Bob: Try growing a strawberry guava, Psidium littorale from seed. It’s an evergreen, with little whiteish flowers like little paintbrushes, and it produces masses of strawberry-flavoured purple fruits. There are several different varieties. I’ve planted them in the garden, but they get killed back over two years and finally die. But in a heated greenhouse or conservatory they make wonderful plants. Very interesting, and they grow right through the winter. The ordinary guava, Psidium guajava is also surprisingly quick growing, and from seed it will fruit in about three years. You can also try some of the other things that you can get from the supermarket, like tamarind seeds, or even custard apples. Get one when it’s ripe, eat it, and you’ll be left with these big black seeds which you can sow. They grow into another ornamental foliage plant which will again grow through the winter. You could root the tops off pineapples if you’ve got a little bottom heat as well. And providing you’ve got eight feet in height, you could try the Chinese bananas. They grow very rapidly, and even during the winter they put on a bit of growth. Those would all be something that they wouldn’t see normally, and they would be fascinating, but they will take a while to grow.

Pippa: For something quicker, you can grow a lot of the salad crops either in a relatively protected outdoor spot, or in the greenhouse. Grow some of the spicy salad leaf mixtures which you get as ready mixed seed. They produce the sort of leaves that you pay extraordinary prices for in the supermarket. Try rocket as well, with a bit of fleece over the top to keep off some of the pests as well as keeping it warm. You could grow Chinese radishes. Sow seed, as late as mid-September, and you’ll get some very respectably sized, beautiful bright cerise pink, very crunchy radishes. You could also try the stir fry vegetables, like pak choi. If you are pretty quick off the mark with them and get them in soon, they’ll do well.

Bunny: Yes, and chard ‘Bright Lights’, which has extraordinary, bright yellow or red stems. Also try sowing Alpine strawberries, they’re very easy from seed, and beautiful little plants, great for edging borders or vegetable beds. The berries are very tasty, and if you want them to be really sweet, prick them with a pin and coat them with sugar just before you eat them. They’re lovely on all sorts of things. I grow Fragaria vesca ‘Alexandra’ which is great.