Challenging the natural order

The natural state of the bottom of our garden is a mat of weeds. I tried to grow vegetables when we moved in 12 years ago, but discovered that they don't grow under two large pine trees. These went three years ago, so I thought it was time to try again.

Of course I can't change the fact that the garden is at 190m in East Scotland, so the vegetable experiments [onions, artichokes, fine beans and celeriac] are still in the small cold frame, and the courgettes will spend all their time in the large cold frame.

Come autumn, Mme A will doubtless mock my pitiful harvest. In her mother's garden in the south of France you can almost hear the vegetables growing in summer, and the fruit is always sweet. That's the natural order!