Even the most experienced allotmenteer or grower can have problems getting seeds to germinate. Some vegetables are easier than others: tomatoes are reliable germinators (although can suffer if they get too cold too soon), but I have had mixed success with chillies (they need to have a lot of heat in the propagator right at the start). Sometimes you can sow hundreds of seeds of different veg in the hope of any taking hold. It is cheaper to sow from seed, but can end up a false economy if many of them go to waste.

Instead, if you want more certainty in your plot life, then you can buy plug plants. Someone else has sown the seed and nurtured the plant into strong and healthy life, and all you need to do is plant it and keep it fed, watered and protected from pests. The TV and radio gardener and grow-your-own expert Pippa Greenwood has a range of vegetable plants which she has personally chosen that are available to order now for this coming spring.

Unlike some plug plant collections, the Grow Your Own With Pippa Greenwood range allows you to mix and match from a list of veg, giving you more flexibility to grow what you want. It also comes with a weekly grow-along email from Pippa with expert instructions on pinching out, feeding and supporting.

Her Outdoors readers can take advantage of a special offer of 10% off their order – see details at the end of this post. The range comes in three sizes, from £29 for a pack of four veg – which includes up to 56 plants, depending on what you choose, £39 for six veg choices, and £65 for ten. So you could mix a tomato collection with onions, lettuce and runner beans, enough to get your plot bursting into life.

The plants are despatched in May, giving you plenty of time to prepare your soil.

The vegetables on offer include:

Tomatoes ‘Sweet Aperitif’ x 3 plants & ‘Roma’ x 2 plants

Tomatoes ‘Super Marmande’ x 3 plants & ‘Sweet & Neat’ x 2

Onion ‘Sturon’ x 40-50 plants

Runner Bean ‘Firestorm’ x 10 plants

Greenhouse Cucumber ‘Femspot’ x 3 plants & Melon ‘Sweetheart’ x 2 plants

Calabrese ‘Ironman’ x 5 plants

Beetroot ‘Pablo’ x 15 plants

Courgette ‘Defender’ x 3 plants, plus Butternut Squash ‘Hawk’ x 2 plants

Sweet pepper ‘Redskin‘ x 3 plants, plus Chilli ‘Etna’ x 2 plants

Climbing French Bean ‘Blue Lake’ x 10 plants

Lettuce ‘Cosmic’, ‘Little Gem’ & ‘Lollo Rosso’ x 5 of each

Sweetcorn ‘Swift’ x 16 plants

Early Leeks ‘Jolant’ x 10 plants

Indoor or Outdoor Tomato ‘Sakura’ x 5 plants

Sugarsnap Pea ‘Delikett’ x 10 plants

Take a look at the full range by going to http://pippagreenwood.com/grow-your-own

Special offer

Her Outdoors readers can take advantage of 10% off your order by using this code when you get to the payment page: 12461-MOZTP