WHAT’S GOOD TO GROW NOW

blackfly and greenfly and pick off caterpillars by hand.

Cover brassica and carrot plants with fine woven mesh to screen out cabbage root fly, cabbage white butterflies and carrot fly. Grow diseaseresistant varieties whenever you can – try ‘Fly Away’ and ‘Resistafly’ carrots, ‘Toledo’ leeks and ‘Tarmino’ or ‘Defender’ courgettes. Gather crops little and often, without waiting for a new row to be ready, or some will go to waste.

Protect very early or late crops with a row of cloches or use the economical modern equivalent – cover them with sheets of horticultural fleece (from garden centres).

Your aim is to make the best use of your space to produce a good range of crops you can eat all year round, without ending up with a glut. Some crops are sown or planted early in spring but have been harvested by midsummer, so then you can re-use the space for something else.

For example in mild March weather outside you can sow parsnips, lettuces, early varieties of carrots, shelling peas and beetroots, spring onions, leeks, brussels sprouts and parsnips. Undercover

(for example, in a greenhouse) you can also sow turnips, spinach, globe artichokes, mangetout peas and summer-sprouting broccoli.

The best advice is to make a planting plan with what you intend to plant in spring, roughly how long the crops will occupy the ground, and what you’ll then follow them with. My book, The Kitchen Gardener: Grow Your Own Fruit and Veg (see page 32) has information on planting and harvesting times for fruit and veg, and you’ll also find details on the backs of seed packets and catalogues. It may sound complicated, but you can fine-tune your masterplan year after year, and it gets easier the more you do it, honest!

Runner beans, tomatoes and courgettes are so productive you can grow worthwhile crops in a few tubs on the patio, and they are so good looking that if you didn’t know better, you’d think they were chunky bedding plants.

★ In one growing bag, you’ll fit 12 runner bean plants or two bush courgettes or three outdoor tomatoes. After planting, water them in well, and after four weeks feed with liquid tomato feed every two weeks. Once the plants fill the bag fairly well, you’ll need to increase watering and up the feeding to once a week.

★ Support tomato and bean plants with growing bag frames

or tie them to a trellis – don’t poke canes in, as they go through the bottom of the bag and make it leak.

★ For tubs, use 30cm-38cm pots filled with a 50/50 mixture of John Innes No 2 and peat-free potting compost. Plant one tomato or courgette, or five runner beans. Feed and water as before, but use canes, sticks or decorative obelisks for support.