I’ve never grown celery before. I’ve always been a bit scared of the whole blanching-thing – the trench digging, the wrapping up and filling in, just for a few sticks of something I’m not that fond of.

Recently, though, I’ve started appreciating celery more – as a child I couldn’t even bear to smell it. I’m gradually coming around to its charms though, adding it chopped very thinly to salads and finally realising that the umami depth it can add to soups is invaluable.

When I was offered the opportunity of growing Peppermint Stick (from the Organinc Gardening Catalogue)- which looks just gorgeous, I thought ‘get a grip, Sandra – how bloomin’ hard can it be?’

I am entirely entranced by the pastel-pink, cream and pale green colours, and I like the idea of a ‘spicy flavour’ – so much so I’m prepared to girl-up and face my fear of trench-warfare. I’ll be keeping a diary here, and returning to the post every so often with updates.

My first mistake was to sow too many seeds. It was mid-March and they look so teeny I was afraid they wouldn’t germinate. I sowed a half-tray, reasonably thinly but they all took.

Then I thought these delicate little leaves wouldn’t prick-out. I was wrong and, pricked out individually to modules in mid-April, there wasn’t a single failure.

UPDATE: June 16th, 2016

Well, I dug the trenches and they’re in. They’re surprisingly resilient and took well. I’ll wait to July then start earthing them up…