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Plenty of salad crops can grow outside in winter, if given a little protection. In early autumn, the soil is still warm enough to sow seeds direct, while plug plants or seedlings planted out will establish quickly.Choose hardy varieties of your favourite salad leaves, or experime...

You can never have enough lettuce in summer, but sowing directly into the soil takes up valuable space in the garden. Keep a regular supply growing by sowing seeds in lengths of plastic guttering: short, 1m lengths are convenient and easy to handle. Fill with moist multipurpose c...

Rocket is best sown between March and September but even late sowings can produce a good crop of spicy, peppery leaves for salads. Keep nipping off the rocket leaves and it will provide rich pickings for weeks, and ensure a continual supply by making successive sowings throughout...

Tomatoes are easy to grow from seed and should germinate within two weeks. Compact cherry varieties can be grown in pots and hanging baskets, while larger, cordon types are more suited to being raised in the ground or in growing bags. Tomato seedsSeed compostPlastic potsVermiculi...

The culprit is the flea beetle, which, like its namesake, jumps away when disturbed. The small, shiny, black, brown or blue beetles emerge in April and May, after winter hibernation, ready to start feeding. Eggs laid near host plants hatch in late-summer. The beetles feed for a f...

of beige or silvery trails appear and spread just below the upper surfaces of leaves.Pinch off infected leaves as soon as the first 'wiggling' trails are seen and dispose of them in the bin or burn them immediately.many shrubs, perennials, vegetables, fruit

now. They’re much more likely to germinate and grow successfully now that the soil’s warmer. It would have been a risk planting them a few weeks ago when it was still so cold.Some vegetable seeds can be sown directly outdoors now. I tend to sow only

Saving seed from your garden plants is easy to do and will provide you with plenty to sow next season. Leave a few seedheads on your plants after they've finished flowering, removing the rest to conserve the plant's energy. Alternatively the seedheads may be highly ornamental and...

with the biological control Steinernema carpcapse.With heavy infestations, use an insecticide based on pyrethrum (only use once a season on crops).brassicas and nasturtiumsearly spring to autumnCommon problems when growing vegetables

In spring and summer, pollen beetles fly in from nearby oilseed rape crops to gather in open flowers where they feed on ripe pollen. Mostly, the beetles do little harm although occasionally they may nibble into unopened flower buds and damage the developing flowers of cauliflower...