What made me decide to write this separate blog? Well it all started with Christmas and brussel sprouts! Let me explain. When I was little I used to spend a lot of time helping my grandfather (Grampy to me) on his allotment and in his greenhouse, with it's little paraffin heater in the winter (I think it was his escape from my Gran!). Nearly everyone I knew back then who had a garden grew vegetables even on the smallest patch of earth - no sign of decking, hot tubs or large patios.  I remember being amazed whilst he dug up plants that we had helped him sow months before. And we scrabbled around in the soil searching out potatoes as he lifted the plants and in the summer having stained fingers from picking blackberries and black currants amongst other fruit. At Christmas there were fresh parsnips, potatoes and brussel sprouts to pick - nothing tastes better or is more satisfying than fresh vegetables or fruit that you have grown. When I first left home I lived in a flat and forgot about gardening - never did I think I'd grow up to love being in the garden. When Clive and I moved into our first house together and money was tight I cleared a small patch in the garden and started growing a few vegetables. When our son was a toddler he liked nothing more than to help me in the 'veg patch' by digging a big hole and when given seeds would, of course, simply throw them over the soil rather than place them in neat rows. In the summer our patch was known as a 'mixed salad' with various lettuce growing mixed in with carrots and shallots. My fruit and veg patch was never big enough to grow my sprouts and it's become a bit of a family joke me saying each Christmas for years,  'One day I'll be able to go outside on Christmas Eve and pick our sprouts'.