to remember with any yogurt-based curry is heat control. Once the yogurt goes in, low and gentle is the name of the game — rush it, and it splits. Treat it kindly, and you’ll be rewarded with a creamy, tangy curry that tastes far more complex than the effort involved. Ready? I’ll include links to my quick wins on making this even easier to cook, and also, of course, my growing guides for what’s in this recipe. This recipes serves two people as a main meal.

Ingredients For Spinach Yoghurt Curry

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
• 1/4 teaspoon of fenugreek seeds
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped (or use garlic paste like this
• 3 dried red chillies (see my guide to drying chillies here)
• 10 curry leaves (fresh or dried)
• 1 red onion, finely chopped – my guide to growing onions is here
• 3 fresh green chillies, slit lengthways
• 2.5 centimetre (1 inch) piece fresh ginger, finely chopped – don’t use ginger paste in this recipe)
• 2 large tomatoes, finely chopped – my guide to growing tomatoes is here.
• 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
• Salt, to taste
• 200 g spinach, ripped – just rip it as you’re putting it into the pan – learn how to grow spinach here
• 300 grams plain yogurt

Plus:
1 (250 gram) pack firm tofu, cut into cubes.

Equipment Needed

You’ll need:

• A large frying pan or wok with a lid. I use these pans from Tower, because the removable handle makes them extremely useful.
• Chopping board
• Chef’s knife
• Wooden spoon
• Rice Cooker

How to Make Cheera Moru Curry with Baked Tofu

This is a very low stress recipe to make. And it doesn’t take long, about 12-15 minutes from starting, so you’ll want to get your rice on the go (I recommend using a rice cooker) before you start.

1. Bake the tofu

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Cut the tofu into bite-sized cubes and spread them out on a baking tray in a single layer. Bake for 15 minutes, until lightly firm and just starting to turn golden at the edges. Set aside. You can also bake the tofu in an airfryer for speed (and cost savings).

2. Make the curry base

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat and add the mustard seeds. Once they begin to pop, add the fenugreek seeds, followed by the garlic, dried red chillies, and curry leaves. Sauté for about 1 minute, until fragrant.

Add the chopped red onion, green chillies, and ginger. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion softens and starts to turn lightly golden.

Stir in the tomatoes, turmeric, and salt to taste. Cook until the tomatoes break down and everything is well combined.

3. Add the spinach and tofu

Add the torn spinach to the pan. Cook for about 5 minutes with the lid on to help steam the spinach, stirring occasionally, until the spinach has fully wilted, then stir in the tofu until its coated and mixed in.

4. Finish with yogurt

Remove the pan from the heat. Gradually add the yogurt, stirring slowly and constantly to prevent splitting. Once fully incorporated, return the pan to a very low heat and warm gently for 3 minutes, stirring continuously.

Serve warm with rice. I find the easiest way to cook rice is with a rice cooker. And if there are just two of you, then this is the perfect rice cooker.

You can’t store this curry effectively, it just goes to mush, so you’ll want to make it fresh each time you want it, but to be fair its not hard is it?

Final Words on this Baked Tofu Spinach & Yoghurt Curry Recipe

I do love this recipe, its so easy and simple to make. It’s one of those dishes that we make regularly because it tastes to fresh, but not bland. It uses fresh ingredients, has a good source of protein and it fills you up. We’ll occasionally have it without Tofu (when we can’t find any), and if anything I always add more spinach and tomatoes, because, well why not they’re good for you!!

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The post Spinach, Yogurt & Baked Tofu Curry Recipe – aka Cheera Moru Curry appeared first on Lets Grow Cook.

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Best Small Green Houses at a Glance

Top PRODUCT PICK

Check Availability and Buy Here

The Best Mini Greenhouse

This mini greenhouse is small, compact and easy to put up and store in the winter. It’s not expensive and its reasonably robust.

Check Price & Buy on Amazon

The Best Mini Greenhouses in the UK

When space is tight, but you want to grow more and for longer, there’s nothing like having your own greenhouse.  Gone are the days when they’re all glass and wooden frames (although you can get them like that).  Today’s mini greenhouses are easy to put together and can be taken apart easily for cleaning and storage.  Small greenhouses are a great way to expand your growing capacity both throughout the year and in terms of what it is that you want to grow!  Here’s the best of what’s available.

Best Greenhouses	Highlights	What It Looks Like	Read Reviews & Buy Now!
Best overall mini greenhouse	• 4 tier greenhouse • Roll-up door with zip fasteners • Size H130 x L50 x D45cm (51 x 20 x 18in) • Weight: 3.82 Kg	Check Availability and Buy Here	Buy our best buy mini greenhouse now and expand your veggie growing potential!
Best medium sized greenhouse	• 4 Tier single greenhouse • Waterproof PVC cover • Keep your small plants dry and safe from harsh weather • Roll up zip door • Mesh shelves to allow for water drainage • Measures 160 cm H x 50 cm D x 70 cm w	Check Availability and Buy Here	Buy this excellent medium-sized greenhouse now.
Best wooden framed mini greenhouse	• Wooden Framed Mini Greenhouse • Twin walled polycarbonate • Hinged top and doors • 3 Shelves • Measures 65 x 40 x 100 centimetres	19% Garden Mile Wooden Mini Cold Frame Small Garden Greenhouse Growing Plant Protection Waterproof Weather Resistant Suitable for Outdoor Vegetables, Flowers and Seed Germination (Tall Grey) £134.99	Buy this fabulous wooden greenhouse now.
Best walk in greenhouse	• Measures 143cm W x 143cm D x 195cm H – easy to walk into • Powder-coated steel tubal frame. • Layered mesh shelves that hold up to 25 kilos in weight. • Roll-up zippered door	Check Availability and Buy Here	Buy this full-size walk-in greenhouse now
Best raised mini greenhouse	• Maintenance-free, easy assembly • Raised garden bed with storage compartment • Clear, virtually unbreakable polycarbonate panels provide over 90% light transmission • Includes base, adjustable lid for multi-position, plant hangers and 2 planting trays • 5-year limited Manufacturer’s Warranty • Measures 121 x 120 x 148 centimetres	Check Availability and Buy Here	Buy it now and save your back!

Best Mini Greenhouse Reviews

These small greenhouses, available in the UK, are the best on offer with fabulous features, easy to put together and provide greatly extended use of your small spaces.  We especially like the raised bed greenhouse!  What about you? Which do you prefer?

Overall Best Mini Greenhouse UK market

This is a fabulous value for money mini greenhouse – with four shelves, and a mini greenhouse cover that comes with a roll-up door and zip fasteners.  It measures 130cm H x 50 cm L x 45 cm D.    It’s easy to put together and a great starter option when it comes to mini greenhouses.  Check other reviews (there are LOTS!) and buy now. 

Check Availability and Buy Here

Features of the best overall mini greenhouse for the UK

• 4 tier greenhouse
• Roll-up door with zip fasteners
• Size H130 x L50 x D45cm (51 x 20 x 18in)
• Weight: 3.82 Kg

Buy our best buy mini greenhouse now and expand your veggie growing potential!

Best Medium-Sized Greenhouse UK market

If you need a little more space, then this is a great option but still a small greenhouse.  This metal frame mini greenhouse is easy to put together and the PVC cover is waterproof and weatherproof.  A roll-up zip door allows easy access.  Metal mesh shelves will let water drain through without pooling.  Check reviews and buy this medium-sized greenhouse now. 

Check Availability and Buy Here

Features of this medium-sized greenhouse

• 4 Tier single greenhouse
• Waterproof PVC cover
• Keep your small plants dry and safe from harsh weather
• Roll up zip door
• Mesh shelves to allow for water drainage
• Measures 160 cm H x 50 cm D x 70 cm w

Buy this excellent medium-sized greenhouse now.

Best Wooden Mini Greenhouse UK market

This excellent wooden mini greenhouse is also a lean-to mini greenhouse.   This greenhouse with a wooden frame comes with polycarbonate inserts to provide protection against the weather but allow the sunlight through and has an opening roof panel for ventilation.    This polycarbonate mini greenhouse really looks the part with its wooden frame. This small wooden greenhouse measures 65 x 40 x 100 centimetres and has wooden slatted shelves inside.  Read other reviews and buy now. 

19%

Garden Mile Wooden Mini Cold Frame Small Garden Greenhouse Growing Plant Protection Waterproof Weather Resistant Suitable for Outdoor Vegetables, Flowers and Seed Germination (Tall Grey)

£134.99

Key features of the best wooden mini greenhouse

• Wooden Framed Mini Greenhouse
• Twin walled polycarbonate
• Hinged top and doors
• 3 Shelves
• Measures 65 x 40 x 100 centimetres

Read more reviews of small wooden greenhouses and buy this fabulous wooden greenhouse now. 

Best Raised Bed Greenhouse with Storage – No Bending Needed!

If you have problems bending down, or even with getting up again, or simply want some storage for your greenhouse then this is a fabulous option.   It’s easy to assemble and maintenance-free.  This mini polycarbonate greenhouse has polycarbonate panels that let through 90% of light but protect from the elements – think of this as a raised bed greenhouse with storage underneath.  This is a superb mini greenhouse for herbs or smaller veggies. We LOVE it.  Buy it now! 

Check Availability and Buy Here

Key features of the raised bed mini greenhouse

• Maintenance-free, easy assembly
• Raised garden bed with storage compartment
• Clear, virtually unbreakable polycarbonate panels provide over 90% light transmission
• Includes base, adjustable lid for multi-position, plant hangers and 2 planting trays
• 5-year limited Manufacturer’s Warranty
• Measures 121 x 120 x 148 centimetres

This is a fabulous way to keep gardening without bending.  It’s such a brilliant design.  Buy this raised bed greenhouse now and save your back!  

