My wife, our two cats and I recently upped sticks and moved to a new house. The house sits on about an acre of land all told and this new space got me thinking (a dangerous thing in itself.) When I was little our house backed onto meadows and my dad extended our garden out to create a vegetable plot. He grew all sorts; potatoes, peas, brussels sprouts, tomatoes, lettuce, beetroot and a whole host of other things. We had raspberry canes, rhubarb as well as apple and hazelnut trees. The meadows grew pelntiful quantities of blackberries. One of the things that sticks in my mind were the runner beans we grew, with their brilliant scarlet flowers. That was a beautiful sight in Spring, as the plants trained up the netting and put out hundreds of bright red blooms. They seemed worth growing just for that. It was all part of the experience. Dad was good at what he did, building a greenhouse using timber and thick clear plastic and a compost heap out of old pallets. I helped out as I could, as did my sister and brother. Weeding mainly, I imagine though I also remember sifting soil through a large plastic seive to get rid of stones. You always look at your childhood through rose-tinted glasses – the summers were long and hot and there was thick snow every Christmas. Hardly ever true of course, but looking back, that's how it seemed. I don't remember that sheer hard work Dad put in, the toil and long hours. Just the good stuff - the way the garden looked when everything was growing, the wonderful taste of all that homegrown produce. All this bubbled up into my mind when I looked over our newly acquired garden. I resolved to make a vegetable patch. I went into it aware of the hard work but also of the rewards for that hard work. I began to read widely – books, websites – as well as to consult my father in law, a home gardener of many years experience of growing produce very successfully. I chose my site, grabbed my shovel and began to dig. This is my ongoing account of my efforts as I learn by trial and error, mainly error it sometimes feels like. Hope you enjoy it.