Nearly all the fruit and veg I’m growing this season is in the ground now, except four crops that need a decent amount of space: French beans, runner beans, courgettes and pumpkins.

First of all, the beans. I sowed a first round of French and runner beans in root-trainers in an indoor heated propagator at the start of April, putting them outside two weeks later for hardening off. But towards the end of the month there were harsh winds and cold nights and they were shredded to bits. The best thing to do in these circumstances is to count your losses and start all over again. It is still not too late to sow French and runner beans – you can keep sowing these until June, but be aware that they won’t be ready to harvest until late July and August.

I sowed the same beans in root-trainers as I’d sown in April:

Dwarf French beans: ‘Sungold’, ‘Sprite’, ‘Cannellino’, ‘Royalty’, ‘Primavera’, ‘Presto’ a flagolet bean; climbing French beans: ‘Heritage Climbing Bean’, ‘Eva’, ‘Cobra’, ‘Barlotta Lingua di Fuoco’, ‘Corona d’Oro’, ‘Violet Podded’; runner beans: ‘Moonlight’, ‘Painted Lady’ and ‘Lady Di’ plus one variety of soya bean called ‘Elena’.

These are ready to go outside to be hardened off in the cold frame for a few nights before planting out. The first half of May has been unseasonally cold, but it seems like we’re coming out of it and I think, in the south at least, it will be fine to plant them out now. It is also warm enough to sow beans directly into the soil – just keep an eye on slugs which can destroy an entire crop of seedlings as soon as they break through the surface. The same goes for the plants that you’ve carefully nurtured under cover. Even though I’ve used nematodes through spring, I’m also going to top up protection with crushed egg shells and organic slug pellets.

The other great high summer crop is courgettes, which can be sown between March and June. However, I find that sowing in March is too early because courgettes germinate quickly and they will need to be planted into bigger pots or planted out by April, when it is still too cold. Mid-April is a good time to start sowing indoors – they need the heat of a propagator or a warm windowsill – or outdoors directly into the soil from the middle of May, depending how far north you are and how susceptible to frost your allotment or garden is. There is still plenty of time to sow courgettes, although the later they start off the greater the tendency for smaller crops, which in the case of courgettes is no bad thing.

I sowed mine on April 20: ‘Black Forest’ – a climbing variety that I’ve planted next to a corner of the playhouse, so it can run up the side and over the roof, ‘Atena’ F1, ‘Black Beauty’, ‘Partenon’, ‘Tondo di Piacenza’, which produces almost spherical crops, ‘Tondo Chiaro di Nizza’, also round and green, ‘Floridor’ F1, another spherical courgette, but this one is yellow, ‘Tromba d’Albenga’, which grows into a spiral.

Unfortunately, possibly because the seeds were past their sow-by date, the Tromba d’Albenga and Tondo Chiaro di Nizza did not germinate.

I also sowed the following pumpkin and winter squash varieties: ‘Hundredweight’ and ‘Atlantic Giant’, which both produce, as their names suggest, huge pumpkins and need plenty of room, ‘Crown Prince’, ‘Squash Buttercup’, ‘Cornell’s Delicata’, ‘Turk’s Turban’ and ‘Pink Banana’. The Cornell’s Delicata and Pink Banana did not germinate.

These started off in root-trainers and grew very quickly. I potted them on into individual pots after about 10 days, then put them in the cold frame for about a week. Last week I planted them into the ground – which had been prepared with well-rotted manure. If your plant has a long stalk, you can bury it quite deeply so just the leaves and about an inch of stalk is above ground, which makes it sturdier and stops it flopping around in the wind. Courgettes need plenty of water but it is better to water them at their roots not their large leaves, which can rot if too damp, so a good planting method is to make a hollow wider than the plant, and create a mount around the seedling, so that when watering it is focused on the roots and does not run off. Besides the ‘Black Forest’ that will climb up the playhouse, I planted three in the open ground and one, ‘Partenon’, in a large trug – with holes punctured at the bottom for drainage.