Best Small Walk In Greenhouse

Ok so this isn’t mini by any stretch of the imagination, but if you do have a little extra space, then it’s a really good small walk-in greenhouse for the money.   This steel-framed greenhouse is big enough to walk into.  The steel frames are powder coated and easy to fit together.  Each small greenhouse shelf is made of a layer of metal mesh and the cover easily zips closed.  The greenhouse measures 143cm W x 143cm D x 195cm H – it’s a great budget option if you want to go to a full-sized greenhouse without a massive expense.  Check of our best small walk-in greenhouse reviews and buy now 

Check Availability and Buy Here

Features of the best walk-in greenhouse

• Measures 143cm W x 143cm D x 195cm H – easy to walk into
• Powder-coated steel tubal frame.
• Layered mesh shelves that hold up to 25 kilos in weight.
• Roll-up zippered door

Read more reviews of walk-in mini-greenhouses and buy this full-size walk-in greenhouse now

Mini Greenhouse Buying Guide

Mini greenhouses are a fab extension to your growing area and garden, we think that they’re an essential garden tool.  Growing vegetables, herbs and fruit under cover lets you grow a much wider variety and for longer.  Overwinter vegetables, start things off a lot earlier and manage cuttings more easily.  Our buying guide to small greenhouses covers all the important aspects – from materials, size, and location, to ease of putting together.

What to look for in a mini greenhouse

The primary consideration when it comes to selecting a mini greenhouse is the space that you have available – that usually dictates what you can buy, but you should also look at the materials, where you’re going to put it and what additional area it gives you.  Here’ what to look for when buying a mini greenhouse.

Mini Greenhouse Materials

We have included one mini wooden framed mini-greenhouse because we think it looks rather lovely, but our main material of choice for the frames are powdered steel.  There is no point making life hard for yourself and if you’re going to need to treat and or paint frames every couple of years, then it’s taking time away from other things that you can be doing.  So if you decide to go for a mini wooden greenhouse then make sure it’s treated and you keep up to date with its maintenance.

Equally, we’ve gone for PVC or polycarbonate material in the “glass” area.  Not that I have anything against glass, just it tends to break and sieving shards of glass out of my compost is not something that I want to repeat.  Ever.

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Check Availability and Buy Here

The Best Mini Greenhouse

This mini greenhouse is small, compact and easy to put up and store in the winter. It’s not expensive and its reasonably robust.

Check Price & Buy on Amazon

Space Availability for Mini Greenhouses

The reason we’re writing about mini greenhouses is that we have had a limited amount of space available, but wanted to expand our growing area.  We also didn’t have a huge amount of money and couldn’t afford a big outlay.   One thing is for sure – going for the biggest greenhouse you can fit in (and afford) is the best way forward because there will always be something else that you’re trying to fit in!   Most of the options that we’ve included have roll-up zippered doors, which saves a HUGE amount of space – you don’t have to keep extra space for opening doors!     

Ventilation of Mini Greenhouses

Ventilation is important when it comes to greenhouses whether they’re large or small.  That location that you picked for the greenhouse in winter might have caught the rays of the winter sun, but in summer it could literally bake your plants unless you can get some air into them.    All of the greenhouses that we’ve selected let you either remove the covers or open the doors to provide decent ventilation.

Glazing of Mini Greenhouses

If you do opt for glass in your mini-greenhouse then you’ll want to ensure it’s a toughened safety glass, for, well, safety’s sake.  We always try to use polycarbonate or PVC covers.  We’re clumsy, we know it and we work around it.

Where to Locate a Mini Greenhouse

Often you won’t have much choice if you have a small amount of space to start with, then you’re limited to well, just that.  You’ll want to make sure that it’s going to be

• Out of the wind
• With some sun coverage, but with the ability to get full ventilation if it gets too hot
• Not somewhere you need to move it!

Traditionally the best aspect for a greenhouse is an east or west aspect.  It gives you sun for some of the day without getting too hot.    

All our guides to the best garden equipment

• Our Garden Tools Essential List
• The best potting benches in the UK
• The best gardening gloves in the UK
• The best garden kneelers in the UK
• The best food dehydrators in the UK
• The best potato grow bags in the UK
• The best strawberry planters in the UK
• The best hydroponic starter kits in the UK
• The best gardening audiobooks for vegetable growers
• The best vegetable gardening books in the UK
• The best grow your own herbs kits in the UK
• The best expandable hoses in the UK
• The best compost bins in the UK
• The best polytunnel kits in the UK

FAQs on Mini Greenhouses

Got questions about mini greenhouses? Or want to know something specific about mini greenhouses and we haven’t answered your questions?  Check out our frequently asked questions about mini greenhouses below, or ask us yours in the comments.

Where should I site my mini greenhouse?

Usually, you don’t have much choice, but if you do, then an east/west aspect will provide the best location for your mini greenhouse.

Is there a weight limit to what can be put on the shelves in my greenhouse?

Yes.  Each manufacturer will have specific weight requirements, these are included in the product details with each product.

What can I grow in a mini greenhouse?

It depends on the season, in the UK we’ve had great success with greenhouse growing of tomatoes, lettuce and salad leaves, cucumbers, coriander, basil and peppers.   Want to read more about what to grow in your greenhouses?  Here’s our guide to the best vegetable growing books and it includes greenhouses.

How do I keep a greenhouse warm in the winter?

First to keep your greenhouse warm in the winter make sure there are no draughts, rips or tears in your covers and windows.  You can add bubble wrap or other forms of insulation to the greenhouse.  You can also bring in a greenhouse heater, but if you’re using a PVC or polycarbonate cover then you’ll want to be VERY careful of where you site it.

Is it best to have clear or green covers on my mini greenhouse?

For small greenhouse covers, either clear or green works. Clear coverings, usually made of PVC mean that you’ll get more sunshine to your plants.  You’ll be able to see them more clearly.  Green plastic (sometimes called PE) greenhouse covers tend to last longer, but less light gets in.  Plants that prefer less light will do better in green covered greenhouses.  We haven’t seen a significant difference between the two, but aesthetically prefer clear.

Final words on the best mini greenhouses in the UK

Opting for a mini greenhouse is an excellent way to expand what vegetables you can grow in the garden or back yard and when you can grow them.  Today’s mini greenhouses are easy to put together, almost maintenance-free and they’re a great way to keep a good flow of fresh vegetables and herbs throughout a much longer growing season.  Let us know which you decide to go for!

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What is a Polytunnel?

A polytunnel is a frame that is covered in polythene of various types to create an internal microclimate in which to grow seedlings and plants.  The ability of polytunnels to create these microclimates means that you can extend the growing season for native fruits and vegetables and also grow fruit and veg that wouldn’t grow naturally in the UK.  POlytunnels are used to protect from the worst of the weather – cold, strong wind and snow for instance.  Polytunnels are similar in many ways to greenhouses, but there are also differences between greenhouses and polytunnels.

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BIRCHTREE 6M(L) x 3M(W) x 2M(H) Polytunnel Greenhouse Pollytunnel Poly Polly Tunnel Fully Galvanised Anti Rust Steel Frame 6 Section

The Best Polytunnel Kit

This polytunnel is a great starter kit for your first tunnel. It’s easy to construct, pretty robust and a good price too!

Check Price & Buy on Amazon

The polytunnels we’ve selected are easily installed without expert help, you’ll just need a few tools.  They’re also designed to fit into a regular garden or on an allotment, no need for acres of space!  And we’ve also looked at an extra-wide one, for much more space, as well as a mini polytunnel which you can use to bring on seedlings and small plants.

Best Polytunnel Kits At a Glance

Details of Polytunnel Kits	Highlights	What It Looks Like	Read Reviews & Buy Now!
Best 6 metre Polytunnel Kit	6 metres long x 3 metres x 2 metres 6 sectioned frame on the 6-metre long version 2 metres high, 3 metres wide Super strong 25mm galvanized anti-rust 0.8mm thick steel frame 140g transparent PE material with green checker or clear is UV protected for longer life. Extra wide metal framed door is very strong and means no zips! The door is wide enough to allow most wheelbarrows to pass through. Two large ventilation panels allow for perfect temperature control. Each ventilation panel also has a rain collection flap. This allows you to collect rain water ready for use in the tunnel.	BIRCHTREE 6M(L) x 3M(W) x 2M(H) Polytunnel Greenhouse Pollytunnel Poly Polly Tunnel Fully Galvanised Anti Rust Steel Frame 6 Section	Buy the best 6m polytunnel here
Outsunny Large Polytunnel Kit	• Available in 3.5-metre length and 4.5-metre length. • Zippered roll-up door • 6 roll-up mesh windows to allow ventilation, but not bugs and pests. • UV resistant PE cover • Rust-resistant galvanised steel frame • 4 wind ropes • 4 extra slant supporting rods for the roof	Outsunny Walk-In Polytunnel Greenhouse Warm House Garden Tunnel Shelter Plant Shed with Door and Windows, Galvanised Steel Frame, 4.5 x 3 x 2m, White	Buy this large polytunnel kit now
Outsunny 3M Galvanized Steel Frame Outdoor Poly Tunnel	3-metre long polytunnel Galvanised metal poles with connecting screws for strength 4 pull ropes and ground nails for fixing Ventilated, Anti-UV PE weather resistant cover Polyethene cover has grid threading for strength Large double zipped door	Outsunny Walk-in Polytunnel Greenhouse, Outdoor Garden Tunnel Greenhouse Tent with Zipped Roll-Up Door and 6 Mesh Windows, 3 x 2M	Great Small 3metre polytunnel

Why Use Polytunnels?

