Spring, it seems, is here. We're having the proverbial March winds aplenty, and the the bulbs I stuck in the ground last autumn have popped up to hail its coming.

So, last weekend I took the opportunity to get going on this year's growings. Last year, despite not moving into my house until June, I planted some rocket, runner beans and radishes. Nether of the latter two worked out particularly well, but the rocket was fantastic and we ended up with large amounts of rocket pesto!

Well, this year I'm a little more planned, and have planted a few seeds already. Tomatoes have gone into trays, and basil and sage are now in pots. For the basil and sage, poking a few holes in some old falafel packages has made the perfect containers.

My books have told me that spinach, on the other hand, can be sown out early, so I've put a row of that into my patch out in the back garden.

For a while now, I've been wanting to grow garlic, but unfortunately I'm still very much a novice at this and didn't realise that it was supposed to be planted around the end of December! Again, one of my books tells me that it can be planted out in the Spring, but only if you don't expect to get much from them until late in the year. Let's hope.

...after ten days.