During this year’s strange,dark and sunny spring, mydining table - once heavilypeopled, and the site of loudconversation, laughter and, frankly,scandalous behaviour - was filledwith egg cartons and the cardboardliners from loo rolls. Lacking trayswhen the garden centres wereclosed, this is what I used to plantseeds. Alongside some of myfavourite cottage garden flowers -scabious, nicotiana, cornflowers,sweet peas and marigolds - wereshiso, courgettes, borlotti beans,radishes and various cut-andcome-again salad mixtures. Most ofthese were planted from packets ofseeds I’d stored in the shed foryears, so germination was patchy.But this is the year I cast offperfectionism (I suspect that wasthe same for lots of you) and justdid my best and hoped for the best.
Years ago when I worked at River Cottage, I got to know Mark Diacono, who was the gardener there (see his Otter Farm, opposite).