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I'm beginning to wonder whether growing old heirloom or heritage varieties of vegetables is really worthwhile. My tomato 'Snow White Cherry', sold as a heritage variety by many companies, was a real disappointment this year, and I wish I'd grown

, never a fan of vegetables, chose Tomato 'Ailsa Craig' as "unbeaten for flavour, perfect for growing in an unheated greenhouse".The list goes on, and with 100 tempting crops my seed and plant order has now grown to such an extent that I'm going to need

surnames are as follows:1 Bean (8224)2 Pepper (4919)3 Leek (3118)4 Onions (2843)5 Garlic (59)6 Swede (40)7 Pea (37)8 Sprout (21)9 Broccoli (17)10 Zucchini (17)

to encourage good cross-pollination between plants, each plant needs space to grow. This year each plant is at least 30-45cm (12-18in) from its neighbours, which should be enough.I'm trying a few varieties this year, including 'Swift', which is described as "an

The health benefits of eating fresh fruit and vegetables are well documented, and our shopping baskets increasingly reflect our desire to eat a healthy diet. Food labels reiterate the '5-a-day' mantra, and influence our shopping choices

Growing fruit and vegetables seems to have really caught the public imagination. I do hope this isn't just a fad and really becomes a practical, viable and rewarding way of life for millions of new gardeners.That's one reason why we have launched

of the garden under piles of sticks and vegetation. They are unlikely to do any damage to healthy plants, but have clearly made a home in the soft centre of this plum tree. It's often said that plants flower well under some stress, and despite the obvious signs

produces quite a bag of potato and vegetable peelings, and wrapped in newspaper these can feed my compost heap.Yes, newspaper can be composted, and so can plain cardboard including corrugated boxes, tubes from toilet and kitchen paper rolls as well as egg

.All this has got me thinking about a lovely system of categorising vegetables coined by Joy Larkcom in one of her books on growing salad. She gave every crop a Value For Space rating, or VSR ... but I think this is a topic for another time.I wonder which crops

tribute edition of Gardeners' Question Time is being broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Friday 15 January 2010, repeated on Sunday 17 January.Our thoughts and prayers go out to John's wife Wilma and all his family and friends.