Seed of tomatoes, peppers, chillis, aubergines, pumpkins and courgettes can all be started off inside on a window-sill in pots at this time of year. I like small 7cm pots as you can fit lots into a tray and place them on a window-sill or on the table beside a bright window.

As your seeds germinate they will benefit from being shaded from really intense light (in my case this is an east-facing window so I keep the curtains drawn for as long as possible on very bright days). Feed your plants with a general food or tomato fertiliser every other week to keep them growing strongly. Turn the pots every few days if the seedlings begin to lean towards the light. You will probably need to pot some of them on into larger pots as they grow so plan how much space you’ll need indoors to fit them all in.

These plants will not be able to go outside permanently until the danger of frost is gone. At the start of May I usually put them outside on warm days and bring them in at night, then they can be gradually acclimatised to night-time temperatures by using a cold-frame or a mini green house before planting out into their final positions. Don’t rush the process, plants that aren’t hardened off properly will have their growth checked by the cold if planted outside suddenly. If you have a greenhouse you can use that to harden them off, or as their final position.

Sometimes nature throws the gardener a curve-ball inb the shape of a weed or an insect that you’ve never seen before. Being slightly nerdy I always like to look them up so I can impress my friends with my insect knowledge.

The Natural History Museum website is good for photos and info on insects.

This commercial site has a good selection of photos to help you tell the difference between your plants and weeds.

At the allotments, things are stirring at ground level. The weeds are making a comeback after a cold spell last month. It won’t take them long to get a foothold so this is a good time to get out there and dig a few up. I like to pull or dig them out and then rake the surface to level it (on beds not yet in use) and then come backa week later to pull up any new weeds before I sow my seeds. This is the ’stale seedbed’ method that helps to get those first weeds out of the way, in theory you are supposed to get fewer of them around your crops later on.

I think it gives the vegetable seedlings a slightly better chance to grow away with less competition early on, and it’s worth trying if you have time.

PS. The ladybirds are emerging too, I seem to see them on the soil a lot. Perhaps they have flown down to warm up, or maybe they hibernate in the loose bits of soil, I’m not really sure. Either way protect them, they will be useful on your broad beans in about a month’s time when the bugs get started.

I was on the North Yorkshire Moors this time last week and it made me think about the powerful effect of wind on plants.

The flora on the moors (I was on the Rutland Rigg to be precise) is low growing and hummocky in shape. Nothing above this size flourishes at the top of the moors because the wind is so stong it dries out anything that grows taller than it’s surroundings. The precise action of the wind is that it quickly removes moisure from leaves in it’s path, these leaves are more vulnerable to dying from dessication as are the buds on the same side. This action produces those windswept and shaped trees that you often see alongside roads as you travel uphill. As only the leaves and buds on the side away from the prevailing wind can flourish wind distorts the growth pattern of the plant. The effect is strongly scuptural.

The low growth on the moors forms a protective barrier to the growth around it and to the soil below by diffusing the wind, not blocking it but instead breaking it up and slowing it as it passed over and through the plants. If those plants die then the soil becomes exposed and is more likely to dry out and blow around as dust.

Hedges form an effective barrier to wind, many species are hardy enough to cope with wind. Plants with shiny and waxy leaves resist water loss from their leaves better. Evergreens are adapted with their needle-shaped leaves to resist water loss from the plant. All plants help to break up and slow down winds, this contrasts to the way a wall may actually act as a barrier that makes powerful gusts blow up and over, spiralling currents over plants behind the wall that we may think are protected.

The weather has put a stop to gardening!

It can be a useful aid that shows you where the blank areas of your garden are and allows you to plan where you want to fill gaps in the coming spring.

Here is where to begin: The Whitchurch Potato Festival, in Hampshire on the 24th and 25th of January.

There will be many, many, varieties of potato to choose from (judging by past years) and even some sexy disease resistant varieties. You can also get gardening advice, buy or swap seeds and buy plants on the day. It’s usually a couple of quid to get in and make sure you get a catalogue of the varieties that will help you choose the varieties by cooking method and pest/disease resistance.

