大象传媒

September is all about harvesting crops but it's not just vegetables that are ripe for the picking now, the spent flower borders offer a harvest of a different kind - seed. Toby Buckland gives his guide to collecting the precious seeds from annual and perennial plants and shows how and where to store them to keep them as fresh as possible for free sowing next year.

Carol Klein's plant family is more usually found in the kitchen - adding spice and fragrance to many dishes - the ginger family. Some of the more unusual members of the clan are adding fragrance, colour and a touch of the exotic to our gardens as well, and Carol recommends which ornamental gingers and cautleyas to plant for some tropical beauty on your back doorstep.

Staying on the culinary theme, Raymond Blanc reveals the collection of herbs in the kitchen garden of Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons. Raymond not only shows us a palette of herbs to grow to enhance recipes but also demonstrates how to add them to dishes for Michelin star taste!

Fresh soft herbs from the garden are not possible all year round, so Alys Fowler gives her guide on which herbs grow well on a windowsill throughout the winter.