Polytunnels allow you to extend the growing season of the fruits and vegetables that you want to grow.  Polytunnels will let you grow vegetables and fruits not normally grown in your environment.  They are great for starting seedlings and young plants early in the growing season and protecting them from the weather.  Polytunnels are generally cheaper than greenhouses, and usually larger too.  Polytunnels allow you to create a stable microclimate in which you can grow vegetables and not have to worry too much about the vagaries of the weather.

What’s the difference between Polytunnels and Greenhouses

Greenhouses and polytunnels work similarly to each other – they lengthen the growing season, create a growing season for some fruits and vegetables and protect your plants from both the weather and animals, bugs and birds.

Polytunnels tend to be cheaper to buy than greenhouses.  Polytunnels tend to be quick to put up and can be built straight onto a soil base.  Unless you go for a mini greenhouse (see our guide here) greenhouses tend to need hard and level standing to be based on. You can easily store and move polytunnels around the garden or allotment and the steel frame tends to last for years.

Aside from mini-greenhouses, regular greenhouses tend to be much more expensive and more difficult and time-consuming to put up.  They tend to be heavy as they’re usually made from polycarbonate plastic or glass.    Greenhouses do tend to last a lot longer than polytunnels, however.

Reviews of Best Polytunnel Kits

The main difference between polytunnel kits is the size of the polytunnel and the type of polythene that the cover is made from – here are our reviews of the best polytunnel kits, polytunnel materials and what’s available in the UK.

Best Polytunnel Kit – UK Market Polytunnel – 6 METRE Polytunnel

The amazing polytunnel kit gets really great reviews (and there are a LOT of them! – so it is not just us that think it’s fabulous.  This 6-metre long polytunnel is superb value.  The polytunnel frame is made of super-strong 25mm galvanized anti-rust 0.8 mm thick steel and the transparent PE material that makes up the cover is UV protected and 140g weight.  Buy this best buy polytunnel kit now

BIRCHTREE 6M(L) x 3M(W) x 2M(H) Polytunnel Greenhouse Pollytunnel Poly Polly Tunnel Fully Galvanised Anti Rust Steel Frame 6 Section

Key Features of the 6 metres Polytunnel Kit

• 6 metres long x 3 metres x 2 metres
• 6 sectioned frame on the 6-metre long version
• 2 metres high, 3 metres wide
• Super strong 25mm galvanized anti-rust 0.8mm thick steel frame
• 140g transparent PE material with green checker or clear is UV protected for longer life.
• Extra wide metal framed door is very strong and means no zips! The door is wide enough to allow most wheelbarrows to pass through.
• Two large ventilation panels allow for perfect temperature control. Each ventilation panel also has a rain collection flap. This allows you to collect rain water ready for use in the tunnel.

Buy this excellent 6-metre polytunnel kit now.

Best LARGE Polytunnel Kit – UK Market – Outsunny Galvanised Polytunnel

Available in both 3.5-metre length and 4.5-metre length this galvanized steel polytunnel with a white polytunnel cover is a great way to extend your growing season.  There are 6 mesh windows with roll-up flaps for ventilation.  The PE cover is fully closeable and waterproof plus its UV resistant, allowing sunlight to pass through while maintaining higher humidity inside.    The galvanised steel frame is resistant to corrosion, chipping, peeling and rust and comes with win ropes and 4 extra slant rod supports for the roof. Buy this fabulous large sized polytunnel kit now

Outsunny Walk-In Polytunnel Greenhouse Warm House Garden Tunnel Shelter Plant Shed with Door and Windows, Galvanised Steel Frame, 4.5 x 3 x 2m, White

Key Features of the Outsunny Galvanised Large Polytunnel Kit

• Available in 3.5-metre length and 4.5-metre length.
• Zippered roll-up door
• 6 roll-up mesh windows to allow ventilation, but not bugs and pests.
• UV resistant PE cover
• Rust-resistant galvanised steel frame
• 4 wind ropes
• 4 extra slant supporting rods for the roof

Buy this excellent Outsunny Large polytunnel kit now.

Best SMALL Polytunnel Kit – UK Market – Outsunny 3 metre Polytunnel

If you’re in the market for a small polytunnel, this 3-metre long polytunnel from Outsunny is a great option and the Outsunny polytunnel reviews are great too!.  It has a durable polyethene covering with grid threading and a sturdy galvanized metal frame for long-lasting use.  The PE cover is ventilated, anti-UV and age-resistant.  There are 6 ventilation windows and a large double zipped door.  The frame is connected with screws between metal poles. We think this is the best budget polytunnel.   Buy this fabulous small polytunnel kit now.

Outsunny Walk-in Polytunnel Greenhouse, Outdoor Garden Tunnel Greenhouse Tent with Zipped Roll-Up Door and 6 Mesh Windows, 3 x 2M

Key Features of the Outsunny 3metre long Polytunnel Kit

• 3-metre long polytunnel
• Galvanised metal poles with connecting screws for strength
• 4 pull ropes and ground nails for fixing
• Ventilated, Anti-UV PE weather resistant cover
• Polyethene cover has grid threading for strength
• Large double zipped door

Buy this excellent Outsunny small polytunnel kit now.

Best MINI Polytunnel Kit – UK Market –Haxnicks Seedling Tunnels

If your need is a LOT smaller, then these mini polytunnels are quite simply fabulous.  They’re perfect for creating a moist microclimate for the germination of seeds and for their rapid growth.  They’ll lock in moisture and protect from weather and pests.  They’ll even warm the soil or compost ready for sowing seeds.  They have galvanised rust-resistant steel hoops which peg directly into the ground to keep the tunnel in place and they can be stored really easily.  There are three in a pack and each is 80cm long, they’re 18cm wide and 12 cm tall.

Buy this brilliant mini polytunnel and get your seeds started super quick!

Haxnicks 3 x Easy Seedling Tunnels | Mini Ready To Use Fold Out Design Poly Garden Tunnels | Warms Soil Prior To Planting | Protect Tender Plants | L80 cm x W18 cm x H12 cm Etun140101

Key Features of the Haxnicks Mini Polytunnel Kit

• 3 tunnels per pack at 80cm each
• 18cm wide and 12cm tall
• Galvanised steel hoops that peg directly into the ground
• Covers are made from tough U.V. stabilised polythene

Buy these seedling tunnels/ mini polytunnel kits now.

Polytunnel Kit Buying Guide

Here’s just a few of the features and elements that you’ll need to consider when looking at buying a polytunnel.

What to Consider when Buying a Polytunnel

You’ll want to look at a few key elements when you’re looking at buying a polytunnel, here are key features to consider.

1.  What space do you have available?  Will the polytunnel that you’ve chosen fit that space?
2. What do you want your polytunnel for?  Will the size of polytunnel that you’ve chosen meet those needs?  Try to plan for 5 years.
3. Can you build the polytunnel yourself?  All of the kits that we’ve selected in this guide are designed to be built by the home garden user. 
4. Are the polytunnel materials high quality and durable?  Check the reviews of your chosen polytunnel.  Each of the polytunnels we’ve reviewed receives positive reviews on built quality and material quality.
5. Accidents happen – make sure that you buy a standard-sized polytunnel so that you can buy a replacement cover when you need one.

Size of Polytunnel

Look at what space you have available.  Look at what you want to grow inside your polytunnel and whether you’ll be able to fit it all in.

Polytunnel Frame Materials

While the frames of mini-greenhouses tend to be made of aluminium you’ll want to look at polytunnels that are made of galvanized rustproof steel.  It’s lightweight, will last up to 20 years and most importantly it’s rustproof!

Polytunnel Cover Materials

Polytunnel covers are made of polythene. You’ll usually have the choice of green or white.  You’ll want to AVOID clear covers.  Green and white polytunnel covers include UV protection and therefore last longer, they will also protect your vegetables and plants in summer from sunburn.

FAQs on Using Polytunnels and Buying Polytunnels

Got questions about using polytunnels? Or want to know what to look for in a polytunnel and we haven’t answered your questions?  Check out our frequently asked questions about polytunnel kits below, or ask us yours in the comments.

Which is best a polytunnel or greenhouse?

A polytunnel is likely to cost you less than a greenhouse unless you’re going for a mini greenhouse.  Greenhouses tend to be heavier, need to be built on flat, solid ground, whereas Polytunnels tend to be built directly onto the soil.  It depends on the budget you have and what it is you’re looking to do.  We love mini-greenhouses for the backyard and a polytunnel for the garden, where we have more space and want to grow more veggies.

What size polytunnel should you go for?

The size of the polytunnel you buy will depend on the space you have available.  We’d always go for the biggest one you can, as it gives the most options for your future growing.  We’ve included reviews on a variety of sizes and all the manufacturers that we’ve selected have a variety of sizes available.  The most popular size of polytunnel kit is 4 metres long x 3 metres wide x 2 metres high.

Top PRODUCT PICK

BIRCHTREE 6M(L) x 3M(W) x 2M(H) Polytunnel Greenhouse Pollytunnel Poly Polly Tunnel Fully Galvanised Anti Rust Steel Frame 6 Section

The Best Polytunnel Kit

This polytunnel is a great starter kit for your first tunnel. It’s easy to construct, pretty robust and a good price too!

Check Price & Buy on Amazon

What material is best for polytunnel frames?

