Grow your own veg box

For the best flavours, grow successions of crops throughout the year that are suited to your seasonal conditions - and produce your own home-grown ‘veg box scheme’.

That’s the advice of Charles Dowding. Charles is an organic veg grower, author and garden writer specialising in edible crops.

Spring harvest
Summer harvest
Autumn harvest
Winter harvest

Long before supermarkets began shipping in food from around the globe, our forebears planned their crop succession to take advantage of the seasons, making maximum use of their growing space to provide food all year round. They could only harvest what grew well through the year, so their diet varied with their crops.

Times are different now. Vegetables from Kenya in winter, for example, come at the expense of thousands of air miles, and mean many of us have lost touch with the true tastes of the seasons. Crops are easier and quicker to grow at the time of year for which they evolved and were selected needing less nursemaiding; they are also more vigorous and usually more healthy.

And eating vegetables in season means a more interesting diet: careful planning means there are always different tastes to look forward to.

Some crops such as onions and garlic are ever-present because they store well. Others such as asparagus, runner beans and sweet peppers have defined periods of harvest and are fine seasonal markers.

Click on the links above for cultural tips and sowing times to help you work out what produce is realistic at different times of year to produce a veg box scheme to be proud of.

Visit Charles Dowding's website