In the Garden | Grow an easy green

It can be sown throughout Australia in June and is as easy as sowing a few seeds in a clump directly where they are to grow. They will take one to three weeks to germinate but you will be harvesting in eight to 10 weeks, picking individual leaves as required.

Spinach 'Winter Queen' can be sown in pots in a sunny spot on a balcony (where caterpillars with find them, too so keep an eye out). It will be helpful to rotate the pots 180 degrees every week so that all the foliage get its fair share of sunlight.

Spinach is probably the sweetest accompaniment to various light dishes, such as spinach and cheese bombs, spinach and basil pesto, spinach and ricotta pull-apart and spanakopita. Spinach needs little cooking - just wilting on the surface of hot ingredients.

Silver beet, its tougher relative, can be used as two separate dishes - the leaves, and the stalks. 'Colour Mix' or Ruby Red offer a beautiful combination of colour to brighten up the vegetable garden.

A good bug mix? Does your garden provide a nectar source for beneficial, pest-controlling insects? Planting particular flowers and herbs known as insectary plants has been proven to improve the natural balance and reduce pest outbreaks.

Green Harvest's Good Bug Mix of colourful re-seeding annual and perennial flowers is an excellent starting point. It blooms much of the year, providing nectar, pollen and habitat for wild and introduced beneficials, such as predatory mites and wasps, ladybirds, lacewings, hoverflies, tachinid flies and predatory beetles.

It should be planted in areas which can go a little wild, such as garden edges or along fence lines. Generally you only need plant one to five percent of your land for good results. Mixes may include red clover, lucerne, sweet alice, dill, caraway, coriander, cosmos, buckwheat, baby's breath, marigold, phacelia, Queen Anne's Lace and Cornflower 'Blue Boy' (a hardy annual to one metre high with pretty blue flowers on grey-green foliage, useful for attracting bees and butterflies with a long lasting cut flower.)

Osteospermums have featured in gardens for many years and recent breeding has seen the introduction of some fabulous new varieties. Osteospermum '3D' has a distinctive, slightly-raised bed of larger florets in the centre of the flower head that resembles a pom-pom. These two tone flowers create an eye catching double colour impact.The blooms stay open all day and night and last from spring through to early autumn. Great cut flowers and picture perfect in containers.