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Tips and jobs

Pinch out tomato sideshoots
Your toms will be heading for the sky by now - but don't let them get too big and beefy or they'll spend all their energy producing green growth instead of tomatoes. Snap off sideshoots (those little sprigs which emerge between leaves and the main stem) every few weeks to get your plants to concentrate on producing fruit instead.

Sow little and often
Fast-growing crops like carrots and salads are in and out of the ground in a couple of months - so if you sow lots at once you can end up with a glut, followed by an irritating wait for the next crop. Half a row sown every three to four weeks gives you a steady supply of leaves that are just reaching perfection all season long.

Protect your crops
Veg growers have a love-hate relationship with the local birdlife. They eat all your aphids - but they'll scoff your blackcurrants, strawberries and brassicas while they're there. Keep them off kindly but firmly with a netting cloche or frame over your crop: check regularly in case an over-enthusiastic bird gets trapped inside.

Top tips

Find out if new potatoes are ready by burrowing gently with your fingers into the earthed-up soil alongside. If you find a spud about the size of a small hen's egg they're ready - if not, give them another week.

Get an early crop from your beetroot by picking a few leaves from each plant while you're waiting for the roots to develop. Eat just like spinach: they have a fabulous rich flavour and the purple veins look great on the plate too.

Sweet potatoes need it hot, hot, hot, so cover the ground with warming black polythene before planting out and grow them under a cloche all season. If the summer's good you can lift tubers from late August.

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