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and cooking crops. Do let us know in the comments section of this blog if there are any harvesting tips you'd like us to cover.Finally, do join me and a host of other experts on the ‘Grow Your Own’ Garden at BBC Gardeners' World Live (15-19 June 2011) for more

themselves.When Kevin Smith asked our theatre audiences at Gardeners' World Live whether they used edible flowers in their cooking, very few people responded. What a missed opportunity.The flowers of chives and many herbs are edible, including rocket

and climbing beans to flower and set seed. Several herbs readily do this too, like coriander and parsley. As the picture (top left) shows, flowering coriander attracts many beneficial insects, like hoverflies, which feed on its pollen.In fact coriander often

settle down by the Christmas tree, and while the kids enjoy the repeats on television I can get down to the serious business of writing my seed orders for 2008. And what a year it's going to be if the seed catalogues are to be believed.Many seed companies

't regret your decision to grow your own fruit, veg and herbs.

on Friday 18 June 2010 at 3pm, repeated on Sunday 20 June at 2.00, so do tune in.And, of course, Gardeners' World is being filmed at the show for broadcast on Friday evening on BBC Two.We're looking for this year's Star Plant at the show, but can't do

) – and produced a value for every crop. The main factors she considered were:1.  The length of time a crop is in the ground before being harvested.2.  The number of helpings you'd pick per square metre.Crops that grew quickly and produced high yields received a

worthwhile. A short row of raspberries just 1.2m long has produced several pickings, used to add tasty home-grown vitamins to my morning bowl of cereal. Blackberries are now taking over, and I'd thoroughly recommend thornless varieties to give regular