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show recently, and 80% of the questions people asked me were about their poorly raspberries. I only grow autumn-fruiting varieties at home, which normally avoid attentions of raspberry beetle, but the early berries have been affected. So I wasn’t too

This is the time of year when I go tomato crazy. Suddenly I've gone from eating relatively few tomatoes to buying punnet loads from the shops. There is no doubt that if you go for the British Grown logo on the front of the pack they taste 100

plummets at about 6pm. So yes, the fleece is draped all over the place in the veg plots. A bit of snugly-protection for my sweet potatoes (I'm growing Bearegard and Jetfire this year, it'll be interesting to see how they fare!) and some vital, please-grow

the flower spreads back into the young courgette. Although there is little you can do about the weather, it is well worth checking courgettes and marrows daily. As soon as the fruit is formed, I pick off the flower, ideally before the petals get a chance

brilliantly, producing the biggest fruits yet, but as soon as they approached ripeness, the wasps attacked. As a result I picked them a little earlier than I would have liked. We ate many of the peaches while they were still hard, before they too were spoiled

I’ve just been outside picking strawberries. Despite the colder nights my plants are still fruiting away and I hope they’ll have enough energy left to fruit again at the right time next year.None of the fruits have been damaged by birds – perhaps

any more spores about than absolutely necessary) I confined each plant to the bin bag.The stems had gone from sturdy bright green to fuzzy and fungal within the space of 48 hours. Tomorrow I will pick all the tomatoes, aubergines and peppers

tomatoes now feel icy to the touch when picked, but the plants are soldiering on. In previous years I have laid down my remaining outdoor tomato plants on a bed of straw, and covered them with a long cloche or a few layers of fleece. I like to ensure