Chillies & Peppers

Cool-season crops like peas, broad beans, lettuce, and carrots can be sown from March in most of the UK — as soon as the soil crumbles nicely between your fingers. Tender crops like tomatoes, chillies, courgettes, and French beans need warmth, so start them indoors from late February to April, and only plant out once the last frost has passed in mid to late May.

For a confidence-building first season, try lettuce (any variety), radishes, courgettes, runner beans, beetroot, and chard. They germinate readily, grow quickly, and forgive minor mistakes. Tomatoes are also rewarding but need slightly more attention with watering and feeding once they start fruiting.

Many vegetables do brilliantly in containers — dwarf varieties of tomatoes, peppers, courgettes (bush types), lettuce, salad leaves, radishes, and herbs all thrive in pots. Use the largest containers you can fit (at least 30cm wide for fruiting crops), good multipurpose compost, and water consistently. The main limiting factor is depth for root crops like carrots and parsnips, which need at least 30cm of soil.

Each packet gives a rough days-to-harvest figure, but the real signs are visual and practical. Beetroot and radishes are ready when their shoulders show above the soil. Lettuce can be cut as cut-and-come-again from a young age. Tomatoes are ready when they reach full colour and feel slightly soft. Beans and peas are best picked young and often — the more you pick, the more they produce.