Visit the Country Life Nusery to have top-quality young plants delivered to your door in a matter of days: www.countrylife.co.uk/nursery

Sweetcorn, the form of maize in which much of the starch is converted to sugar, is rather a novel sight in the kitchen garden, being grown in blocks rather than rows because, being a grass, its pollen is distributed by the wind rather than by insects. The tall plants are now papery-yellow and the crop about ready for harvest.

Test this by pressing your thumbnail into a few seeds. If milk squirts out, it needs longer. If a creamy liquid emerges, now is the hour. Off with the husk, boil for a few minutes, smear with butter and munch away.

* Follow Country Life magazine on Twitter