The Occasional Gardener: If you want to be sure the veg you eat are pure, why not grow your own? Here's how

How good is that carrot? Will it really help you to see in the dark? And how much iron is in that broccoli and cabbage?

Although many of us try to eat the recommended five fruit and veg a day, recent reports suggest that the vegetables we buy aren't doing us much good at all - and might even be doing us harm.

Thanks to modern farming methods, the vegetables our parents ate contained far more nutrients than those we eat today and a recent report on breastfeeding showed that the mother who ate the most veg had the highest levels of toxins in her milk.

One solution is to buy organic veg - because these are grown in healthy soil which is packed with minerals and trace elements - and another is to grow your own.

I'm not suggesting we all dig up our lawns and plant rows of spuds and cabbages but it's easy to incorporate fruit, veg and herbs into your existing garden.

What about edging the flower border with frilly red lettuce or alpine strawberries, planting tomatoes in a hanging basket, popping herbs into a tub by the back door or mixing mangetout with the sweet peas?

There are two schools of thought on green-grocery gardening: traditionalists grow what they like to eat while the avant-garde prefer unusual varieties which are either impossible to buy or extremely expensive.

At the risk of sounding like a show-off, I'm looking forward to the reaction of dinner guests when they see my tomato salad made up of eight different varieties - including the yellow-and-green striped Green Grape, the red-and-yellow striped Tigerella and the Yellow Pear toms.

I've gone a bit over the top this year and am eagerly awaiting my first butternut squash, green aubergine, yellow courgette, purple French beans, black sweetcorn, wild rocket and round carrots.

All these seeds were sown in my walk-in polytunnel in early April and are doing well.

So far, they've avoided becoming a slug snack because - after seeing all my seedlings eaten two years ago - I put the seed trays on tables and surrounded the legs with salt (which satisfyingly turns the buggers into slime).

May isn't too late to start growing vegetables and - according to my bible, Kitchen Garden magazine - many seeds sown now will catch up with earlier sowings. Since my slug attack - and because seeds tend to rot in my rather sticky wet soil - I sow everything into seed trays before transplanting into the garden in June when the baby plants are strong enough to withstand some munching and the soil has dried out a bit.

If you have drier, sandy soil then you can sow direct into the earth - when the seedlings poke their heads above ground, cover them with one-litre plastic bottles with the bottom cut off. It doesn't look pretty, but it'll give them some pest protection.

This is a good time to sow scallions, mangetout, French and runner beans, lettuce (try cut'n'come again types), spinach, carrots and herbs.

Although it's too late for outdoor tomatoes and peppers, you can still sow tender crops such as courgettes, cucumber, pumpkins, sweetcorn and squash.

If you're really serious about eating better food, plan now for next spring and sow purple sprouting broccoli, kale and winter cabbage.

The easiest way to begin is to see what young plants your local garden centre has left - you should be able to get tomatoes, peppers, courgettes, scallions and herbs.

Either put these in a growbag (made without peat if you can find one) or plant them in a sheltered sunny spot.

While they're small, protect them with five-litre water containers with the bottom cut off and later on, use a liquid organic feed. Then throw away those vitamin pills!

• Kitchen Garden magazine is available from Easons or

www.kitchengarden.co.uk

This column appears fortnightly