I suppose one shouldn’t have favourites, but I am bursting with pride over my fennel: two gorgeous lines, cute with frilly tops. Fennel was one of the two vegetables that I selected myself (the other being the slightly more dubious okra), and I hadn’t expected to have such success with it.

So many little frills that I had to transplant a few to give them more space. I moved just five, carefully, and waited to see how they would react. One bowed its head and died on the spot. The others are perky, but the fronds are yellowing, which I suspect isn’t good news. So the rest will have to stay put until they are ready – September, I think.

There is a phenomenal amount of weeds around them too: the remains of last year’s Jerusalem artichokes, which should have been dug up, are re-germinating everywhere. Among the broad beans are sprouting potatoes, also from last year’s crop. All quite a nuisance. As if there weren’t enough “natural” weeds to be dealing with. The broad beans are also suffering from hordes of black sticky things, which I am told are blackfly.

With so much caretaking, planting has become slapdash. I have lost the okra seed packet and the A-Z vegetable book so not knowing what to do with the okra plants, I plonked them in between a load of butternut squash. I’m waiting to see what happens. We have been careless with marking, so the courgettes and squash got muddled up, and all look the same. They’re also close together, so I hope they don’t mind being moved as much as the fennel.

Still, the sun shines, the potatoes, broad beans, spinach, onions, strawberries and lettuce are delicious; the redcurrants and garlic are nearly ready; we’re surrounded by wild meadow and Sally’s flowers – all more fun, if more time-consuming, than going to Tesco.

Expert advice

• Fennel doesn’t like having its roots disturbed, so transplanting it will always be a lottery, especially if you can’t keep the young plants well watered afterwards. To get row perfection, either sow in module trays and plant out in their module rows, or if you direct sow, be generous with your seeds and make a little circle round each seed that you sow. That way, you won’t disturb the neighbouring seedlings when you thin out.
• Treat blackfly the organic way: blast with a jet of water (not in times of drought, of course), or pinch out tips to a leaf junction to remove if not all then most of the blackfly.

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