If you ever wondered why most allotments seem to be run by chaps who are, shall we say, no longer in the first flush of youth, there is a very good reason for this. It is because it is a lot of hard work if you are going to do it properly, and if you have a full time job it is quite challenging to find the time to do all your digging and sowing and what-have-you. So I consider myself remarkably blessed that Mrs Low is as keen on the allotment as I am, and is often to be found there toiling away when I am stuck behind my desk at work.

There are, however, one or two drawbacks in running an allotment as a couple. Sometimes, for instance, you have to listen to what the other person wants. Sometimes you don't get what you want. It is all very galling.

Since getting our plot, however, I have learned all about the gentle art of compromise. I have, for instance, generously permitted the cultivation of beetroot, a vegetable which in my opinion is fit only to fed to farm animals (and then only if they have been very naughty).

The other area where I have had to give in is on the subject of coloured vegetables. I am something of a traditionalist, believing that vegetables should be the colour they were when I was a lad: carrots should be orange, cabbages should be green, tomatoes should be red. My wife, however, thinks that there is no point in growing your own unless you include some interesting varieties. And that means growing a few fancy coloured ones, like purple Brussels sprouts and Red Russian kale.

For the past few years we have grown yellow courgettes alongside the traditional green ones. I have to admit they are pretty good, too. But the variety we grew last year, Soleil, turned out all wrong - a rather bilious shade of yellow with green streaks. They looked seasick. I don't know what went wrong, but I thought we had better try another one this year.

The question is, which? We once grew Taxi, which did pretty well our first year, but it is not widely available these days. Anyway, I am not sure I approve of growing a vegetable named after a New York cab on a London allotment. Some people rate Gold Rush highly, while others swear by Orelia. Then there's Parador, and Jemmer, not to mention One Ball, which are yellow and round. It is all very difficult. Perhaps I can interest my wife in the Italian variety Lungo Bianco, which is white, or Nero di Milano, which is black, or at least the sort of very dark green that passes for black. Then there is always Rugosa Friulana, a warty thing described by Seeds of Italy as "very ugly" - they're not joking - but also extremely flavoursome. Still, I've got about three months to go before I have to sow my courgettes: I expect I will have made up my mind by then.