Get growing edibles in winter

More fruit and veg advice:

• Your winter fruit and veg jobs
• Five favourite winter vegetables
• How to winter prune apple and pear trees

Winter fruit and veg inspiration

Harvest brassicas

With their rich flavours and robust growth, hardy brassicas are the backbone of the winter plot. Make sure you are the sole recipient of their harvests by netting them against marauding wood pigeons. Crinkly-leaved ‘Traviata’ is my benchmark Savoy cabbage, and I’m never without cauliflower ‘Triomphant’ and kale ‘Nero Di Toscana’. Remember, as well, to eat Brussels sprout tops as an appetiser before the individual buttons swell. I promise they are utterly delicious.

• 10 of the best winter crops

Plant fruit trees

Planting something in your garden that delivers harvests for years to come is an incredibly exciting prospect. Nurseries can help you select the best varieties and rootstocks for your location and needs – and a sheltered, sunny position will encourage abundant and well ripened fruits. As you sink your spade into the earth to prepare the soil, just think of baskets brimming with apples, pears, cherries and gages – I find it an excellent motivator!

• How to plant a bare-root fruit tree

Crops in store

Well stocked winter stores hold the key to generous home-grown recipes during these otherwise leaner months. Whether you hoard root crops such as beetroot, carrots or celeriac in boxes of sand, potatoes in sacks or onions in ropes, do keep regularly dipping into these stashes, not only for the kitchen but also to check for rots and rodents.

• How to store carrots
• How to store onions

The winter greenhouse

While it’s tempting to use your greenhouse to store barbecues, bikes and garden furniture for the winter, think of it instead as a huge cloche for many delicious winter vegetables. Hardy crops like rocket, coriander, radicchio, mustard, chard and kale – plus many more – will thrive if planted as plugs. They just need a little warmth at their roots. I find my heat mats provide this easily, and so I’ll be enjoying leafy harvests all winter long as a result.

• How to keep the heat in a winter greenhouse

BBC Gardeners' World Magazine subscribers save 10% all year round on garden shopping*

As part of your subscription, you can enjoy a 10 per cent saving on your shopping from more than 25 carefully chosen online partners. 

Browse the full list of suppliers where you can save money, and get your discount codes.

*Excludes delivery and some products, not valid with any other offer.