We spent a reasonable amount of time on a sunny morning at the allotment.  We rough dug the area that will be cucurbits (squashes, courgettes and gherkins) and finely prepared the first two rows for potatoes (once the chits are big enough for planting out).

Our approach to growing vegetables in the garden has always been to grow things we like to eat and to have a few markers for a successful year.  These markers have included things like home grown parsnips for Christmas dinner and pickled red cabbage on Boxing Day as well as things like not buying tomatoes in high summer.  As we got some free seeds, we have added pickled gherkins on Boxing Day to the list.

Fired with enthusiasm, we got some seeds going in a propagator at home for some of our main beds (butternut squash and sweet corn).