Plan your crop rotation

Plan your crop rotation for this year, working out where you'll be growing what in the vegetable garden and at the same time avoiding the worst of the pests and diseases.

If you grow the same thing in the same place year after year colonies of pests simply increase from one season to the next, feeding on each successive generation until they reach plague proportions. Group the same types of veg together (legumes, for example, or brassicas) and then move them around the plot to interrupt the cycle, keeping all those nasties at bay.

Sit down now with a pencil and sketch what you grew where this year while it's all fresh in your mind. Then move each group of crops around clockwise by one bed, and draw a new plan for the coming season, keeping your veg in three rough groups with their own sets of pests and diseases: roots, brassicas and legumes, plus a fourth group for veg like courgettes or chard which go anywhere.

Hang up your masterplan in the potting shed and you'll always know where to plant and sow, getting your veg-growing year off on the right foot from the start.