Most polytunnel frames are made of galvanized rustproof steel.  This lightweight material is long-lasting – most frames will last up to 20 years.   It’s easy to put together, and to store and doesn’t rust.

Where should you place your polytunnel?

Usually, the answer to this is “where you have space”.  If you, however, have the choice, then you’ll want to run the long side from north to south.  This will maximize your growing experience and make sure that you avoid the excessive heat likely if you’re running it from east to west (the sun will go along the length of the tunnel).

What maintenance does a polytunnel need?

The best time for maintenance of your polytunnel is autumn and winter.  Clean the cover thoroughly inside and out.    It’s important to have at least an annual clean of your polytunnel to ensure that you remove any disease vectors and bugs to prepare your polytunnel for spring planting.

What’s the best position for a polytunnel?

If you’re in the lucky position to be able to have a choice where you site your polytunnel, then the best position for a polytunnel is to have the long side running from south to north.  This gives you the ability to avoid the high heats of summer.  If you have to site it east to west then you’ll be facing on to the midday sun, in the heat of summer, this is not ideal.  It will also mean that if your summer crops grow tall, then they could shade some crops in the north bed.

Are polytunnels worth it?

We think so and that’s why we include them as one of our essential garden tools.  We think they’re a small investment for a lot of extra growing capability.   It’s also a heck of a lot more motivating when the rain (or snow) is coming down or the wind is howling to get out there and start doing some work inside the tunnel rather than outside in the elements!

How long does a Polytunnel last?

Polytunnels are made up of two elements – the frame and the polythene cover.   The frame should be steel (and possibly coasted) and a polytunnel frame should last for 20 years or more.  A polytunnel polythene cover should last between 5 and 10 years.  Better quality definitely lasts longer, but there are other considerations with the cover too.  UV degradation is caused by sunlight and can impact the length of time that a polytunnel cover can last.  Wind, rain and other bad weather can also impact how long the covers last too.  Be sure to make repairs as soon as accidents happen to ensure your polytunnel lasts longer.

Can you grow in a Polytunnel all year round?

Yes, you can grow vegetables in a polytunnel all year round.  You’ll need to check on the growing requirements of specific vegetables but the whole purpose of the polytunnel is to increase your growing season.

Do Polytunnels need ventilation?

Yes.  POlytunnels need ventilation in the summer, this is the main way in which you will cool your polytunnel in the summer.   You’ll also need to ensure that decent ventilation will help prevent crop disease as well.

Why are Polytunnels green?

Some polytunnels have a green cover, some have a white cover.  With most polytunnel kits you can elect for a white or a green cover.  Green polytunnel covers let less light permeate through to the vegetables, so they may be better in some environments – i.e. in high sun areas.  Most green polytunnel covers have a mesh within the polythene which increases the strength of the cover making it last longer. The green will also stop your plants from getting burnt with the sun in the heat of the summer.     

All our guides to the best garden equipment

• Our Garden Tools Essential List
• The best potting benches in the UK
• The best gardening gloves in the UK
• The best garden kneelers in the UK
• The best food dehydrators in the UK
• The best potato grow bags in the UK
• The best strawberry planters in the UK
• The best hydroponic starter kits in the UK
• The best gardening audiobooks for vegetable growers
• The best vegetable gardening books in the UK
• The best grow your own herbs kits in the UK
• The best expandable hoses in the UK
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• The best polytunnel kits in the UK

Final Words on the Best Polytunnels UK Kits

If you’re serious about growing your own food then investing in a polytunnel is something that you won’t regret.  They’re not a huge expense, but they can extend your growing season significantly and even open up growing some fruit and veg that you might not necessarily be able to grow in the UK.   These polytunnel kits make it seriously easy to both buy everything that you need, install and get started growing in polytunnels.  Let us know what you decide to do and which you’ve found to be the best polytunnel kits for your veggie growing needs.

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The Best Chilli Growing Kits

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Check Prices & Buy Now

The Best Chilli Growing Kit

This is the best general chilli growing kit you can get. It has a great slection of chilli seeds and includes all you need to get started growing chillies!

Check Price & Buy on Amazon

I always think that when you start to grow anything you should try for the simplest way to do it that has the best chance of a quick return.  This will quickly build your confidence to try different things.  And growing chillies is a great example of that.  We’ve grown chillies on windowsills for years and with varying degrees of success.  Here are the highlights of the best chilli growing kits and you can also read more about growing chillies generally further down this article.

Want to read more about how to grow chillies?  Here’s our in-depth guide to the best of growing chillies at home.

What are Chilli Growing Kits?

Chilli growing kits are simple.  They contain everything that you need to get started growing chillies.  They’ll give you enough seeds to grow several plants of a range of varieties – there’s no need for a huge investment in large packets of seeds.  All the chilli growing kits that we recommend – like our favourite chilli growing kit here – come with full instructions and some even come with help if you get stuck.  You’ll get details of what you’ll need to do in terms of watering, temperature requirements and also the best location for your chillies while you are growing them. 

Details of Chilli Growing Kits	Highlights	What It Looks Like	Read Reviews & Buy Now!
Best Chilli Growing Kit	Simple to use provides 5 varieties of red hot chillies in a single gift box Easy to Use designed with beginners in mind Seed varieties include- anaheim, jalapeno, cayenne, habanero and naga jolokia Easy to follow instructions	Check Prices & Buy Now	Read reviews and buy now
Best Hot Chilli Growing Kit	Simple to use provides 4 packets of seeds 100% non-GMO heirloom chilli seed varieties – Carolina Reaper, Trinidad Scorpion, Habanero Chocolate and Yellow Hot Scotch Bonnet Includes four varieties of the worlds hottest chilli seeds, four fabric grow bags, four expanding coco coir potting soil disks for planting your seeds, four bamboo plant markers, chilli plant feed, our very own seed growing guide including recipe section and a real wood gift box planter with drip tray Easy to follow instructions	Click for a Bigger Image	See more reviews and buy now
Best Chilli and Sweet Pepper Growing Kit	Extreme Hot Chillies Collection – includes Cayenne, Naga Ghost, Habanero Orange, Serrano, Habanero Rogue, and Thai Birds Eye seeds. With approximately 55 seeds, these red-hot varieties bring heat and flavor to any dish Mild & Sweet Chillies & Peppers Collection – Ideal for those who prefer a more moderate heat, this collection features Anaheim (Mild), Yellow Ball (Sweet), Chocolate Paprika (Mild), Traffic Light Mix (Sweet), Jalapeno (Mild), and California Mix (Sweet) peppers, totaling around 62 seeds of colorful and flavorful varieties	CHILLIS AND PEPPERS	Check reviews and buy here.

What Types of Chilli Growing Kits are there

The basic chilli growing kits focus on the heat of the chilli pepper.  (there’s a guide to chilli heat ratings here).   We’ve focused on chilli growing kits that give you hot chillies, but also those that include spices that you’re likely to use in recipes alongside your chillies.  There’s also chilli and sweet pepper growing kits and a kit that is vegan friendly too.   We’ve included: 

• The Best Chilli Growing Kit UK
• The Best Hot Chilli Growing Kit
• The Best Chilli and Sweet Pepper Growing Kit
• The Best Vegan-Friendly Chilli Growing Kit

All the chilli growing kits we have selected are designed for a UK climate and are available for the UK market.  That means that they’re designed to be grown indoors – and by indoors we mean inside your house rather than inside a greenhouse.  If you have a heated greenhouse then we are incredibly envious and happy to report that you can grow these chillies inside that too.

Where should you start?  What type of chillies should you grow?

What Variety of Chillies Should you Grow?

Start simple.  There’s no point (to me anyway) in growing something that you’re not going to use.  So look at the heat of chillies that you’re likely to use in your recipes and start there.  If you prefer milder chillies and sweet peppers, then take a look at our favourite chilli and sweet pepper kit.  

If you start by growing chillies that you normally buy (and don’t forget you can preserve and store chillies too – read our guide to how to do that here, then you’ll be using your green-fingered skills to save money – which will give you more money to spend experimenting on more chillies to grow!

What to Look for in a Chilli Growing Kit

The main thing to look for in a chilli growing kit is the type of chilli seeds it comes with.  Then you’ll want to look at the materials that it includes and what else you might need to buy as the chilli plants grow.   Also, look for the temperature requirements where your chilli plants will live.  Most of the time, our chilli plants live in the kitchen window as that tends to be the sunniest and warmest window sill in the house.

Types of Chillies You Can Grow With a Chilli Growing Kit

Each different chilli growing kit comes with a variety of seeds for different chillies.   From habanero to Scotch Bonnets you’ll find a huge variety of seeds.   Once you have success growing chillies from kits, then you can extend your chilli growing reach.  The folks at Crocus have a HUGE variety of different chilli seeds here.

The Best Chilli Growing Kit

We’ll start with the simplest and easiest chilli growing kit.   This is one of the best selling chilli growing kits in the UK.  If you’re a beginner at chilli growing, then this is the perfect place to start and one of the best chilli growing kits for beginners. 

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This chilli growing kit comes with everything you need for growing chillies – and the instructions are really easy to follow too.  Check other reviews and buy now!

Key benefits of this hot chilli growing kit

• Simple to use provides 5 varieties of red hot chillies in a single gift box
• Easy to Use designed with beginners in mind
• Seed varieties include- anaheim, jalapeno, cayenne, habanero and naga jolokia
• Easy to follow instructions

Buy now  – This is a great starter chilli growing kit or a fabulous gift for friends and family.

