Veg is easy, it must be, all the celebrity writers tell us it is! And I hate to admit it but they're right. It's just that all sorts of complications sneak in under the wire like 'four plot rotation', 'sowing by the moon'(some swear by it), 'there's a right and a wrong way to position the seed when sowing' (well excuse me but has someone remembered to tell the plants in the wild this) and it starts to become daunting.

O.K. let's presume you have a nice bit of ground cleared of weeds and dug over, and yes, it does have to be dug over the first time even if you want to do a 'no dig' system. (Incidentally I have a no-dig plot which consists of 20 raised humps upon which I do not tread.) Look at what you've got, heavy clay, light sand or a good loam. There's another of those under the wire words,'loam', basically it's a mix of the previous two and looks a good dark grey with lots of humus in it. Oops, there's another, 'humus' rotting down organic matter, from plants or manure. And I use 'organic' in the correct sense of coming from something which was once alive not a trendy shampoo! Anyway, back to the soil, just about any soil can be improved by digging in (or laying on the surface) well rotted manure, garden heap compost and, in the case of clay, grit.

The next step is choosing what to grow which depends on the time of year and WHAT YOU LIKE TO EAT! I've lost count of the number of people who grow radishes because the books say so, if you don't like it don't grow it! You don't have to grow early, mid and late spuds if what you would really like are good waxy salad potatoes like 'Charlotte'.

This is where the standard 4 plot rotation breaks down. It was designed to follow the farming way to get the best out of the ground by following a crop that liked a heavily manured ground, like potatoes, with a bean crop, which will manufacture its own nitrogen, with brassicas (cabbage family) which will use the nitrogen. It also helps to prevent a build up of diseases and pests which 'home in' on particular crops. This might work well in farming but in the home garden it doesn't always work so well as it presumes you use the same space for roots, legumes (beans), brassicas and that strange crop known as 'others' which is usually things like sweetcorn, courgettes etc. I always found that I grew more beans, squashes and courgettes than the books said I should and nothing fitted in!

What to do? Well, I started a note book and made sure that I didn't follow like with like each year and that each crop had the appropriate fertilizer before I put it in the ground and guess what?, the sky has not fallen in and I get good crops.

So just get out there and plant something, you'll have a few failures, even the 'good old boys' have them though they'll never admit it. But you'll have a lot of fun and satisfaction too. Especially when it gets on the plate!

By: 'Er Outdoors.