Start sowing in April

More seed sowing advice:

• Your April seed sowing jobs
• April seed sowing with Monty

April seed sowing inspiration

Plants featured in this video

You probably already grow courgettes – but there are loads of other summer squashes to explore, all prolifically generous and harvested super-young. Among my favourites are 'Sunburst' patty pan squashes, which make flattened circular fruits with scalloped edges, like brilliant yellow flying saucers. Look out for crookneck squash too, with fruits like wonky skittles and a great flavour.

• Types of squash

You can’t grow too many French beans in my book: I could eat them every day in summer, picked fresh, slender and sweet straight from the plant. They freeze really well too, which is another excuse for planting twice as many as I should! My go-to for standard green beans is the prolific variety 'Cobra', but I can’t resist a few wigwams of purple 'Cosse Violette' too, for their pretty mauve flowers followed by delicious deep purple beans.

• How to grow French beans

Scatter annual opium poppy seeds now onto patches of damp earth and you can look forward to a breathtaking display of beauty not just this summer, but every summer afterwards too: they self-seed charmingly into every corner, coming back in different shades and combinations each season – poppies are never boring. Everything about these flowers is a little miracle, from the exquisitely sculpted centre surrounded by its ruff of stamens to the delicate, papery petals: I wouldn’t be without them.

• Six of the best poppies to grow

Annual rudbeckias are a bit of a gardener’s secret – not as well known as more widely-grown summer flowers like cosmos, but just as easy and reliable – it’s one of the longest-flowering annuals I know. I keep the shorter dwarf varieties for containers – in the flower borders I go for lovely, tall willowy varieties like 'Cherokee Sunset' with its variable flowers – some double, some single - in shades of cinnamon and turmeric; or the beautifully subtle 'Irish Eyes' with pale green centres and long, elegant golden petals.

• Best rudbeckias to grow