The Best Hot Chilli Growing Kit

Hand-packed from a family company in the North East of England, this super hot chilli growing kit focuses on FOUR of the world’s hottest chilli varieties.  You’ll get fabric grow bags, four sachets of seeds, four expanding coco coir potting soil disks, bamboo plant marker, chilli plant feed, a seed growing guide AND a wooden gift box planter with a drip tray too! Hot chillies are a perfect fruit for preserving through drying. Read about drying chillies here.

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This chilli growing kit comes with everything you need for growing chillies – and the instructions are really easy to follow too.  Check other reviews and buy now!

Key benefits of this hot chilli growing kit

• Simple to use provides 4 packets of seeds
• 100% non-GMO heirloom chilli seed varieties – Carolina Reaper, Trinidad Scorpion, Habanero Chocolate and Yellow Hot Scotch Bonnet
• Includes four varieties of the worlds hottest chilli seeds, four fabric grow bags, four expanding coco coir potting soil disks for planting your seeds, four bamboo plant markers, chilli plant feed, our very own seed growing guide including recipe section and a real wood gift box planter with drip tray
• Easy to follow instructions

Buy now  – This is an amazing HOT, HOT, HOT chilli growing kit from a family firm in the North East of England.

The Best Chilli and Sweet Pepper Growing Kit

Everything you need to grow chillies and sweet peppers all in one box.  You’ll get a packet of seeds of each of the 12 varieties of chillies and sweet peppers.  This is a great option to cover all heat varieties – the sweet peppers are delicious and so colourful on a salad, while the chillies will spice things up too!

CHILLIS AND PEPPERS

This chilli AND sweet pepper growing kit is an awesome option for brightly coloured salads too!  Check other reviews and buy now!

Key features of this chilli AND sweet pepper growing kit

• Complete Chilli & Pepper Seed Collection – Spice up your garden or kitchen with 12 different varieties of chillies and peppers, carefully selected to provide a range of heat levels and flavors. This bumper pack is divided into two exciting collections: Extreme Hot Chillies and Mild & Sweet Chillies & Peppers
• Extreme Hot Chillies Collection – For those who love a fiery kick, this collection includes Cayenne, Naga Ghost, Habanero Orange, Serrano, Habanero Rogue, and Thai Birds Eye seeds. With approximately 55 seeds, these red-hot varieties bring heat and flavor to any dish
• Mild & Sweet Chillies & Peppers Collection – Ideal for those who prefer a more moderate heat, this collection features Anaheim (Mild), Yellow Ball (Sweet), Chocolate Paprika (Mild), Traffic Light Mix (Sweet), Jalapeno (Mild), and California Mix (Sweet) peppers, totaling around 62 seeds of colorful and flavorful varieties
• Non-GMO Seeds – Our chilli and pepper seeds undergo stringent quality control to ensure high germination rates. Grown naturally in the Netherlands and hand-packed in the UK, these Non-GMO seeds promise reliable growth and bountiful harvests

Buy now  – Get started growing sweet peppers and chillis with this fabulous value growing kit.

Why use Chilli Growing Kits?

I love using fruit and vegetable growing kits when it’s new to me.  Chilli growing kits (and indeed other vegetable growing kits) let you experiment with growing a new fruit or vegetable without buying oodles of seeds and kit to see whether it works for you.  We have had GREAT success with growing mushrooms from kits too! 

Chilli growing kits make growing chillies easy, and using a chilli growing kit enables you to grow different varieties of chillies with ease, without a huge investment and quickly.  Because growing things quickly and seeing success will give you the impetus to grow more – that’s what makes chilli growing kits an excellent gift for vegetable gardeners!

All our guides to the best growing kits

• The hydroponic starter kits
• The best mushroom growing kits
• The best herb growing kits

FAQs on Chilli Growing and Chilli Growing Kits

Got a question about growing chillies and chilli growing kits?  If we haven’t answered your questions in this article, why not add a comment and we’ll answer and also include our answer in these most frequently asked questions about chilli growing kits.

What Conditions do Chillies Need to Grow in?

Chillies need a sunny, warm position.  The hotter the chilli on the Scoville scale, the warmer the location it needs – a warm, protected position helps the chillies to develop taste, heat and flavour.   You can grow chillies outside, but it needs to be warm and sunny.  Chillies will thrive on sunny windowsills indoors.

Once you’ve started growing chillies at home, you can use them in recipes, like this one for Spinach,Yoghurt and Baked Tofu Curry.

What’s the Best Place to Grow Chillies in the UK?

If you have a heated greenhouse then that’s a perfect place to grow chillies in the UK.  We don’t.  And we grow chillies on windowsills that catch the sun.  That, for me, is the best place to grow chillies in the UK. If you have a greenhouse, then in the warmer months your chillies will flourish in it. (Read our guide to mini-greenhouses here.)

Can you Grow Chillies Outside?

Yes, you can grow chillies outside, BUT,

Yes, chillies can be grown outside.  Chillies that are grown in the garden take much longer to grow – as they’ll be getting a lot more light than inside, where you can more effectively control light sources.  Outdoor grown chillies can take from 6 months to THREE years to grow. 

How much water do chillies need to grow?

It’s the age-old answer.  Don’t overwater your chillies, but make sure that they have enough water to turn the white flowers that they produce into the chilli fruits.  You’ll want to check that the compost is not drying out and water two-three times a week.  We also recommend spraying your chilli plants with water, this will avoid overwatering or watering from the base into a tray.

Do chilli plants need sun or shade?

Chillies will thrive in a full sun situation.  Chillies will also grow in semi-shade, but they won’t produce as many fruits as they would in full sun.   You’ll also need to ensure that your chilli plants it away from strong wins and receives regular watering, without which they are unable to produce the white flowers which then turn into the chilli fruits.

When do you plant chilli seeds?

The traditional time for sowing seeds for chilli plants is from February to April.   We have grown chilli plants indoors all year round – but you will need an average temperature from 18 to 21 degrees and you’ll need decent compost (read our guide to compost here) and a good sunny location for your chilli plants.

How long will it take to grow chillies?

Some chilli plants will produce ripe fruit just two months from sowing the seed.  Other chilli plants take as long as 4 months.  Always check the seed packet or the details in the chilli growing kit that you buy.

What is the best fertilizer for chilli plants? 

You can buy a specific fertilizer designed for chilli plants (we recommend this one), or tomato fertilizers will work well too.

Can you grow chillies indoors all year round?

Yes, you can grow chillies indoors all year round.  You can start to grow chillies from seed inside from January.  Chillies will thrive on a warm sunny windowsill, or under artificial lights and can provide a welcome splash of colour when they begin to fruit.

Do chillies come back every year?

Yes.   Chilli plants are perennials and can actually produce fruits for several years.  However, it is the cold that tends to kill them off each year.  If you provide the right conditions for your chilli plants it can come back the next year and produce chillies for many a season.

Final Words on the Best Chilli Growing Kits

One of the best ways to have access to fresh edible chillies is to grow them yourself.  And when you’re a beginner fruit and veg grower, there’s no better way than to use a growing kit.  You’ll get all the equipment you need to get started, a variety of seeds – and in a LOT of cases a guarantee that the provider will replace the seeds if they don’t germinate!  So long as you have access to a warm sunny window sill you can grow chillies all year round in the UK, so why not get started now with a fabulous chilli growing kit.  And don’t stop there!  These chilli growing kits make fabulous gifts for friends and family too!

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Can you freeze courgette?

Yes, you can freeze courgette to use at a later date. Freezing is a great way to store your courgette for later use. Other methods of preserving courgettes, like dehydrating them, can limit how you can use your courgette later.   However, I do love courgette crisps made in the dehydrator (and there’s more on that here) Freezing courgettes, however, allows you to use your courgette for nearly anything, even as noodles.   Or zoodles as they’re known.  (this name comes from the American name for courgettes – zucchini, so when made into noodles they become zoodles)

However, courgettes are a vegetable with high water content, so to help preserve the texture of your courgette and avoid having mushy and watery final dishes I recommend blanching your courgette before freezing it.

How to freeze courgettes

Freezing courgette is easy to do and a great way to preserve it for later. The hardest part is deciding how you want to freeze it.  And I’ll cover that shortly.  So here’s how to go about freezing courgette.

• Wash and properly cut your courgette to the size and shape you want.  You need to cut the courgette into the shape in which you want to freeze it BEFORE you blanch it.  (there’s also more on freezing courgettes without blanching later).
• To help keep your courgette from becoming too limp and soggy after cutting it how you want it you’ll need to blanch your courgette.

How to blanch courgettes

Blanching courgettes is easy.  Place your washed and cut courgette into a pan of boiling water for 3 to 5 minutes.  Then remove it and place it in a pre-prepared bowl of ice water.    This bit is REALLY important.  This STOPs the cooking process, so you don’t end up with mush.  Do NOT wait until you have pulled the courgette out of the pan before you go looking for ice.  Have it ready.  The courgette will keep cooking until the iced water stops the process.

• Once your courgette is blanched and iced.  Remove it from the water.
• Pat it dry with a clean tea towel.   (You can use a paper towel, but I’m trying to be more environmentally conscious and not use one-time usage paper towels.  I did find these awesome bamboo reusable towels, which are brilliant – but you can also use a regular tea towel, just make sure it’s clean!). Here’s my guide to the best eco-friendly tea towels.
• The less moisture on the outside of your courgette the less likely that it will crystalize and start the freezer burn process. Courgette already has a high water content so you do not want to add any more water that could lead to freezer burn or simply soggy courgette.

