Imagine your garden being full of fresh vegetables all year round.  The secret? A continuous planting plan, good crop rotation and effective plant combinations. The never-ending veg plot is a concept you can apply anywhere, whether you’re growing in a raised bed, a traditional vegetable patch or a balcony garden.

Once we’ve got past the ‘Ice Saints’ – the cluster of saints’ days that comes in mid-May – it’s the time of year many gardeners have been longing for – when tomatoes, cucumbers and sweet peppers can finally go outdoors! These warmth-loving plants can only really be happy when the danger of night frosts is over and soil temperatures have become pleasantly warm. For them to thrive and crop abundantly you just need to bear a few things in mind.

In old weather lore, and especially in continental Europe, mid-May brings a key annual landmark for gardeners known as the ‘Ice Saints’. This is the time, so it’s said, when you might see the last cold snap in spring – and after which even your tender plants can finally go outdoors. It’s when the long winter wait finally comes to an end! 

When it comes to home-grown fresh salad greens for winter, lamb’s lettuce is what instantly springs to mind for most people. But that’s just one of a huge range of options. Here’s a quick tour of the salad varieties you could choose and how to grow them successfully outdoors without any heating – so that you can feast on your own home-grown fresh green salad all winter long.

Growing winter vegetables may sound like a modern idea but it’s actually a centuries-old practice that fell into neglect in recent decades.