Garlic is traditionally planted around the shortest day of the year and harvested around the longest day (December 22). While these dates are not fixed in stone, they are a guide to best planting times and June is really the last opportunity you have to plant in the New England region.

While there are two main types of garlic: soft-neck and hard-neck, hard-neck, such as 'Australian White' or 'Purple Stripe' is the better type for cooler climates.

Buy garlic cloves from your local nursery (don't use supermarket ones as they may have been treated with chemicals). Plant in fertile soil that has had compost, manure or other organic matter added well in advance.

Break up bulbs into individual cloves and plant each with about two centimetres of soil above its pointy end, spaced about 15 centimetres apart. Keep the soil moist, but not too wet, during the growing season.

Parsnips can be dug up as soon as the leaves have died back but they are best harvested after the first frosts.

This is because the stored starches in the parsnip are broken down and converted to sugar in frosty weather and so they taste sweeter after they have been frosted. They store well in the ground until you want use them, due to the sugar molecules making the water in the plant cells less likely to freeze.

Just be sure to harvest them all before any new shoots sprout in spring. The best flavour parsnips are a small to medium width in size, as larger roots tend to get a hard fibrous core.

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Potatoes can be dug up and stored now or left until September or October as long as and they have good drainage and the soil is not too heavy or clayey and prone to waterlogging.

Earth up winter Brassicas (cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts and cauliflower) to give them better anchorage in strong winds. Brussels Sprouts are particularly prone to being blown over. Yellowing leaves on brassicas encourage fungal growth, so remove them and compost.

Continue to check brassica leaves for caterpillars. The larvae initially feed on the undersides of the leaves and move to the upper surfaces as they grow larger, so check both sides of the leaves.

Also keep alert for signs of snail or slug damage, especially during wet or humid conditions.

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