Many of us have been converted to growing our own vegetables, but have you thought about growing your own cut flowers too? With a little planning, you can enjoy your own fresh grown flowers rather than buying them from the supermarket.

In October plant your sweet pea seeds in small pots and as soon as they have passed the second stage nip out the tops and over winter them, watering occasionally until it is time to plant out in March. Find a suitable location for a small wigwam in a pot and in June you will be cutting for the vase.

I keep an area of freesias and paper white narcissi in a poly tunnel and often from late December onwards I am rewarded with a continual supply of beautiful blooms. To follow on, I have a couple of rows of other daffodil varieties outside – with the right selection of flowering period I achieve a continual supply well into April. Once their leaves have gone over, that part of the plot is reclaimed for paths amongst my bean trenches.

The old fashioned Sweet William, has a gentle scent and self seeds nicely, giving wonderful blooms in May. Cut fresh, these can remain in the vase for a good fortnight. Sow now, in readiness for next year.

Big headed peonies give fantastic blooms and one plant can give two impressive vases from mid-May into June. Allium bulbs are also a good source for cut flowers. Both of these will flower year after year.

Just a couple of rose bushes can give you a continuous supply of roses throughout the summer, just make sure you occasionally spray them to stop pests. Rose Eleanor, a delicate yellow English (rose) is ideal for this purpose. Give it a good hard prune in February, keep feeding it well and the process of regular cutting of the blooms will encourage plenty of growth.

Depending on the weather and the season, you can be rewarded with lovely dahlia stems through late August to early November. Then just dig them up and store them in a mouse-free shed, dusted with sulphur. Only those on free-draining soil can consider leaving them in situ. Around this time as well you can also have cutting chrysanthemums coming into season.

To keep things simple, feed your plants as they come into flower and then when they die back give them a good dose of compost from the heap. Watch out for slugs - pellets are fine, but as the damage is mostly done underground I prefer to give them the occasional nematode drench.