Frost-hating vegetables can now be sown

As June begins and temperatures rise, gardening enthusiasts can sow all their vegetables that dislike the frost, sector commentator Anna Pavord explained in recent days.

Writing in the online pages of the Independent, she suggested that produce such as French beans and sweetcorn can now safely be set into the garden.

"There is at least a fighting chance that we wont have snow in June," she added

Ms Pavord recommends keeping an eye on blackfly aiming for broad beans and checking gooseberry bushes for clusters of aphids, adding that the latter will cause the new shoots to appear wrinkled and diseased.

She notes that birds and ladybirds will be able to deal with such pests.

Concluding, Ms Pavord suggests that biennials such as poxgloves, forget-me-nots and sweet William can also be sown at this stage in the horticultural year.

The Royal Horticultural Society notes that some natural enemies of aphids, such as hoverfly larvae and parasitic wasps are available for biological control for plants in glasshouses.