• Now, place your courgette on a lined baking tray in a single layer and freeze for 2-4 hours. This will freeze the pieces of courgette separately to make it easier to grab only what you need if you are not freezing into single packs for your favourite recipes.

I use reusable baking paper sheets like this one – which means less waste and they’re fabulous to use in both the oven and the freezer.

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• After your courgette has frozen, move the pieces to an air-tight container.
• For longer storage move your courgette into vacuum-sealed bags that eliminate air that leads to freezer burn.

If you know what you will be doing with your courgette you can place the amounts you need for your recipes into vacuum-sealed bags and freeze them flat for convenience. This is a great option if you plan to make things like courgette bread (this is a really great courgette bread recipe) which freezes well but takes up a lot of space so freezing only the courgette helps to save more space in your freezer.

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Freezing courgettes without blanching them

Depending on the use you have for your courgette you can get away with no blanching. If your goal is to make courgette bread where the soft mushy texture will work perfectly you can simply shred and freeze without worrying about blanching and still have the perfect courgette bread.

To freeze courgettes without blanching

• Wash courgettes
• Cut or grate to the size you want to freeze them in
• Pat as dry as you can with a tea towel
• Now, place your courgette on a lined baking tray in a single layer and freeze for 2-4 hours.
• Once frozen, move to an airtight container as above.

For things like zoodles, you will need to blanch or risk having mushy noodles.

The best ways to freeze courgettes

Courgette can be from in nearly any way you plan to use it. From sliced or shredded for making courgette bread or muffins to homemade zoodles. The trick is to prepare your courgette the way you need it to be before you freeze it. After freezing and thawing you will find that courgette is too soft to really shape into what you need.

If you know what you plan to use your courgette for you can freeze it in the proper shape. If you are unsure and you simply want to preserve your courgette glut you can opt to do simple slices or shredded courgette which is really versatile. There’s more on courgette gluts and how they became a summer staple here.

If you enjoy courgette noodles these are perfect for freezing into single servings and vacuum sealing for storage. Remember the more exposed the surface area the higher the risk of freezer burn so vacuum sealing is the best option for keeping it fresher longer.

How to thaw and use frozen courgette

When you are ready to use your courgette you can cook it right from frozen for the best texture in cooked dishes. For things like courgette bread, you will need to thaw your courgette first. To thaw your courgette simply move it to the fridge overnight or onto your work surface for a few hours to thaw.

The texture of frozen courgette is softer than fresh but the flavour holds well and it is perfect in cooked dishes though it is not preferable for things like fresh salads because of its lack of crispy texture.

FAQs about freezing courgettes

Got questions about freezing courgettes? Or want to know more about how to freeze courgettes and we haven’t answered your questions?  Check out our frequently asked questions about freezing courgettes below, or ask us yours in the comments.

Can you freeze uncooked courgettes?

Yes, you can freeze uncooked courgettes. 

How long can you keep frozen courgettes?

The usual limit of time for keeping frozen courgettes is 3 months.  The more preparation you put into them the longer they will keep.  So be sure to blanch them.  Dry them as much as you can.  Store them in airtight containers, or vacuum packs inside the freezer. 

Do frozen courgettes go mushy?

Lots of frozen courgettes go mushy, yes, because they’re 95% water!  So once it thaws they go very, very soft.  You can reduce this tendency to go mushy by drying them as much as you can (pat dry with a tea towel).  And also blanching before that.  Also, make sure that you cut the courgette into the shape that you’ll want it before freezing. 

Do courgettes need blanching before freezing?

No.  You can freeze courgettes without blanching.   If you freeze courgettes without blanching, then it’s best to grate them or shred them before freezing and use them in soups (this is a fabulous recipe for creamy courgette soup) or courgette bread.

What other vegetables can I freeze?

You can freeze more vegetables – our guide to freezing carrots is here.

Don’t forget if you want details on growing courgettes, then our guide to the best way to grow courgettes is here.

All my guides on freezing fruit, herbs and vegetables

Freezing carrots

Freezing courgettes

Freezing Rosemary

Freezing Oregano

Freezing Sage

Freezing Thyme

Freezing Strawberries

Final Words on How to Freeze Courgettes

Courgettes are those magical vegetables where you look in the garden on an evening and they’re looking good and you think, it will be a few days before they’re ready and then the next morning they’re enormous!  It is so easy to get a glut of courgettes.  And so being able to manage courgette gluts is important because it happens to us all at some time.   Using the freezer to preserve courgettes is a great way of keeping them for later.  Let us know how you get on with frozen courgettes and what your favourite frozen courgette shape is!

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Some fruits are more suitable for dehydrating than others.  And regular dehydration isn’t the only way that fruit can be preserved for the longer term, although it is the quickest and easiest (aside from freezing of course!).  Fruits can also be dried as fruit leather and fruit rolls, but this takes quite a bit more work.  Fruits can also be preserved as jams – but this also adds significant work and usually a lot of additional processing and sugar to the fruit.

Fruits grown in the UK that are particularly suitable for dehydrating are apples, apricots, pears, peaches, plums, strawberries, tomatoes, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries.  Dehydrating berries is particularly easy.  Imported fruits that are suitable for dehydrating include bananas, pineapple and mangoes.  So read on for how to dehydrate fruits!

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All these fruits can be dried in a standard oven, but it’s much more energy and cost-efficient to use a food dehydrator (read more about them here).  I’ve also included the best fruit dehydrators to use here.

What are the Best Fruit Dehydrators?

I wrote a comparison of the UK’s best fruit dehydrators, which you can read here – but here’s an overview of which dehydrators are great for drying fruit.

Food Hydrator Name	Highlights	What It Looks Like	Read Reviews & Buy Now!
Excalibur Food Dehydrator	• 9-Tray dehydrator, 15 square feet of drying space • Built-in on/off switch and adjustable thermostat with 26-hour timer • Easy to clean Polyscreen tray inserts • 7-inch fan, 600 watts, • Unit Dimensions: 12-1/2 H x 17 W x 19 D (inches)	Check Prices Here	Check prices and buy now
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The Best Fruits to Dehydrate

The primary reason for dehydrating fruit is to extend the time you can eat it.  Harvesting a certain fruit tends to happen over quite a short time, yet we prefer not to eat all the produce from a certain tree or bush at the same time.  Dehydrating fruit harvest means that you can enjoy it for months after the harvest time. 

The best fruits to dehydrate are those that you don’t have the scope to eat fresh!

The Best Home-grown Fruits to Dehydrate

In this section, I’m including details of the best home-grown – in the UK environment – fruits to dehydrate.  While I realise that some of you may grow some of what I’ve classed as imported fruit here at home, I’ve tried to generalise. So here’s the best fruit to dehydrate that you’re likely growing at home.

Dehydrating Peaches

Peaches are a great UK grown fruit to dehydrate.  It’s much easier to prepare a firm peach to dehydrate and it will dry faster than a soft one.  However, don’t be tempted to go for too firm a peach as it won’t have the sweetness and ripeness.  You should select peaches for drying that have a good colour and a little give them you squeeze them.  Peaches are best prepared for dehydration by cutting into halves or quarters.  I find that dehydrating peach halves is a great size. The pits should be removed and then slice the peaches again. 

Dehydrating Strawberries

My favourite breakfast cereals have dried strawberries and raspberries in them.  (and I LOVE growing strawberries) I love my dried red berries.  They dehydrate well, but you’ll need to wash them and pat them dry.  Either quarter or slice strawberries.  I like my strawberries tart, so I don’t add sugar, but you may find that adding a little sugar after you’ve placed them on a dehydrating sheet helps if you have a sweet tooth.  Adding sugar will mean that they take longer to dehydrate.

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Dehydrating Apples

Apples are an incredibly versatile fruit and they dehydrate very well.  You can either dry apples to crisps or a chewy dried fruit.   Apples start to oxidise as soon as you cut into the skin and so they discolour, so you’ll need to work quickly when dehydrating apples.  Pre-treating apples before dehydrating will help them to retain their natural colour.  There’s more on pre-treating fruit before dehydrating later in this article.

Dehydrating Tomatoes

Although we eat tomatoes primarily with other vegetables, they are, of course, a fruit.  And they’re a great fruit to dehydrate.  Dried tomatoes aka sun-dried tomatoes are incredibly Moorish and an amazing way to preserve one of my favourite fruits.  So much so that I wrote an entire article on dehydrating tomatoes that you can read here.  There’s also a guide to the best vegetables to dehydrate here.

Dehydrating Raspberries

The selection of fruit is absolutely key when dehydrating raspberries.  Overripe raspberries don’t dehydrate well and are likely to fall apart if you try drying them when they’re mushy and overripe.   To start with when you dehydrate raspberries, you’ll want to select firm to the touch raspberries that are bright red.  Darker coloured raspberries tend to indicate that they’re overripe.  After washing blot them dry to remove excess water.  To speed up the process of dehydrating raspberries you can slice them in half.  A great tip on how to dehydrate raspberries is to spray raspberries lightly with lemon juice to stop them from turning brown – it doesn’t affect the taste.  Raspberries will take about 10-12 hours to dehydrate in a food dehydrator and you’ll know that they’re done if you can’t feel any softness or moisture.  They’ll be crunchy if you bite into them. For me these are one of the best fruits for dehydration – I love them on breakfast cereals, in muffins, in cakes. And yes just as a dehydrated fruit snack!

