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My father tells a story of when he was in the army. A particularly pompous officer lifted the lid of a dish of vegetables and snorted "carrots are not an officer's vegetable" before storming off.I mention this in light of a brief discussion I had

wins.Before the introduction of the potato to Europe in 1536, the parsnip was a much more mainstream vegetable than it is now. Parsnips are pretty easy to grow by sowing directly into the ground around March and April - dig the ground well as lumps

enough fruit without ever making you despair of finding ways to eat them.May you never accidentally bury your favourite trowel and only find it a year later.May your pumpkins swell to the size of small hippopotami.May your carrots spit in the eyes

and dusty radish.However, I think it is generally an excellent thing to try and get children to grow stuff - if only so that they understand how plants behave. Schools are now much more proactive in encouraging gardening clubs and planting up areas around

Absence will always make the heart grow fonder: especially in gardens. I have just got back after a few days at the Malvern Spring Show — which was, as always, great fun, pretty fabulous and completely exhausting — and it is amazing how much fuller