I realise we’re almost at the end of January, but I thought I would take the time and reflect back at 2013, and look at my successes and failures. For me, 2013 was a pretty successful year. It was my second year on the plot and I had learnt a lot from the previous year, and I was determined not to make the same mistakes.

I would say my biggest success would be between my potatoes and runner beans. The potatoes fed five people (I split the crop with my mom, dad and sister) from June until the end of September. This may not sound a lot but, me and my girlfriend can get through a bag of 25kg potatoes in just over a month. My runner beans were non stop. I managed to fill almost two trays in my freezer with beans and still had plenty left over to give away. These will probably see me through until summer.

My biggest failure would be my sweetcorn. I had four good cobs from 10-12 plants and the rest weren’t worth harvesting. I’m going to try a different variety this year and also planting them closer together.

Last year, I started to build some raised beds. I found as I was weeding the beds, my knees and back would start to hurt and so something had to be done. To date, there are three raised beds, one planted with leeks and another with onions. The other bed is slowly been filled with organic matter and there will be another raised bed that will be built in the next month or two at the bottom of the plot.

The main thing I want to do this year is to grow more but less. Instead of growing lots of different vegetables, I want to cut back and grow more of what I would call the ‘core’ veg. This doesn’t mean I won’t be growing something different, for instance this year I’m going to have a go at parsnips and squash, it just means I’ll be growing more potatoes, beans, leeks, onions and fruit.