This is a strange time of year in a way. I’ve been busy sowing seeds, preparing beds and doing all those garden sort of jobs for a while now as some of you will be aware. I’ve put some things into the allotment but not many due to the weather. We’ve had a few warm and sunny days but our night-time temperatures are struggling to get about 3C.

I’m checking the weather online daily and it looks like we might be heading for slightly warmer nights in the next week – dare I put out my courgettes and squash? Well actually, I’ve had some outside for a few days now. I believe in tough love to a certain extent so I put some outside and told them to deal with whatever came their way. So far so good.

That is a mix of different types of squash and courgettes and I am delighted to say they don’t seem to mind the cooler night air.

The plan for the allotment over the next week goes something like this:

• Finish putting up supports for the peas and get them all planted out
• Put up another row of hoops for brassicas which are growing really well in the garden and need transplanted now
• Dot squash anywhere I can around the plot!

My real aim this year, my gardening word for the year, if you like, is: Interest.

I want it to get to the point that no matter where you look, there is something of note to look at, whether it’s a flower, veg growing well or sprawling squash! I’m also making a big effort with the flowers this year so fingers crossed on that one. I’m no flower expert so I’ve tried my best.

I have borage and calendula aplenty so I’m adding some tagetes, cornflower, sweet peas, cosmos, sunflowers and a few others.

And I’ve been experimenting again! I have been drying a lot of my plants for herbal use but I wanted to look for other uses, especially for my lemon balm. I looked online for inspiration and found some people have had success making wine with it! Not everybody liked it but I thought it was worth a shot. Lemon balm and rhubarb are growing very very well so it seemed like the thing to do.

Always seem to be drying herbs at the moment. Am considering trying to sell some on Ebay or just locally – haven’t decided yet!

I’m always on the lookout for new wine flavours to try so if you know of any or have just heard of some weird ones, I’m all ears!