UNDER COVER

Trugs filed with summer harvests including courgettes, aubergines, tomatoes and cucumbers bring delicious fresh flavours into the kitchen.

- 

Annual herbs such as dill, coriander, chervil and basil complement these crops beautifully but frustratingly can go to seed when the weather warms up.

The key to having plenty of fresh herbs to go with your bountiful harvests is to successional sow. Dill, coriander and chervil bolt - go to flower - quickly during the summer. To ensure that there are enough tasty leaves to enhance meals and preserves sow seeds in rows in the ground, or in pots under cover, to pick at around 10-15cm (4-6in) high, rather than growing on as plants (which will bolt). Towards the end of August start sowing to grow as plants again. Unless the weather is very hot and dry their desire to flower is reduced as autumn approaches and seeds sown in September can crop right through the winter.

Keep basil plants producing by removing flower heads. These are edible — add to salads and salad dressings. Sow more seeds to grow on as plants now for harvests right through until the frosts.

CONTROL RED SPIDER MITES