Dehydrating Blueberries

Blueberries are a great fruit to dehydrate and drying them really concentrates the flavour.  When you dehydrate blueberries, they’re pretty small, to begin with, so they may fall through the gaps in the trays on your food dehydrator.  (so just be aware of that!).  Sometimes you’ll find that if you don’t split the skin somehow a dried blueberry will be tougher, so you can split the skin by either blanching or splitting the skin with a knife.  Blueberries will also dry quicker if you put a slit into the skin before placing them in the dehydrator.  Blueberries will take a minimum of 8 hours to dry in a dehydrator.

Dehydrating Figs

I adore fresh figs.  I love figs marinated in honey.  I love figs marinated in balsamic (check my recipe here) and dried figs are a fabulous addition to all sorts of recipes once the fig harvest has finished. The best figs for drying are those which have no damage.   If you’re planning on dehydrating a whole fig then they dry better if they’ve been blanched.  Sliced or halved or quartered figs are my choice for the size of fig to dry.  They’re also easier to eat this way!  Figs definitely benefit from pre-treating before drying (see below). Make sure the figs that you select for drying are fully ripe and are not damaged.  If they’re damaged make sure you cut off all the damage. Wash the figs, pre-treat if you plan to and then rinse and drain. Figs will take a minimum of 6 hours to dry.  They’ll be chewy and leathery when ready.

The Best Imported Fruits to Dehydrate

Some of the imported fruits that we get in the UK are fabulous for drying.  I’m just going to touch on two of them, which I love adding to my breakfast cereals and as snacks for the trail.

Dehydrating Bananas

The key to drying bananas is the selection of the banana.  Bananas need to be ripe, but not overripe. So aim for a few of the brownish speckles on the skin.  Peel the banana and cut it into rounds.   Bananas will take a minimum of 8 hours to dry and are, I think, so much better than shop-bought dried banana chips as they’re not as crunchy, but a little chewy.  You may find that bananas stick to dehydrator trays – and so they’re better placed on the type of flexible poly inserts that you get as standard with the Excalibur Dehydrators.

Dehydrating Mangoes

Dried mango is fabulous.  And while it’s likely to be expensive to buy fresh mango (and may actually be cheaper to buy already dried mango), with your own dehydrated fruit you get to know exactly what has and hasn’t been added to them!  Mango is easy to dry.  Cut off the skin of the mango by slicing it into three sections until the knife hits the pit.  Then you’ll want to take the skin off the mango.  Cut the mango into pieces about 2cm square and follow the instructions on your dehydrator.   Mangoes should dehydrate in 8-12 hours.

Dehydrating Pineapples

As with all other fruits that you want to preserve by dehydrating, select pineapples that have as little surface damage as possible.  Pineapples do NOT continue to ripen once they’ve been picked, so you’re better off drying as soon as you can.  Rinse the pineapple, scrub the skin and chop into chunks of about 3cm to 5cm.   Flexible trays in a dehydrator will stop the pineapple from sticking as much.  Pineapples will take a minimum of 12 hours to dry.  You’ll want to turn them over after 8 hours.  When it’s dried it will be chewy and firm.

Pre-treating Fruit before Dehydrating

Commercially dried fruits are treated before drying.  This takes place to retain primarily the colour and flavour.  No one’s going to buy it if it doesn’t look and taste good right?  This pre-treatment also helps the dried fruits to last longer.  You can also pre-treat your fruit before drying it.  It will help to retain the flavour and stop fruits from discolouring as they dry.  There are three ways to do this.

 Pre-treat fruit before drying with ascorbic acid.

You can buy ascorbic acid from pharmacies and health food stores.  Dissolve 1 tablespoon of ascorbic acid in a litre of water.  Pop the prepared fruit into it and leave it for one hour.  Then drain, rinse lightly and add to your dehydrator.

Pre-treat fruit before drying with citric acid

Use a tablespoon of crystallised citric acid in a litre of water.  Pop the prepared fruit into it and leave it for one hour.  Then drain, rinse lightly and add to your dehydrator. 

Pre-treat fruit before drying with lemon juice

You can also use fresh lemon juice in this same way, but you’ll need about 250ml of lemon juice to a litre of water.  If you’re using lemon juice then leave the fruit in for no more than 10 minutes.  Citric acid and lemon juice may leave your dried fruits with a slightly tart taste, so experiment and see what works for you.

How to Store Dehydrated Fruits

You’ll need to wait until your dried fruits are completely cool.  They will last longest if you store them in an airtight container.  So a plastic ziplock bag with the air squeezed out of it tends to work the best.   Place your container of dried fruits in a cool, dry place.

Dried fruits will last for about a year if stored under the right conditions.

Final Words on the Best Fruits to Dehydrate

Drying fruits is a fabulous way to be able to savour the taste and flavour long past harvest season.  And luckily, many of the fruits and vegetables that we grow here in the UK are some of the best fruits and vegetables to dehydrate! and there are some great options for dehydrating.   You’ll get fabulous lightweight, easy to store and nutritious fruits year-round.  Let us know how you get on dehydrating fruits and what for you are the best fruits to dehydrate are!

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While I would love to be able to live in an environment where I sun dry my tomatoes, sadly I don’t and so had to explore the best ways to dehydrate tomatoes without the ball of fire in the sky being involved.   There are two tried and tested methods for drying tomatoes that work really well in the UK.  So in this guide, we’ll cover how to dry tomatoes, how long it takes to dry tomatoes, how to prepare your tomatoes for dehydrating and how to store dried tomatoes.  We’ll also cover:

• How to dry tomatoes quickly
• Drying tomatoes in a dehydrator
• How do you dry tomatoes in the oven?
• Can you dry tomatoes in a microwave?

What is the Easiest Way to Dehydrate Tomatoes?

If you’re looking for the easiest way to dehydrate your tomatoes, then this is by using a dehydrator. If you’re looking at a dehydrator, then here are two that we recommend – there are budget dehydrators for £40 or some really awesome ones for not much more. 

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Dehydrators are a great way to preserve vegetables and fruits and for a small outlay, you can make your fruit and vegetable harvest go a long way!   So much so we have an entire guide to food dehydrators here.

Why should you preserve tomatoes by dehydrating them?

Drying tomatoes to preserve them means that you retain the sweet flavour of the ripe tomato and that you’re able to use that flavour throughout the year in your kitchen.  You can use the dried tomatoes as additions to pizzas in sauces and stews.  You can rehydrate the tomato.  Allow dried tomatoes to infuse their glorious flavours into olive oil that drizzled onto mozzarella will zip you straight back to long hot sunny days.  Drying tomatoes is the most versatile way of preserving tomatoes.

How to Dehydrate Tomatoes at Home

There are several methods that you can use to dehydrate tomatoes at home.  The first is to dehydrate tomatoes using a dehydrator (we recommend this Food Dehydrator for Tomatoes)  You can also dehydrate tomatoes in the oven.  You cannot, unlike chillies, dry tomatoes in the air in the UK.    Also, you CANNOT dry tomatoes in the microwave.

Dehydrating fresh tomatoes is easy and we’ll start, however by dealing with how to prepare tomatoes for dehydrating, regardless of the method that you use to dry tomatoes.

How to Prepare Tomatoes for Dehydrating

The first step when dehydrating tomatoes at home is selection. 

What’s the Best Type of Tomatoes to Dry?

You can dry or dehydrate any variety of tomato.  I haven’t come across a variety of tomatoes that we couldn’t dry.   You need to treat some varieties slightly differently (and we’ll cover that), but you can dry all types of tomato.

Selecting Tomatoes for Dehydrating

The primary thing to remember when dehydrating tomatoes is that you should select tomatoes of a similar size to batch dehydrate together.  Then they’ll all dry at about the same time.  So if you’re dehydrating large beef tomatoes and slicing them beforehand, don’t try drying them in the same batch as cherry tomatoes. 

Next, you need to select good quality tomatoes.  Get rid of any signs of damage or decay.  Err on the side of caution.

You can dry any variety of tomatoes.  You should take into account that the larger the tomato the longer it will take to dry, regardless of the drying process that you use. 

When you’re selecting which tomatoes you’re going to dehydrate then you should start the dehydration process as soon after harvesting as possible.  DON’T pick them and stick them in the larder for a couple of days before dehydrating.  Never put them in the fridge (that will kill the taste seriously quickly) 

Preparing Tomatoes for Dehydrating

Regardless of the method that you use to dehydrate tomatoes you need to prepare them in the same way.

Start by washing your tomatoes thoroughly. 

Pat them dry with a clean tea towel or some kitchen roll. Want to be more eco-friendly in the kitchen? Here’s my guide to the best eco-friendly tea towels.

If you’re using smaller (cherry for instance) tomatoes then cut them in half and lay them skin side down on a chopping board.   

For much larger tomatoes you can slice them thickly.

Sprinkle with good coarse sea salt.

(When you get more experienced at dehydrating tomatoes you can experiment with sprinkling dried herbs as well as salt – we recommend dried oregano and dried basil for some amazing flavours)

Now you’re ready to dehydrate your tomatoes.  Here are the 2 ways in which you can dry tomatoes.  We’ll start with the quickest, easiest and most convenient way to dehydrate tomatoes. 

How to tomatoes in a dehydrator

It is simple to dry tomatoes in a dehydrator.   A dehydrator is a specific appliance used to remove moisture from whatever foodstuff you put inside them.  You can read more about dehydrators here, but they’re fabulous appliances for extending the useful life of virtually anything that you grow in the garden.  Drying tomatoes in a dehydrator is the most effective and easy way of drying them.

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Select and prepare the tomatoes as I’ve described above.

Spread the prepared tomatoes on the drying grids of the dehydrator.  Make sure that they’re not touching each other and have a little distance between them.  Air must be able to circulate between and around each tomato

Don’t overload the dehydrator.  Turn on the dehydrator to the setting recommended by your food dehydrator manufacturer for tomatoes and off you go.

