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cope with this weather - a thermal vest and a good pair of hiking socks does the trick - but my poor little broad bean plants have just gone in the ground and look a bit horrified. Most of thebean seeds sowed directly outside last year failed

into life - including the weeds. My last couple of sessions on the plot have involved a never-ending cycle of weeding and sowing seeds. It's so important to keep on top of weeding at this time of year. If left, they can smother young plants, competing

looks interesting. I'll also save some of the larger ones as seed to sow next year - If I've learned anything from this batch it's that they're good croppers, and who knows, they may even possess a mysterious resistance to blackfly.

't suffer the same fate, I seem to have gone overboard sowing brassicas in modules. I think we'll be in for a feast (rather than the famine of last year) as every seed seems to have germinated. I started them off under my watchful eye as they're so prone

, and analyse what went wrong.Top failure prize this year has to go to parsnips - I only have about half a dozen. I know what went wrong, though: I sowed old seed that was past its sell-by-date. I've learnt my lesson, and it won't happen again.Second prize goes