HOLLY FARRELL is the author of Planting Plans for your Kitchen Garden (2013, How To Books) and RHS Plants from Pips (2015, Mitchell Beazley). She contributes to gardening magazines such as The Garden and Kitchen Garden, and has a blog at www.hollyefarrell.com. Holly trained at RHS Gardens Wisley where she gained the Wisley Diploma in Practical Horticulture and the RHS Certificate and Diploma, both with Commendation. After working as Head Gardener on a private estate she now combines her career as a garden writer with freelance work as a consultant on (kitchen) gardens for private clients and Tom Stuart-Smith Ltd. Holly has been growing her own fruit and vegetables for many years, in a variety of settings from allotments to container gardens. Holly is also a keen and experienced baker, and while she's happy to produce wedding cakes for friends or hundreds of biscuits for a Christmas market stall, she doesn't need a reason to bake!

The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, has cultivated plants for more than 250 years. Today, Kew’s horticulturists grow over 19,000 species of plants in the gardens – the most diverse collection in the world.