Has growing your own fruit and veg always been something you've meant to do? Especially with shop prices the way they are and the fact that you can't always find what you want at the greengrocers. If the answer is 'yes', then come on! Make this the year where you actually do something about it. The effort you put in at the start will be more than compensated for by the satisfaction that you gain from actually growing your own food, every bit as much as eating it.
Of course, you can always find a good excuse to avoid knuckling down: we haven't enough room; vegetables don't look very good (which isn't true); we don't really eat enough to make it worthwhile; I really haven't got the time... and so it goes on.
The thing is that if you start now - at the very beginning of the year when it is still quite early for most sowing and planting - you can take things steadily, at your own pace. You can work out where to put your vegetable patch, what to grow in it, and then make a start on preparing the ground, constructing beds and paths.
You haven't enough space? It's even easier to grow fruit and veg in containers on a patio, in a porch or even on a doorstep. Oh, you won't be self-sufficient, but until you have actually picked a fresh lettuce or a sun-ripened tomato and tasted it moments later, you haven't lived.
And don't imagine for one moment that vegetables will not look as attractive as flowers. Well grown - and even slotted into gaps in flowerbeds - they are good to look at, as well as good to eat. As long as you can bring yourself to harvest them...
Good-looking kitchen gardens
There’s something wonderfully beguiling about the term kitchen garden’; it’s so much more attractive-sounding than veg patch’, and more accurate, too, since you can add herbs, strawberries and raspberries, maybe a dwarf apple tree or two, and some gooseberry bushes.
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Travel Ideas For Garden Lovers
Looking for green-fingered holiday inspiration? The GW team share recent destinations for garden getaways
Your wildlife month
December is a time for reflection in the garden. What worked for wildlife in 2023 and what didn't? How could you do more? Looking at the bones of the garden now, is there space for more plants? Are your fences bare? Are there enough berries and hips? You have until March to plant bare-root trees and shrubs. What would look good? What would better serve wildlife?
The Full Monty
I can, and occasionally do, manufacture jobs in a kind of gung-ho, boy-scout spirit
Expert's choice
Smaller variegated ivies still pack a big punch all year round, says Graham Rice
YOUR PRUNING MONTH
Frances Tophill explains what to cut back now, including grapevines and hardy shrubs
Hardwood cuttings
It's the zero-fuss way to make free new shrubs - just follow our guide from Nick Bailey
Hassle-free harvests
While veg-plot activities slow down in winter, there is still plenty to do, from planting fruit trees, and harvesting sprouts and salads to taking stock of your growing year so you can plan next year's crops, says Jack Wallington
The happy house plant guide
In the first of a seven-part series, Jane Perrone shares expert advice on how to give your house plants the best start to a long and healthy life in your home
The science of soil
Healthy soil is teeming with life - Becky Searle delves below the surface to explore how this fascinating system works and how it can benefit our plants
'It's like another lung - like having oxygen on tap. It makes you breathe in a different way'
Helen Maxwell's garden in rural Carmarthenshire surrounds the house that her husband (who's an architect) designed.