Get your bearings

⬛ Map out the compass points on your plan and measure the amount of sun and shade each part of your plot receives over a day. Try to work out how this will change through the year too. Use this information to decide which crops to grow where.

⬛ Spring sun-traps are brilliant for early crops – in the warm, sheltered west corner of my plot I grow early summer cabbages, spinach, baby turnips and beetroots under glass tunnel cloches. My autumn-sown broad beans also go in this location, as do my first early potatoes.

⬛ Reserve the sunniest spots for sugar-packed fruits such as peaches, figs, gages and dessert grapes. If backed by a wall or fence, use these for training fans and espaliers.

⬛ South- or west-facing beds are perfect for long-season, heat-loving vegetables like tomatoes and chillies.

⬛ Shade isn’t a disadvantage in a kitchen garden – some crops thrive out of full sun. Leafy, hardy veg such as land cress and kale, plus tarter fruit like gooseberries, currants and cooking cherries, all enjoy the cool root-run that shade brings.