June

Courgette Ambassador F1 is an attractive variety and an outstanding hybrid that gives attractive dark green courgettes over a long period. A popular professionally-grown variety and well known for the home gardener, it is an early fruiting, high yielding courgette which matures in fifty days.

Courgette 'F1 Gold Rush' is an extremely beautiful variety with smooth, thin yellow skins and crisp flesh. It is an early, rich cropping courgette with tender flesh and an abundance of bright yellow fruits. The compact plants yield prolifically and are ideal for smaller gardens or pots.

The Genovese courgette is a popular early variety that is very productive. It produces beautiful, light green cylindrical fruits speckled with grey, with a smooth skin and has an excellent flavour. The plants have an open bush habit which is helpful when harvesting. Sow April until July, harvest June onwards.

Courgette 'Tondo di Piacenza' produces spherical, dark green glossy fruits with a firm texture and good flavour. This versatile variety can be cropped at different sizes depending on your preferred recipe. Harvest at golf ball size for eating whole in salads, or slightly larger for slicing into stir fries.

Watercress has risen to a starring role in elaborate culinary preparations and is as beneficial for the health as much as the palate. This highly nutritious aquatic herb has a lovely mustardy bite most commonly served raw as a garnish or as part of a salad.

For centuries, Samphire was food for the poor, free to those who picked it, usually ordinary people living by the sea. It is ironic that today it is regarded as a specialty food and is often served with an accompanying price tag. Somewhere between asparagus and seaweed in flavour, Rock Samphire has the thrill of a mermaid’s kiss.

Akito F1 is a popular all female variety of ridge-cucumber which gives high yields of slender bitter-free fruits. Mildew resistant and suitable for growing outdoors or under-cover, it is an excellent choice for those who want the superior taste of a ridge-cucumber but the vigour of a modern hybrid.

F1 Burpless Tasty Green: According to most experts, this is the one to choose. The fruits are not giants, harvest when they are about 23cm long and enjoy the crisp, juicy flesh from which both bitterness and indigestibility have been eradicated. Very easy to grow.

Cucumber 'F1 Iznik' is a terrific and very popular cocktail cucumber, 12 to 14cm in length. It is seedless, spineless, thin-skinned, smooth, dark green, crisp and perfect for fresh snacking. A parthenocarpic variety with compact growth, suitable for container and greenhouse production as well as open-field.

Lemon Cucumbers are a very old variety cultivated since in 1894. Each fruit is the size of a small apple, hence it was known as 'Apple Cucumber', but as its fruit is a pale yellow in colour it is often called 'Crystal Lemon'. Very similar to a typical cucumber, with tender pale greenish skin and sweet flesh.

The original Marketmore was released in 1968, it is now firmly established as one of the 'Greats' in the cucumber world, very reliable and disease resistant it produces a large amount of fruit which usually grow to over 20cm in length Perfect for salads and with fresh, crisp and mild flavour.

Cucumber ‘Telegraph Improved’ is an improved strain of this superb heirloom variety. It is an excellent choice for cool greenhouse or cold frame growing. This reliable variety gives medium-long dark, smooth-skinned fruits with a excellent mild flavour.

Cucumber, 'Parisian Pickling' is the ideal cucumber for use in pickling and for eating fresh in salads. The fruits can be harvested while small and young at around 50 days for pickles or left to mature to 67 days for slicing cucumbers. Suitable for indoor and outdoor sowing and ideal for container growing.

'Cornet de Bordeaux' is a very fine old French variety of endive that produces looser, wavier interior foliage that flares into a veritable cornet. The thick, buttery yellow leaves are very succulent and delicious, they have that special thick crunch of Italian endives, but with a sweeter flavour.