At this time of year, no-nonsense TV gardener Christine Walkden’s dining room table looks like a potting shed paradise, disappearing under a sea of seed trays, plant pots and other bits and pieces to encourage young plants into growth.

Some of the space will be taken up with the summer veg she’ll be growing this year, including tomatoes, runner beans and sweetcorn, her three favourites.

“Runner beans are easy if you don’t start them off too early,” says Christine, author of No-nonsense Vegetable Gardening.

“People tend to sow them too early and then they get hit by the frost and the cold weather. I always sow mine, at the earliest, the first week in April under protection. Outside, they can still go in in May or June and you’ll have a crop by August.”

Runner beans need a sunny, well-drained spot which shouldn’t be overly manured or you’ll encourage a lot of leaf rather than fruits, she notes.

“Either put them up tripods or beanpoles or train them along chicken wire. In a small garden you can grow them in containers. If you put a few plants in a 12in container you’ll get a decent crop. Use John Innes No 2 or a good quality multi-purpose compost.”

Christine, whose favourite varieties include ‘Red Rum’, doesn’t feed her runner beans in the ground at all, but she does add a lot of organic matter each year. However, growing them in pots you need to feed them weekly with a tomato fertiliser. It’s rich in potash, which promotes flowers or fruit.

She grows sweet peas with them, to encourage pollinating insects to the plants, prompting a better crop.

“Don’t overwater them while they are growing, but water them once they start flowering and continue while you’re harvesting,” she advises.

“People who overwater them early on will get lots of foliage but few flowers.”

Sweetcorn is another of her favourite summer veg.

“I love the flavour of sweetcorn, roasted or steamed or barbecued straight off the plant. There’s nothing like it. If you’ve had shop-bought sweetcorn and then grow your own, you won’t know it’s the same veg.”

Christine insists you don’t need a lot of room to grow sweetcorn, even though the plants can reach 7ft in height, depending on the variety.

“You can grow them in a laundry basket. The key thing is that you don’t plant them in a straight row because they are wind-pollinated and the wind will blow the pollen away from the plants. Plant them in a square or a group, the pollen will stay within the group so you have better pollination.”

* No-nonsense Vegetable Gardening is published by Simon & Schuster at £14.99.