Beetroot are so easy to grow, they mature quickly, and are such a sweet and rich vegetable. Not everyone loves it because it tickles their insides, but those that do should read on.

It seems you are rarely more than 100 yards form someone making their own cider around here. And you are rarely that far from an apple tree, and it is satisfying to use them rather than chuck them.

Sprouts are delicious eaten raw, crunchy and slightly hot in flavour. Over-boiling has damaged the reputation of sprouts, as they are difficult to get just right when cooking next to over a dozen other dishes on Christmas Day. Do them a favour and stir fry with bacon and chestnut this year.

Keeping your own hens is very easy, and eggs from a small flock at home always taste better than bought ones. There are a lot of books on the subject, so this article aims at answering a few common practical questions.

Do we need GM? You would say not if you had seen these uncomfortable and grossly fat pumpkins oozing over their pallet at the Giant Vegetable Show at the Bath & West showground in early September. 27 year old Mark Baggs from Wareham broke the record for the heaviest pumpkin by 552 lbs. Marshalls Seeds, show sponsors, had offered £1 per lb for the pumpkin that set a new show record. Mark wasn’t going to enter the show, but when he heard of Marshall’s offer, he got growing.

Every year we sow a modular tray of 40 basil plants in mid April in the greenhouse, plant the 30 biggest plants out in mid-May at 7” spacings, and take two huge harvests of leaves in July and late August to make about 20lbs of pesto for the freezer. Into the food processor go olive oil, home grown garlic, chopped mixed nuts, strong grated cheddar and salt and you should have about 20lbs of top quality pesto by the end of the summer. It goes in the freezer, or can be pasteurised. We find you do not need expensive pine nuts or Parmesan, just lots of good basil.

Sowing in August will maximise yields from your garden. Early August is a good time to plant turnips, wild rocket, chard and perpetual spinach, Little Gem lettuce, spring cabbage and oriental leaves. Day lengths are declining now, so timing is important. Your altitude and micro-climate have a bearing, and you are also gambling how warm the autumn will be. Generally the beginning of the month is best to sow.

As the summer draws to a close, bare earth begins to appear in the vegetable garden, and we are always keen to keep as much of it as possible green with growth.

Apart from garlic, over-wintering onions and broad beans, which you plant in October, you may like to take a chance on growing some winter salads outdoors. Many are best sown in August, but if the weather is mild, here are some crops to try:

Good watering is a precise art and one worth mastering, as the right amount of water makes a big difference to crop growth.  Above all, avoid over-watering, especially on germinating seeds and seedlings. Factors to consider are: how warm is it, what is your soil, and what plant are you watering?

It’s a good year for greenfly, blackfly and aphids.  The real answer is to grow strong, healthy plants, and encourage as many natural predators as possible. We’ll look at why spraying works against you in the long run.

Whatever time of year you go to a restaurant, there seem to be French beans on the plate somewhere. To me they taste best fresh from the plant, full of natural sugars and minerals.

French beans like it warm and moist, the soil really has to be at full summer heat for them to flourish. Planting in late May or early June is best, as they grow away strongly and shrug off the slugs. Planting earlier than this so often ends in disappointment.