As I get older, the more I feel the need to grow more of my own food. Some of this comes from growing up with my grandad being a farmer who always grew his own veg and some fruit too and I want some of that for myself. I have also got a lot grumpier too-the idea of going to the supermarket that is full of people who get in my way when I’m using my limited spare time, to buy fruit and veg that isn’t always the best quality fills me with dread! Yes, I still have to enter such a place for certain things but the less I am there the better. There is also the question of how and where it is grown-you can never really tell-at least when I grow it myself, I know the how and the where.

What will I be growing in the spring?

This is the easy bit, the deciding what to grow. The vegetable seeds that I will be sowing in spring are the following:

• Cabbage
• Broccoli
• Beetroot
• Capsicum
• Chilli
• Cucumber
• Loofah
• Peas
• Pumpkin
• Tomatoes
• Beans

The flower seeds that I’ll be sowing include:

• Poppies
• Nasturtiums
• Cornflowers
• Borrage
• Sweet peas

Why am I restarting in the spring?

We currently have builders working in the grounds of the apartment complex in which I live. They are doing various works to the exterior of the building, currently on the section in which I live. This inevitably means there is mess and blokes tramping round and I really don’t want the mess or the blokes messing with my veg!

What will I do in the meantime?

I will be cleaning all my pots out that are currently unused, ready for when they are needed. I will also give my patio area a really good clean once the builders have finished their work-there will be sweeping and power washing (the fun part) happening in August.

I also have indoor plants to pot up too, along with my cacti which have been moved indoors for the winter. Nearly all of my sansevieria plants are very much in need of dividing and getting potted up into new pots with fresh growing media. This will probably be a couple of hours work in late August or early September.

I am also going to do a fair bit of reading on vegetable growing so that I can get the best out of the crops that I attempt to grow. There is nothing tastier than home-grown veg and I want to do it right this year, rather than getting far too excited like last year!

Those are my plans and I have enough time over the next couple of months to do all that I want to do before the fun of spring starts-including crazy plants growth and, hopefully, plenty of tasty veg for my kitchen!

I am also going to look at the better options for things like the pots and growing media used-as and when these things break or become unusable, I want to be able to recycle the pots and get something other than plastic. With growing media, I want to reuse it if possible so I want to work out how to do so in the best way I can with my limited space.

Those are my plans that I aim to tackle over the next two months of winter. As always, things can change but as long as there is progress, that will do!