NATURE makes the best medicine and I love growing my own fruit, vegetables and herbs - particularly herbs!

My mum is one of those new-age mums that give you a cup of tea to heal any type of pain. And now I've turned into one too - except that I don't have kids, so I call my plants 'babies'.

I take great pleasure in planting my herbs and seeing them thrive. And I take even more pleasure in seeing them come back the following year - so far my fennel, lavender, thyme, rosemary, oregano, mint and sage have all come back to life after the winter.

And I've already planted six types of courgette, two of squash, one variety of carrot and leek and I'm getting ready to plant potatoes, onions and garlic next.

I think it's really important to be conscious of our environment. We live in an era where recycling must be a last resort - we need to reduce the amount of waste we produce. And bringing our food full cycle is a great step in the right direction. The county council is currently subsidising food digesters and composters in Allerdale and Copeland. Residents can buy a digester for just £15 instead of £79.50 or a hot composter for £20 instead of £108.90. These allow you to get rid of food and garden waste without it ending up in landfill.

I appreciate we can't grow all our fruit and vegetables here due to the type of climate we have, but there are things we can easily grow. This means we're less reliant on single-plastic-packaged food from the supermarket.

And there are lots of uses for what we plant. The flowers off the courgette plants are delicious if you pick them fresh, dip them in batter and fry them. I dry my herbs at the end of winter and use them for teas. I mix and match them in an old fashioned tea pot and experiment with the different combination of flavours. Lavender tea is great to help you relax and fennel tea is great to help digestion. I also save the peels from when I cook ginger and freeze them so they're ready for making tea. I grow my own chamomile and calendula flowers which I add to Jojoba oil for a great moisturiser. I also infuse mint in olive oil for a great salad dressing. And not having a garden isn't an excuse - a sunny windowsill is all you need to grow herbs.

Sorry, I must go to pick my first rhubarb now, that crumble isn't going to make itself!

- Lavender is great as a relaxing herbal tea but it's also great to sooth your skin. Make it into an after sun lotion by infusing lavender in Jojoba oil for around a month.

- Dip lots of mint in extra virgin olive oil and let it infuse for two weeks to make a great salad dressing.

- Chop some dried sage, oregano and rosemary and mix in a jar full of coarse salt - it'll be a great way to season your food, especially meat.

- Collect rain water for your plants using a water butt and buy composters or digesters for eco-friendly gardening.