April

'Golden Californian Wonder' is the widely adapted standard variety, a favorite with gardeners and widely used for commercial production. The plant does well in both cool and warm weather. It consistently produces large yields of blocky, four-lobed thick-walled fruit that is mild and sweet, tender and flavourful.

Incredibly sweet and beautiful, Sweet Pepper 'Golden Marconi’ have a wonderful taste and feature sweet skin, medium thick flesh and a mild and juicy flavour. The vigorous, productive plants produce long and slender fruits that are tapered to a blunt end. The fruits look elegantly beautiful on the plant.

Sweet Pepper ‘Marconi Red’ is an Italian bred variety. Maturing a little later than regular bell peppers, they produce much sweeter and tastier fruits. This variety is often used for roasting and frying but also tastes wonderful when eaten fresh. It grows very well in unheated greenhouses or in pots on a sunny patio.

Shiso ‘Aoshiso’ leaves make for exquisite decoration. It is finely sliced with ginger and added to salads, sautéed vegetables, sashimi, tempura and sushi. Available either red or green, the red having more of an anise flavour and slightly less spicy than the green variety, which tastes more like cinnamon.

Sometimes referred to as Perilla 'Britton' and called ‘Hojiso’ in Japan, this less typical form of Perilla has beautiful bi-coloured leaves. The serrated, red-veined leaves are green on top and deep purple-red underneath.

The Cape Gooseberry is a useful small crop for the home garden. The fruit is expensive to purchase as it is labour intensive in commercial plantings. Very easy to grow from seed, it can overwinter outdoors in mild areas or when grown in favoured positions such as the foot of a sunny wall.

Imagine, You’re reading the paper and suddenly your eye is drawn to a picture of this giant orange thing about the size of a truck with a guy half its size standing next to it grinning like a lunatic. “I’d like to grow one of those,” you think.

Baby Boo is a charming, all-white, miniature pumpkin that is popularly used for table arrangements for Weddings, or for Halloween and for Xmas. Children love them because of their miniature size and they make wonderful Halloween 'Ghosts'!

Pumpkin 'Gold Dust F1' produces beautiful dark orange, distinctively ribbed, Cinderella type pumpkins. A little earlier and more productive than other similar varieties. The plants grow a little more compactly and will do well even in colder regions. Direct sowing once the soil has warmed from the beginning of May to end of June.

Jack O' Lantern is a traditional pumpkin, especially bred for carving out Jack O'Lanterns for Halloween. A long established favourite, with medium orange colour and sweet flavoured flesh it makes a superb carving pumpkin and a tasty cooking pumpkin.

Rated the best miniature pumpkin ‘Munchkin’ has a bright tangerine-orange colour with deep sutures. Although it is tempting to grow them for their looks alone, they make fantastic eating. The pretty, small, abundant fruits have flesh that is reminiscent of sweet chestnut.

Looking exactly like fairy tale pumpkins in children’s storybooks, Musquée de Provence is a gorgeous French pumpkin that is one of the only pumpkins that is eaten raw. Sweet with a light crunch and typical nutty taste, the very fine-grained flesh is considered by many to be superior to any other.

If you have always wanted your very own pumpkin patch then Pumpkin 'Spooky' is a great place to start. It is quite simply, the most perfect all-purpose pumpkin - Bright orange, smooth-skinned and globe shaped. They are the perfect size for use in the kitchen and terrific for Halloween carving.

Pumpkin 'Wee-Bee-Little' is an award winning little pumpkin that is very endearing. Remarkably miniature and averaging 8 to 9cm in diameter, they are delicious and decorative, they are the perfect size for children to grow and for small hands to hold. 12 weeks to harvest, each plant producing an average of 9 fruits per plant

Summer Purslane was highly esteemed and cultivated in Europe as far back as the Middle Ages, but is now cultivated only for specialised connoisseurs.This wonderfully succulent and cooling herb has tangy leaves make a very nice contrast, in texture as well as taste to other salad leaves.

This highly esteemed ancient crop can be used raw in salads, sautéed as a side dish or cooked like spinach. Summer Purslane has a crispy texture you would expect from a succulent and an interesting nutty, peppery flavour. It is salty on the tongue.

This incredibly succulent, melt-in-your-mouth raw salad green has recently gained popularity in the gourmet greens world, attracting both world class growers and chefs. Best used fresh and tiny, these elegant leaves bring a rich, tart-creaminess to delicate, micro-green salads.

This attractive plant will be equally at home in the flower border or keeping company with the sage and thyme in your herb garden. Delightfully aromatic, the floral-peppermint scent is subtly different from other mints. Mountain mint is a great nectar plant, its honey is much sought after.

The Black Spanish radish is a unique variety with a inky black, thick skin that resembles that of a rhinoceros. But that craggy, tough exterior is what protects the tender, spicy, crisp, pure-white flesh. They are reliable, last forever in the garden and in storage, and are one of the easiest things you will ever grow.

The globe shaped roots of Radish ‘Cherry Belle’ have appealing bright red skins, smooth white flesh and a crisp, crunchy texture. This fast maturing variety is reliable and versatile, producing early crops of sweet and succulent, mildly flavoured radish.