Sow it now

If your spring pickings have been on the lean side, put that right for future years by planting a new asparagus bed with one-year-old bare-root crowns. Sow slow-maturing purple-sprouting broccoli now too, alongside Brussels sprouts, kale and cabbages.

With frosts receding, the brakes are also off for sowing absolutely everything else. You can sow carrots, parsnips, leeks, onions and beetroot direct, but raise slug-caviar crops like lettuces, courgettes and beans in pots and keep them safely under cover.

Seedlings grow so fast from sowings made in April and May that they often overtake those sown earlier anyway. So if you’re quick, it’s still worth starting tomatoes, cucumbers and chillies. Even with a late start, sowing from seed is cheaper and greener than buying ready-grown plug plants, which are often treated with pesticides and raised in peat-based compost (although you can side-step this by buying from organic, peat-free mail-order suppliers).