Crops
Vegetables, grains, and herbs — sowing, spacing, feeding, harvest, and storage for each one.
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№ 021Brassicas: One Species, Six Vegetables
Cabbage, kale, broccoli, cauliflower, sprouts and kohlrabi are the same plant bred for different organs — plus clubroot and the caterpillar problem.
№ 024Carrots: Stones, Forks, and the Carrot Fly
Why carrots fork, why they must be direct-sown, and the barrier that beats carrot fly without a single spray.
№ 042Culinary Herbs: The Highest Return Per Square Metre
Mediterranean herbs want poverty and drought, soft herbs want richness and water — get that split right and the rest follows.
№ 071Garlic: Plant in Autumn, Harvest in Summer
Hardneck against softneck, why garlic needs a cold spell to split into cloves, and the scapes worth cutting.
№ 123Onions: Day Length Decides the Bulb
Why an onion variety from the wrong latitude will never bulb, sets against seed, and the curing that separates a keeper from a rotter.
№ 128Peas and Beans: The Crops That Pay Rent
Legumes that fix their own nitrogen, why you cut the tops and leave the roots, and the difference between broad, French, and runner beans.
№ 130Peppers and Chillies: One Species, Every Heat Level
The five domesticated Capsicum species, why heat is a defence against mammals, and the warmth these plants need to set fruit at all.
№ 140Potatoes: Earlies, Maincrop, and Why You Earth Them Up
Seed tubers over supermarket spuds, what chitting actually buys you, and the blight timing that decides whether you get a maincrop.
№ 157Salad Leaves: Cut and Come Again
Lettuce, rocket, mustards and chicory grown for continuous picking — bolting, bitterness, and how to keep leaves coming all year.
№ 177Squash and Courgettes: Separate Flowers, Huge Appetite
Male and female flowers on the same plant, why fruit rots at the tip, and the difference between a summer squash and a keeper.
№ 186Sweetcorn: Plant in a Block, Not a Row
Wind-pollinated maize needs a block to fill its cobs, why sugar turns to starch within hours, and the varieties that must not cross.
№ 191Tomatoes: Determinate, Indeterminate, and the Blight Clock
Choosing between bush and cordon types, why blossom end rot is a watering fault, and how to stay ahead of late blight.