Although we’ve been held back by the weather, there are some jobs which just had to be completed this month.

We applied a second spraying of winter wash, which will hopefully keep some of the fruit tree pests at bay. Winter washes are based on plant oils and are suitable for organic gardening. Before we started to use winter washes, plum aphids were a serious problem, but these are now kept in check. You must make sure you use the wash before the buds burst.

Winter vegetables are surviving the freezing conditions well. Carrots, parsnips, cabbage and leeks are still being harvested fresh from the ground – although the carrots and parsnips are showing signs of sprouting new top growth, so it may be time to start using them by cooking a few batches of soup for freezing. Meanwhile, the winter onions, broccoli, cauliflowers and spring cabbage have also survived, and in the cold greenhouse, the garlic is continuing to flourish.

Rhubarb, mint and horseradish are sending up new shoots, so we can dream of rhubarb crumble and freshly picked mint.

Our long awaited seed potatoes arrived. The only problem is where we should store them until conditions improve. Usually the tubers are set out in our cold greenhouse but this year the cold greenhouse is just too cold and the tubers would be in danger of becoming frosted. In the house is too warm so at the moment they are being stored in the garage where we will need to keep a watchful eye on them.

We always order a variety of seed potatoes, and this year is no exception. Some varieties are more susceptible to certain pests and diseases than others. We grow potatoes that reach maturity fairly early so that if blight does strike, which it seems to do now with alarming regularity, the plants still produce a worthwhile crop. Experience has also shown we have less slug damage on salad varieties and that some varieties do better than others in drier or wetter conditions so with our unpredictable weather we like to hedge our bets.

Shallot sets – Topper and Pikant – arrived so now our only outstanding order is for onion sets but as we have ordered heat treated sets these will arrive much later.

Having carefully chosen our seeds, it is always a struggle to resist also sowing those seeds that inevitably arrive with gardening magazines or as free additions to orders so why must ALL the garden magazines that we subscribe to give away free packets of tomato seeds? It’s not that I am ungrateful but can’t they be a little more imaginative and give away something different? At this rate we will have to open a tomato farm as we had already bought all the varieties that we wanted to grow.

To read my complete February diary click here.