Dreaming about an edible garden you can build yourself without breaking your back or the bank? Maybe you’re envisioning raised beds full of fresh vegetables and herbs, natural river-pebble pathways wide enough for the kids to run around on and a day bed stacked with oversize cushions? And don’t forget to add a chilled lemonade made fresh from the morning’s harvest. Dream no more, turn it into reality!
Here’s a pick of appetising herbs, fruit and veg to fill your bed…
1. Thyme is a perennial ground cover herb. Variegated forms, like this, provide a great foliage contrast among other herbs.

2. These mini chillies (Capsicum annuum) are pretty enough to decorate any sunny spot as well as adding spice to meals.

3. Sweet basil is an essential flavour for Italian cookery, and sensationally fragrant when picked fresh.

4. A delicate shrub with blue-grey leaves, curry plant (Helichrysum italicum) is wonderfully aromatic.

5. The sun-ripened sweetness of homegrown strawberries is best when eaten straight after picking.

6. Loose-leaf lettuces go from seed to baby leaves in five weeks. You can harvest your salad year-round.

7. The sweet and savoury flavours of sage make it an incredibly versatile culinary herb. It has a variety of medicinal uses, too.

8. Apple mint (Mentha suaveolens) is hardy, looks stunning and loves sun. The leaves make a wonderful tea when infused in water.

9. Chives, the delicate cousin of onion, garlic and leek, look and taste superb as a garnish. Just pick, wash and chop up with kitchen scissors.
