Grow your own horseradish

Grow your own horseradish for an unusual addition to your herb garden that's very easy to look after and will give you spicy roots to use in the kitchen for year after year. Peeled and grated into vinegar and a little cream, they make a real knock-your-socks off accompaniment to roast beef.

Horseradish is a rugged plant and needs firm control to stop it spreading into neighbouring beds and borders. Once you've bought your plant or root - now on sale in your garden centre  - restrict any sideways spread by potting it up in a tall container of compost mixed 50:50 with topsoil. If you want it to look more natural in your herb garden, sink the pot to its rim in the ground to make it all but invisible.

Leave your plant alone for at least a year, so it has a chance to establish a good root system. Then in the plant's second year, wait till after the first frost to develop the flavour to the full, then simply dig up the container, tip out the plant and select roots about the thickness of your middle finger. Any root left in the compost regrows for more next year.