For gardener and foodie Holly Farrell there’s nothing nicer than picking a fresh, sun-warmed strawberry from her garden.

“I grow things that are expensive in the shops and things you can’t beat getting fresh,” said Holly, 31, who lives near Wallingford.

She’s so passionate about growing-her-own that she’s written a book for beginners to use to create their own kitchen plots. Planting Plans For Your Kitchen Garden: How To Create Vegetable, Herb and Fruit Gardens in Easy Stages aims to bring the functional beauty of the Victorian kitchen garden to everybody’s back yard.

“There are mix-and-match plans for a series of standard beds, that can contain vegetables, herbs, fruit, cut flowers and more, to put together a garden like a piece of modular furniture,” said Holly.

“I’m one of those organised people – I like lists and planning – and it’s a very organised approach. “When I started [kitchen gardening] there wasn’t anything like this around. There wasn’t a book with it all together.”

She said rather than get a library of volumes on all the different types of things to grow – fruit, veg, herbs, flowers to cut and others to eat – her book offers “everything a beginner needs to get going”.

She originally studied history at York University but after a prolonged bout of glandular fever confined her indoors she decided she needed plenty of fresh air and to get out and about.

“I started volunteering at National Trust gardens and I caught the gardening bug,” said Holly, who went on to spent two years at the Royal Holticultural Society Gardens, Wisley, where she gained the Wisley Diploma in Practical Horticulture and the RHS certificate and Diploma (both with commendation).

It was also where she met husband Kevin Watkins – they both started there in the same week in September 2006, she as a student and he as a tutor. The couple were married last October. She said switching from history to horticulture was “the best decision I ever made”.

Holly now combines designing and improving gardens for private clients with her developing career as a garden writer.

She also has a blog at www.hollyefarrell.com where she combines her love of growing food with ways to use it, giving tips, advice and recipes.

She said whatever the size of space you are working with, the modular system breaks the garden down into manageable portions so that you can work in small sections at a time.

And she dispels the myth you have to have a large south-facing garden with lots of light to successfully grow fruit and veg. “I have a tiny, north-facing garden,” said Holly, who has modules growing summer salads, veg and, of course, strawberries.

“They are better than the ones you get chilled at Waitrose,” she said with satisfaction.