Mention the term F1 to many people and it will conjure up images of powerful cars, fast drivers and glamorous pit lane scenes. Say the same thing to gardeners and they will have completely different thoughts. To gardeners F1 is a note on a seed packet that tells us there is something special about the contents. Are these seeds really as finely-tuned, fast and glamorous as a scene from a Formula One race track? Let’s have a look at the pros and cons of F1 seeds and hope it doesn’t drive us round the bend.

Much has been written about getting children growing crops at school. One of the problems is that some vegetables take a long time to grow and need harvesting in the school summer holiday period but there are many crops that can be grown successfully in term time. Here are a few ideas…

…at the crucial moment I was bent over and standing on one leg as the door slammed right onto the top of my head, knocking me off my feet and onto my bottom on the wet, muddy grass. Very undignified. I was glad that I was wearing a woolly hat though, had my bald bonce been bare the damage could have been worse I suppose.

Slowly the frame took shape. A few joints were made, undone and remade as I realised I’d gone wrong, but generally speaking it went well. The sun shone, the hedge sparrows chirped their excited encouragement and a few of my allotment neighbours stopped for a chat as they made their way to and from their plots. It was good to see them, to hear about their Christmases, their plans for the season and even to see a new grandchild in one case.

Some thoughts on coming out of lockdown and the benefits of open spaces.

‘Ha! British Summer Time? British Summer Time? It doesn’t look much like summer to me!’

‘It’s not summer, it’s only just spring. According to the Meteorological Office March, April and May are the months of spring and astronomically spring doesn’t start until March the twenty first, so it’s not actually summer, it’s only just spring.’

‘Why’s it called British Summer Time then?’

‘Because British Spring, Summer and Early Autumn Time is a bit too much of a mouthful I think’

Outside the sun was shining, birds were singing and spring was generally springing. ‘Bother!’ I said, and ‘Oh blow!’ and also ‘Hang the work!’ I then fired off a quick email to my boss requesting half a day off, slammed my laptop shut and bolted out of the house without even waiting for a reply.

…suitably refreshed we returned to our respective tasks. Jacqueline, at one end of the plot, weeding quietly and me, with a little bit of huffing and puffing, artichoke extracting at the other end. When we are gardening together we sometimes don’t speak for quite long periods of time and are often some distance apart yet somehow we rarely feel closer..

Throughout February I think there’s no need to do very much at all gardening-wise and I’m well ahead of the game, but come the first of March I suddenly feel I’m drastically and catastrophically behind!

As the father of four children you might have thought seed germination a relatively minor miracle but it fills me with joy every time. It’s a very welcome sign that spring is not too far away and a new growing season is ahead of us. A magical time.

There’s a lot of competition for space in the greenhouse this year. My wife Jacqueline has taken on a half plot next to my allotment which she is making into a cut flower patch. She’s way ahead of me with her sowing so when I went to the greenhouse to start off some seeds of my own I found I had nowhere to work and nowhere to put my trays of seeds once sown.

I arrived at the allotment and opened the shed to discover that my wellies were missing…

… I had no choice but to squeeze my size eight feet into my wife’s pink size six wellies and get on with it. Well there was nobody else around.