Veggies to enhance your Christmas meal

A few steamed new potatoes, a couple of baked baby gem or butternut squashes, a handful of sugared berries (raspberries and youngberries are delectably in fruit now) – that’s all it takes to add a Masterchef touch to your dinner table, with a few squash and nasturtium flowers as cheerful edible garnish.

If you have no outdoor growing space, drop by an accredited garden centre and gift yourself a windowsill pot (or few) of the obvious favourites like sage, rosemary, lavender, mint and thyme which can be grown and ready for snipping for your Christmas meal.

Sow seeds of short-season summer crops like spring onions and basil. Both will flourish in containers on a sunny balcony and they’ll grow even better if they’re all planted together in the same pot. The science of companion planting is a fascinating one to explore – learning how one type of veggie improves the flavour of another growing nearby, or helps attract beneficial insects (or ward off nuisances) to its different-species companions.

Water regularly to be sure your vegetables don’t suffer during hot and dry summer days. Spray deciduous fruit trees against fruit fly, and tomatoes and squash against leaf diseases such as blight and mildew if they’re a problem.

The best disease prevention is healthy plants – try liquid fertiliser and foliar sprays as instant pick-me-up feeding options, and irrigate early in the morning, avoiding splashing the leaves. Harvest runner beans regularly to encourage more to grow, and sow more every two weeks or so to ensure a continuous harvest through the summer.