If space is limited but you want to try growing some veg you don’t need to put aside a whole area of your garden.

You ideally want crops which take up little space and produce a large amount over a long season.

Unlike cabbage, for example, that average around 70 days to grow and take up a metre square to produce one head alone, courgettes can be planted in grow bags rewarding you with at least three to four courgettes a week.

Containers are a great start, planted up with herbs, salad leaves, spring onions, radishes or baby beets. This will get you off the ground and running.

Planting too much, too quick and not being able to manage it is just going to put you off. By growing in containers also you can place them just a few paces from the kitchen from where you will be able to keep an eye on their daily progress, keep them watered easily and harvest them fresh.

If room allows, go as big as possible to help with watering, smaller containers dry out too quickly.

Raised beds would be the next step on from containers, a great way of lifting plants towards the light and away from slugs and snails. High-sided raised beds will also help if you have a bad back with not so far to bend down and no need to double dig!

Within flowerbeds: lots of veg plants look nice so you could incorporate some in your existing flowerbeds?

French beans have pretty flowers and can grow to 1.5 metres wrapping around something tall you already have planted there.

The frilly foliage of carrots or the yellow blooms of courgettes would make a pretty tasty addition to your flowerbeds.

Hanging baskets: vertical space if worth considering, free up ground space by planting up some hanging baskets with tumbling tomatoes, strawberries or peas.

What to plant: think about what you and your family eat? There is no point growing 20 different types of veg if no one is going to eat them!

Light limitation could also affect the choice of what you grow;

putting your tomatoes in the shade you will be wasting your time. Most leafy crops will be fine with three or four hours of sunlight a day.

This includes lettuce, rocket, cut and come again salad, pak choi, stir fry greens, mint, parsley, coriander & chives. Five to six hours sunlight are needed for peas, beans and root crops with tomatoes, courgettes, squash, strawberries and peppers requiring at least six hours of sunlight.