What else does one do when they have a whole lot of pallets left over? Make no dig veggie gardens of course. My grandpa was a gardener and loved to make things, and I like to think that it would please him to see we have three little garden beds of our own. My childhood memory of my grandparent’s garden is of carrots in sandy soil, citrus trees, apples and a hills hoist, the garage smelt of diesel fuel and whenever I am in an old  workshop I get a heady whiff of nostalgia that takes a moment to shake off.

My mum the champion of 1x1m urban farmering (ours is more of a 1×0.8m) helped me set up the bed with the Bok Choy, Radicchio and Butterhead lettuces. The neighbours next door on hearing that veggie gardens were being set up came brandishing what might be cabbages and broccoli, they weren’t sure.

The third we sowed with Tatsoi, carrots and coriander. But whilst the Tatsoi courageously popped their little heads into the sunlight, the carrots which had been squirrelled away with the coriander seeds by my mother possible decades before didn’t bother to stir themselves, all except one coriander plant that then proceeded to merrily bolt to seed before the month was over.