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to show have been the pumpkins sown in pots on the windowsill, swiftly followed by the brassicas.And even the early potatoes are showing a few leaves above the soil, which means my next job is a good session of earthing up.

I admit that we don't get up to the allotment as often as we should, but does that mean someone else can harvest the strawberries in our absence? I think not. Apart from the rhubarb, and the perennial potatoes that keep appearing, the strawberries

beans and courgettes, which produce inedible, gargantuan produce at the earliest opportunity.I must grow more vegetables that are suitable for storing. Potatoes, butternut squashes, onions and shallots are great storers. They're no trouble to grow

and potato soup. The green tops add so much flavour to soup and stock and it saves wasting them. My soup tasted much better than the carton of ready-made I bought the week before.The leeks have fared better than my catastrophic purple-sprouting broccoli

the chitting seed potatoes, seed trays, pots and propagators. It also forces me to throw things away. So, out go the weird, wonderful and unused gadgets. Out go the seed packets that I've kept for years on the assumption that I might one day sow the contents

before planting this year's crop. I'm also getting very tempted to get my potatoes in as they're chitting away so beautifully. But I only have to remind myself that the humble spud hails from South America and I'll resist the urge to plant them for a

I'm gradually filling up the beds on the allotment. Last week I planted main crop potatoes – a variety called Picasso, which doesn't seem too prone to slugs, and one called Cara, which is cited in catalogues as 'the allotment favourite'. I

potato. Vic and I were raving about 'Charlotte', a fantastic second-early variety, which is firm, tasty and a prolific grower. Tony hadn't tried it before, so I dug up a few tubers for him to take home. He's offered me some courgettes and some herbs

the upper regions of the compost food-chain, feeding on the clouds of fruit flies, moth flies and other small insects that devour the endless cascade of banana skins and potato peels. I'm not sure what species they are, but I'll keep an eye out to see what

individual bulbs of garlic into pots, then transplanting them later on.Everything else is starting to move too, the tomato, pepper and aubergine seedlings are responding well to the increased light levels. I planted a few potatoes earlier but had to protect