Time for a raincheck, I think — and talking of which, wasn't it alarming to be having to use sprinklers in April? Some of our ambitions have fallen by the wayside already. Top of the dishonours list is the celery and celeriac: twice I have sown them, in greenhouse, in cold frame, covered in clingfilm, covered with Perspex, watered, not watered too much. Six weeks of it, following every guidebook I could (why do they all contradict one another?) and not a peep from the seeds. I shall be leaving those for another year: if anyone has any foolproof ideas about how to germinate them, I would love to hear them.

The trench of lettuce that I resowed in the same soil after the first seedlings died has, as our expert adviser Sarah Wain predicted, also come a cropper — if you can use that phrase about something that never came anywhere near cropping. No matter: there is more sown directly into the ground and doing fine, if a bit hesitantly.

The fennel is worryingly invisible, too: I think the peat pots I sowed in, to avoid transplanting later, may be too small and are drying out too quickly. The sudden hot weather caused problems in a sweltering greenhouse that we cannot water often enough. I shall plant some more directly into the ground.

But our successes far outweigh our failures. Pretty much everything else is coming up roses for now. We have begun eating our own bright and peppery radishes. I really recommend growing them if you like them; they are so fast and easy. Even the parsley I had given up on, sowed outside too early, is beginning to peep through.

We have red cabbage and sweetcorn and courgette and aubergine and very fine tomato plants in our pots, and asparagus peas and broad beans getting on with life outside. The winter broad beans are nearly ready to crop. I have been getting creative among the onions too, with intermittent rows of rocket and coriander.

So I predict a very fine summer (I always do). But first, a rash. This column isn't really supposed to be about fruit, but our currant bushes — red, black and white — have an angry raised red rash on their leaves. Any ideas, anyone? Post your advice.

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