Start sowing in March

• How to grow cornflowers

I don’t dare sow lettuce seeds direct into the soil – the slugs would raze them to the ground the moment they poked their heads out. So instead, I start my lettuces under cover, scattering seed over trays of compost to prick out in a week or so’s time: I’ll plant them outside next month once they’re sturdy youngsters large enough to shrug off slug attacks with ease.

• How to grow lettuce

Last year I discovered cluster sowing – and now it’s the only way I sow beetroot. I fill newspaper modules with peat-free multipurpose compost, then sow a pinch of three or four seeds into each. You plant them outside just as they are, in a clump, spacing each clump about 10cm apart. The beetroots simply push each other apart as they grow: you just harvest the largest and let the rest grow on, so you’re picking from the same row for weeks at a time.

• How to grow beetroot

Well, you can call them nigella, but the common name is far more romantic and I think better describes these pretty, starry flowers, each cushioned on a cloud of ferny, filigree foliage. That’s not all: the flowers are followed by long-lasting balloon-like seed pods each crowned rather dramatically with horns. Sow love-in-a-mist direct, as they don’t like being transplanted – after that, though, you’ll never be without them as they self-seed charmingly, popping up in unexpected corners for years to come.

• How to grow love-in-a-mist