Check the tomatoes.  They should not become completely dry, but remain a little pliable, not crispy.  Touch them.  They shouldn’t feel sticky.  If some are done, then remove them and leave the others to finish.

How long does it take to dry tomatoes in a dehydrator?

Each dehydrator manufacturer will detail the time it is likely to take to dry different fruit and vegetables, so check the instructions.  However, it usually takes between 4 and 6 hours to dry tomatoes in a food dehydrator.  Smaller tomatoes will take less time than larger tomatoes. You can read about other fruits to dehydrate here.

What are the best dehydrators for tomatoes?

Here are the highlights of the best food dehydrators for tomatoes.  You can read more in our full guide on food dehydrators here.

Food Hydrator Name	Highlights	What It Looks Like	Read Reviews & Buy Now!
Excalibur Food Dehydrator	• 9-Tray dehydrator, 15 square feet of drying space • Built-in on/off switch and adjustable thermostat with 26-hour timer • Easy to clean Polyscreen tray inserts • 7-inch fan, 600 watts, • Unit Dimensions: 12-1/2 H x 17 W x 19 D (inches)	Check Prices Here	Check prices and buy now
Klarstein Fruit Jerky 6	• Temperature and timer setting gives even dehydration as the fan circulates warm air • Adjustable display on the upper surface. • Adjustable temperature from 35-70°C. • Adjustable timer from 0:30 – 19:30 hrs	Get More Information Here	Check Prices here
MisterChef Circular Food Dehydrator	Temperature- setting. easy to clean plastic trays and lid On/off switch on the unit base. Settable temperature from 35-70°C.	Buy Here	Buy the best Circular food dehydrator here

How to Dehydrate Tomatoes in an Oven

The second method of drying tomatoes is to dry them in the oven.  This does, however, require more energy than using a specific dehydrator.

The length of time it takes to dry tomatoes in the oven depends on the size tomato.  Here’s how to dry tomatoes in the oven.

Preheat the oven to about 100 degrees centigrade (fan oven)

Place the prepared tomatoes on a baking tray and place them in the centre of the oven.

Tomatoes should take at least 4 hours to dry in the oven, but likely longer.  I tend to check them after an hour to make sure that they’re not sticking and then check them occasionally. 

Check the tomatoes.  They should not become completely dry, but remain a little pliable, not crispy.  Touch them.  They shouldn’t feel sticky.  If some are done, then remove them and leave the others to finish.

How long does it take to dehydrate tomatoes in an oven?

It will take a minimum of 4 hours to dry tomatoes in an oven. 

How to Dehydrate Tomatoes in the Microwave

You can’t dehydrate tomatoes in the microwave.   

How to Store Dehydrated Tomatoes

There are several ways to store dehydrated tomatoes.  The most flexible is to store them in an airtight container.  Using a ziplock bag and squeezing the air out is very effective.  Then you’ll need to store them in a cool, dry place.  You can store dehydrated tomatoes in this way for up to 2 months.

You can also, once placed in an airtight container, freeze dehydrated tomatoes.  They will last in the freezer for up to 9 months.

How long do dehydrated tomatoes last?

Dehydrated tomatoes will last for 2 months if stored in an airtight container.  It’s better to place them in a ziplock back and squeeze the air out rather than placing them in a plastic container – where there will still be air remaining.  Air = moisture = potential mould.

If you then freeze the bag you can store dehydrated tomatoes in the freezer for 9 months.

FAQs on How do You Dehydrate Tomatoes

Got questions about drying tomatoes in a dehydrator? Or want to know how to dehydrate tomatoes in ovens? Check out our frequently asked questions about drying tomatoes below, or ask us yours in the comments.

Can you dry tomatoes in a dehydrator?

Yes! Drying tomatoes in a dehydrator is the easiest way to dehydrate tomatoes.

How do you store dehydrated tomatoes?

The best way to store dehydrated tomatoes is in an airtight container. Place the dried tomatoes in the airtight container and then place the container in a cool, dry place.

What are the best tomatoes for drying?

Any tomato that you dry should be of good quality. It should have no damage to it. You can dry any type of tomatoes – dry cherry tomatoes, dry grape tomatoes.

What is the best way of preserving tomatoes?

I think that one of the best ways of preserving tomatoes is to dry them and then to store them in oil. You’ll not only get a great tasting tomato, but you’ll also get a fabulous oil to use as well!

Final Words on How to Dehydrate Tomatoes

The second best thing to freshly picked tomatoes from the garden is tomatoes that you’ve dried and seasoned yourself.  Dehydrate as quick as you can after picking and you’ll retain lots of the flavour and taste and continue to have the amazing flavours of summer in your kitchen long after the warm weather has disappeared.  Dehydrating tomatoes is a simple and easy task, whether you use a dehydrator or the oven to dry your tomatoes, prep them well, store them well and enjoy the fruits of your labour for months afterwards!

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When the sun is shining and courgettes are visible in gardens and markets everywhere, it’s time to embrace the best of summer cooking recipes. This Courgette, Feta & Mint Quiche is light, vibrant, and packed with seasonal flavour—perfect for lazy lunches, picnic spreads, or a make-ahead weekday meal.

Courgettes are now a UK stummer staple when it comes to the UK and recipes (read how that happened here), my recipes for courgettes are designed to use gluts. Here’s my favourite Courgette content.

• Growing Courgettes – all you need to know
• How to Freeze Courgettes
• Creamy Courgette Soup
• Courgette Bread Recipe

It’s a brilliant way to use up a courgette glut, and the fresh mint adds a lively twist that lifts the dish beyond your standard savoury tart. Salty feta balances the mild sweetness of the courgette, and the result is a golden, flaky quiche that tastes like summer on a plate.

Courgette, Mint & Feta Quiche Recipe Perfect for…

• Garden lunches
• Picnics or Lighter BBQ Alternatives
• Light dinners with a side salad
• Meal prepping during courgette season

Courgette, Mint & Feta Quiche Ingredients

Whether you choose to make your own shortcrust pastry or buy premade, you’ll need this ahead of time.

For the shortcrust pastry:

• 200g plain flour
• 100g cold unsalted butter, cubed
• Pinch of salt
• 2–3 tbsp cold water

For the filling:

• 2 medium courgettes, grated or shredded
• 150g feta cheese, crumbled
• 4 medium eggs
• 100ml milk.  Use cream for a richer flavour if required
• 20g fresh mint, roughly chopped
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• Salt and black pepper, to taste

Read my growing guides to courgettes and mint

Courgette, Mint & Feta Quiche Method

First, start by making or buying the shortcrust pastry

1. Make the Shortcrust Pastry

Place all the pastry ingredients in a bowl, rub the butter into the flour and salt until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add cold water a tablespoon at a time until the dough comes together. I used a regular knife to stir and bind it together until it’s just about done, then I shape it with my hands.

Shape the pastry into a ball, wrap it in cling film, and put it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

2. Blind Bake the Base of the Quiche

Preheat your oven to 180°C (160°C fan). Roll out the pastry and line a 23cm tart tin. Prick the base with a fork, line with baking paper (I use reusable ones like these) and fill with baking beans. Bake for 20 minutes, then remove the paper and beans and bake for 5 more minutes until the base is cooked and the quiche case is golden.

While the base is baking, you can make your filling.

3. Prepare the Filling

Heat olive oil in a frying pan (I use these from Tower, they stack easily and having a removable handle means I can put them in the oven as well) over medium heat. Lightly sauté the shredded courgette for 10 minutes until softened. Season with salt and pepper. Do NOT put the lid on, you do NOT want to retain moisture in the courgette. Allow to cool slightly.

In a measuring jug or bowl, whisk the eggs.  Add a grind of pepper and a little salt (not too much, as the feta will be salty), and then stir in the milk.  Add the mint and most of the crumbled feta cheese.  Retain a little for the topping on the quiche.

Add in the cooled, softened courgettes.  Stir together.

4. Assemble & Bake

Pour in your mixture and top with the remaining feta. Bake for 30–35 minutes until set and lightly golden.

5. Cool & Serve your Courgette, Mint & Feta Quiche

Let the quiche cool for 10 minutes before slicing. Serve warm or at room temperature with a crisp green salad or roasted new potatoes.

Tips & Variations

• No time for pastry? Use ready-rolled shortcrust or even filo sheets for a shortcut.
• Dairy-free? Try plant-based cream and vegan feta-style cheese.
• Add-ins: Peas, spinach, or a sprinkle of chilli flakes work well.
• Storage: Keeps in the fridge for 2–3 days and is delicious cold.  You can also freeze this quiche.  Defrost thoroughly and warm through in an oven/air fryer.

Enjoy these other recipes from Lets Grow Cook

• Courgette, Mint & Feta Quiche
• Hearty Lentil Soup
• EASY 10 Minute Basil Pesto
• Rhubarb and Ginger Gin
• Blackberry Infused Gin
• Creamy Courgette Soup
• Courgette Bread
• Tkemali Sour Plum Sauce
• Lemon and Balsamic Marinated Figs
• Baba Ganoush Recipe without Tahini
• Fresh Mint Ice Cream – no ice cream maker needed
• Spinach, Yoghurt and baked Tofu curry.

Final Thoughtson this delicious Courgette, Mint and Feta Quiche

This Courgette, Feta & Mint Quiche captures everything we love about British summer eating—fresh, light, and full of flavour. It’s a seasonal celebration in every bite and a great way to make the most of your garden or haul from the market or shop. 

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