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and other crops to keep them growing stronglyStop cutting asparagus by the end of June to allow the ferns to formThin out heavy gooseberry crops by removing the smallest fruits, and use these for cookingMake successional sowings of salad leaves and radishes

Shorten sideshoots growing from the framework of espalier, fan and cordon-trained fruit trees back to about five leaves from their basePick fresh herbs for dryingPick gooseberries, currants, strawberries and other fruits as they ripenSupport heavily

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

to growing salad leaves from seed.Growing rocket from seed.Planting out lettuce.Planting tomatoes in a grow bag.

Growing herbs from seed discs is a simple alternative for anyone who struggles with sowing small herb and salad seeds. These are filled with seeds for herbs such as basil, chives and parsley, or salads such as mixed leaves, mesclun or rocket

platter of sandwiches. We both agreed that we felt a craving for greenery at this time of year.It might be too cold to grow your own salad leaves in the garden right now, but I'm tucking into lettuce, baby spinach, rocket leaves and a whole lot more

What a lovely spring to be growing things. The weather has been pretty near perfect — lots of sunshine and some lovely soft, steady rain to get it all germinating and growing well. Perhaps we've had a bit too much wind, and the temperatures at night

Not everything in my garden is carefully planned, and I make no excuses for having it this way. It's a wise gardener that makes room for the unexpected, and the rewards this can bring. Leave an area of soil bare and something will grow, and while

planted some miniature daffodil bulbs in large pots, and finally, sowed some rocket (I couldn't resist growing some more, even if it does grow rather slowly from such a late sowing).So, not a bad day’s work: I sowed some lunch ingredients for the family

I hope I’m not getting impatient in my advancing years. When the latest seed catalogues arrived I was determined to find out which were the quickest-growing salad crops.Gardening isn’t the best pursuit for anyone seeking instant gratification, and I