Last year I went a bit potty over vegetables and would eagerly rush home from work to see what had popped up or grown another inch in the patch and I can honestly say that this year I have only got worse. The list of vegetables has grown and this weekend I’m ripping out some buddlejas so that Frank can build me some more raised beds for the courgettes and I’m still to find somewhere to put the tomatoes!

I’m growing everything from seed - partly for £££ but also because of my other obsession - propagators!

I’ve put a list below of everything that we’ve planted and I’m in the process of drawing up a layout but will have to add that in later. You’ll have to pardon the latin and speech marks but I’m practising for my RHS course!…

This year, we’ve adjusted quantities and spread the sowing intervals to hopefully give us a broader spectrum of fresh veg and also a wider variety. I anticipate my library of recipe books become rather more thumbed as the season progresses. I also need to invest in more freezer bags!

Even Frank has got more involved (historically his gardening has consisted of ‘pruning’ with a chainsaw and hedging with the viscious petrol cutters - no criticsm intended but I do turn into something resembling a nervous mother seeing her child play football near the family heirlooms) and he did a fair bit of the sowing and built the new frame for the beans - none of the preparation or decision making I hasten to add! He tinkers with the Landy, I tinker with the veg patch.

Our garden at one time must have been agricultural land as it is ridiculously fertile (plus I keep growing beans which fix nitrogen) and free-draining. It has a rather dry crumbly feel on the surface and the lumps break when you squeeze them between a finger and thumb to produce quite a fine dust. When I tested it at college it is apparently a sandy clay loam with a very slightly alkaline pH. However, everything apart from Irises seems to flourish with little added nutrition from me. The whole garden is on a slope with little shade in the summer so I’d never plant ferns and the like but vegetable gardening is a breeze compared to the veg patches we had as children.

As I said, in addition to the patch, we’re building some small raised beds for the courgettes and I will probably resort to the tumbling variety of tomatoes and they can go in hanging baskets somewhere - god knows where!. Other than that the only other thing we’ve built is a lean-to frame for the tallest climbing beans - last year the canes kept being pulled over due to the weight of the plant and the light soil - and we’ve used a few shorter cane wigwams and a randomly found wrought iron one for the less vigorous and dwarf beans/peas. We’re going to put a step-over chicken wire fence around the main patch to stop the cat litter tray scenario. For the record Silent Roar didn’t help in our case and the plants’ leaves move so keep setting off the battery sonic alarms and so they run out after a week or two. So we’ve gone back to basics and are hoping it won’t look too dreadful!

 That’s it for now, I’ll take a photo or two at the weekend and hopefully finish the layout drawing so you can see what it going to look like - it feels like we’ve managed to squeeze a quart into a pint pot but fingers crossed it might just work… anyhow, here’s the list:

Thompson & Morgan
Zea mays Lark F1 hybrid (sweetcorn)
Cynara cardunculus ‘Green Globe’ (globe artichoke)
Vicia faba ‘Jubilee Hysor’ (broad bean)
Phaseolus vulgaris ‘Blauhilde’ (purple climbing bean)
Phaseolus vulgaris ‘Nomad’ (dwarf green bean)
Phaseolus vulgaris ‘Sonesta’ (dwarf yellow bean)
Pisum sativum ‘Cascadia’ (sugar snap pea)
Pisum sativum ‘Rondo’ (climbing pod pea)
Pisum sativum ‘Norli’ (mangetout pea)
Spinacia oleracea ‘Tetona’ F1 (spinach)
Eruca vesicaria ‘Arugula’ (rocket)
Pastinaca sativa ‘Gladiator’ F1 (parsnip)
Dauca carotta ‘Nigel’ F1 (carrot)

Mr Fothergill’s
Vicia faba ‘Bunyard’s Exhibition’ (broad bean)
Brassica olefacea italica (purple sprouting brocolli)
Curcubita pepo ‘Sunburst’ F1 (yellow pattipan)
Valerianella locusta ‘Valentin’ (lamb’s lettuce)
Lactuca ‘New Red Fire’, ‘Butter Crunch’, ‘Funly’ and ’Little Gem’ (not sure about the latin names on this!)

Taylors
Allium sativum ‘Hercules’ F1 (strong white onion)
Allium sativum ‘Red Baron’ (red onion)
Allium sativum sativum (garlic)