Clocks changed and the first day has been sunny, an early morning not quite so as it did seem it was very early even though the clock suggested otherwise. Even so, I arrived at the plot and no-one else was about. I had a lot planned.

Firstly, the broadbean plants had been growing in pots undercover for a number of weeks and it was time to plant them out. We still have loads of broadbeans in the freezer from last year and no-one apart from me likes eating them, but they are fun plants to grow and fun to pod the beans at harvest time. I planted these in a bed that has had rotted down horse manure spread on top since last year, a quick hoe and rake was all that was needed.

The other big job was to start planting potatoes, I’ve done five rows this year and planted half today and will plant the other half later on in the week. I’ve set a reminder to dig these up in 100 days time.

The weather forecast is sun for the whole week and so I gave the onions a water. I looked under the fleece where the radish and parsnips were sown last week and pleased to see the radish starting to show. I’ll leave it another week and then remove the fleece.

At home I sowed two trays of peas, one in modules and one just in a tray. The modules work better but I only have one large module tray currently.

I was able to bring home:

• first lot of rhubarb
• purple sprouting, even though the plants were severely eaten by birds and caterpillars last year it shows just how good this plant is as we are getting handfuls of harvest each week.