Veg out: How to produce a bumper crop this summer I sowed these cucumbers on 26 March, six weeks ago. If I begin again from seed, the crop is going to be rather late. Instead I've ordered young plants and they'll be with me, ready to go, by the middle of this month. I originally sowed 'Zeina' (Thompson & Morgan £5.99 for five seeds), a stubby "lunchbox" type of cucumber that is astonishingly prolific and juicy. The plants I've ordered are 'Ilas' (Marshalls, £6.95 for three plants). I've not grown 'Ilas' before but it's another mini-cucumber which Marshalls describe as heavy cropping and tolerant of powdery mildew. In a greenhouse, that's an important plus. They also say it is "self-pruning," an odd phrase, but you get the general idea of a cucumber with side shoots that aren't too vigorous, another bonus in the restricted space of a greenhouse. From plants sent out in mid-May, I should be able to pick our first cucumbers in July. Because 'Zeina' is expensive, the gap between the cost of seed and the cost of plants is not wide, so you don't feel extravagant. But with parsley, for instance, there's a bigger gap: £5.95 for 12 plants instead of £1.75 for a packet of seed (both Marshalls). Parsley, though, is slow to germinate. Erratic too. Your packet might contain 1,000 seeds, but you certainly won't get a thousand plants. Nor would you want to. A dozen plants of the curly-leaved parsley 'Krausa' will fill a big pot very nicely (or make a short row in an allotment) and you will be able to pick it all year. Marshalls can despatch them in late May. The biggest selection of vegetable plants comes from Delfland Nurseries, based in March, Cambs. All their baby plants are organically grown and they send them out in wedge-shaped cells that allow for good root growth. For May delivery they are offering a collection of basils, three each of Greek, Purple, Lemon, 'Sweet Genovese' and 'Siam Queen', 15 plants for £7.50. That's a useful offer, as it would cost you much more than that to buy five different packets of seed. Basil is not particularly difficult to grow from seed, but it hates the cold and will not always germinate easily. You can also pick up a collection of five different courgettes and squashes: one plant each of the round yellow-fruited 'Eight Ball', 'Green Tiger', 'Romanesco', 'Soleil' a fine yellow variety very resistant to mildew and the patty pan squash 'Sunburst'. This is a good way to sample a range of varieties that you might choose to grow in another season, and the five plants cost only £5.50. If you like squashes better than you likecourgettes, then Delfland Nurseries can supply a collection of those too. I usually sow seed of both courgettes and squashes in mid-April, to plant out by the end of May. But if you've missed this window, then buying young plants gives you an easy way to get back on track. Both courgettes and squashes hate cold nights, which is why it's not generally a good idea to plant them outside until the end of the month. The Delfland collection of squashes includes 'Orange Summer', 'Confection', 'Sweet Lightning', 'Harrier' (an excellent butternut variety, quicker to ripen than many other types) and 'Delica', five plants for £5.50. If you've grown and liked the onion squash 'Uchiki Kuri' then 'Orange Summer' is certainly worth a go. It's the same type of squash, but it bears more fruit, growing on a compact, bushy plant, rather than a sprawling, trailing one. In some situations this is an advantage. Greenhouse veg - aubergine, sweet peppers, tomatoes and the like - are mostly sent out during April as, under cover, they can be kept free of frost. But Delfland offers a collection of grafted plants for delivery in late May. Grafting is a technique we associate more with fruit trees and roses than with vegetables, but it's become an increasingly popular technique with greenhouse plants such as tomatoes and aubergines. The principle is the same as it might be with an apple tree. You stick a plant that, on its own roots, might not grow with much enthusiasm on to a rootstock that has more vigour and which will pump that energy into the plant to which it is giving a piggyback. The technique of grafting vegetables first started in Korea and Japan in the 1920s, when watermelons were successfully grafted on to rootstocks of squash. Why would you want to do that? Commercial growers might give you several different answers. As well as increasing production, the right kind of rootstock can overcome the diseases that build up in soil where one crop is intensively grown. They can make a plant more resistant to fungal, bacterial and virus infections. Rootstocks have been developed that are tolerant to salt in the soil, to floods as well as drought. They may also be able to cope with low or excessively high temperatures, which means that growers can extend the season of cropping. Grafted plants are relatively expensive, but we amateurs can benefit from them just as much as commercial growers. If, for instance, you grow tomatoes, or aubergines or peppers in the same greenhouse border for several years, soil-borne diseases may easily build up. Grafted plants will overcome this problem and you may benefit too from earlier and heavier crops. For the first time, Delfland are offering a collection of grafted plants for the greenhouse. It includes the aubergine 'Black Pearl', 'Passandra' cucumber, the sweet pepper 'Bell Boy' and two different tomatoes, the reliable 'Shirley' and the red cherry tomato 'Sweet Million', five plants for £13. They'll be ready for sending in late May. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;S E Marshall & Co, Alconbury Weston, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire PE28 4HY, tel: 0844 557 6700, marshalls-seeds.co.uk; Delfland Nurseries Ltd, Benwick Rd, Doddington, March, Cambridgeshire PE15 0TU, tel: 01354 740553, organicplants.co.uk