Nothing beats the taste of fresh sweetcorn, so if you have space in your garden it is well worth growing your own. And you need no longer endure chewy, starchy cobs; modern varieties are sweet and tender. You do not need a huge vegetable plot – a group of nine plants per square metre should [...]

Shallots have been grown for almost as long as onions. They were originally named seditions after Ascalon (Ashqelon) in Israel, the place from where the Greeks thought the vegetable originated, but shallots probably originally came from Central Asia.
Shallots are widely used in cooking, especially in France, where small onions are preferred. Although they lack the [...]

Although lettuces, perhaps supplemented by leaves such as endives and chicory, provide the traditional greenery for most salads, there is an increasing number of small leaves that play their part. Some are available during the winter months, when lettuce from the garden may be scarce, and as well as adding bulb, each adds an individual [...]

If you have a vegetable plot, you can grow the whole range of potato types, including maincrops to store through the winter.
Trenching and adding well-rotted organic matter will help to retain moisture on light soil. Take out a trench about 25cm deep and 30cm wide, piling the soil to one side. Add a generous layer [...]

You do not need an allotment to grow potatoes. All you need is a decent-sized container (at least ten litres) to grow a crop of tasty new potatoes in the smallest garden. You can even grow several container crops throughout the year, including, if you so wish, new potatoes for Christmas dinner.
HOW TO START SEED [...]

If you are successful with tomatoes, try growing peppers, too. You can grow different shapes and colors of sweet pepper, and also try one of the hundreds of varieties of hot chilli peppers – used to add heat to curries and other exotic dishes.
Both sweet peppers and chillies can be trained easily into neat, bushy [...]

Fresh garden peas are a treat compared to the ubiquitous frozen type. Do not be put off by the thought of having to shell them – you can eat mangetout and snap peas pod and all. Since peas manufacture their own nitrogen fertilizer from the air through the nodules on their roots, they need no [...]

Parsnips were developed in Europe from the widespread wild parsnip. It is possible that the Greeks and Romans cultivated them, but there is confusion over whether they were referring to parsnips or carrots in their writings. However, parsnips were certainly being eaten in Europe in the Middle Ages, although they subsequently went into something of [...]

Onions are one of the oldest vegetables. They were grown by the Ancient Egyptians over 5,000 years ago and were probably eaten long before that. Their actual origins are not known, but they probably first grew in the mountainous regions of Central Asia. As well as adding flavour to food, they have long been known [...]

Although marrows (zucchini), pumpkins and squashes are essentially the same plant, they are dealt with separately because they are usually considered differently in the garden and kitchen. First, it is important to consider the difference between marrows and courgettes (zucchini). In fact, there is no real difference: courgettes are an immature form of marrow, and, [...]