I can’t recommend these days enough. They allow you to buy small quantities of seed potatoes, in contrast to often having to buy kilos of them from the seed merchant catalogues. Tubers are priced individually at 15p each, or you can still buy them by the 2.5kg bag. This means you can buy just enough for your space and try several varieties to get crops across a longer period or to find ones you prefer the taste of.

My own favourites include:

‘Epicure’ - always reliable, good cropper and untouched (on my patch at least) by pest or disease.
‘Fleur Pecheur’ - Pink potatoes, lovely roasted, small size but lots of them.
‘Arran Victory’ - lots of fab purple potatoes.

PS. I bought a bag of shallots ‘Jermor’ at the festival last year and they were a real success. I’ll be trying a different variety this year. Simply plant into small pots and plant them out when the weather warms up a bit in early spring. They needed almost no attention apart from a bit of water for the first few weeks, I harvested simply bags of them in august.

You have probably already noticed, but here are a few pointers for gerdening in the cold.

Don’t leave potted plants sitting in dishes of water, because the rootball is likely to be wet when the water in the dish freezes the cold will travel into the roots of the plant. This is not likely to do them any good. I usually put pots on their sides in wet and cold weather to help stop the roots getting too wet.

Planting, digging and sowing are usually discouraged if the groud is waterlogged or frozen. Not only will the work be difficult, it can also damage the structure of the soil and most plants and seeds won’t thrive in cold and wet ground. Wait until it warms up a bit first.

Feed your local birds. It’s tough beight small and hungry at this time of year, supplies of berries and insects are low and the cold weather means they need more calories to survive. Peanuts, bacon rind, crumbs of cake and seed mixes will all help them survive to eat the caterpillars off your roses next summer. Try to find a place to put out water too, I have to remove the ice from my bird bath daily but watching them splash about when I get back into the warmth makes the job worthwhile.

Perhaps you will be rewarded by a sighting of one of these little fellas, like I was today, for your efforts.

It’s always good to have something to look at through these short and dark days, here are just a few of the things that I grow that are still going strong in December.

Stipa tenuissima - wispy looking grass that is getting more golden as winter comes on and moves gracefully in the wind. It has a pleasing fountain shape too.

Penstemon - I grow two different types purple flowering ‘Garnet’ and red ‘Maurice Gibb’ and they are still in flower with buds still to come. These plants really seem to keep going through all the cold and wet weather.

Rosa ‘Charlotte’ and ‘William Morris’  - These are ‘English’ Roses from David Austin and not only are there still flowers on both of them but they seemed to be growing until late in November.

Hellebores - I have some hybrid hellebores that were from a plant fair and so have no names but they are covered in buds and bright green foliage. I can’t wait for the flowers to come and cheer up the shady area where I planted them.

Box - evergreen box is often listed as a winter plant and the ability to shape it by clipping means that the shapes take on more importance in the garden as other plants die off for the winter.

Sage - evergreen sage is still looking good in my back garden and it looks even better with frost all over the grey-green leaves. Handy for soups too.

I always try to record in a notebok all the things i have grown at the allotment, and which ones have been the most successful. This gives me something to look back on and will eventually provide me with a list of sure-fire winners I can return to growing year-after-year.

This year, even with all the rain, has not been without successes.

Courgettes
These are always fairly easy but the amount of rain this year seemed to turbo charge my courgettes and at times there were simply too many to use. It’s good that my neighbours like them too! I always grow a variety of shapes and colours including ‘Zucchino Romanesco’ from Franchi seeds. These are mid-green fruits with long ridges down the sides that store well in the fridge. I also grew two types from the Kings Seeds catologue: Dark green ‘Zuccini’ and the spherical yellow ‘Floridor F1′.

Shallots
I have never grown these before but they were incredibly easy. I bought sets from my local Potato Festival and planted them in late january into small pots of compost. In late february these were planted out at the allotment and watered in. I did no more than weeding until July when the foliage began to die off and I harvested them. I still have a large bowl to use in cooking and I may keep a few for planting next year. The variety I grew is called ‘Jermor’.

Carrots
Up till now my efforts with carrots have been dismal. My soil is heavy and full of stones, not a recipe for great carrots and so I tried a short rooted variety (from Kings Seeds again) called ‘Paris Market Baron’ this year in the hope that they would be able to grow despite the soil conditions. I have managed to get a far better crop than ever before, although there were losses to the slugs.

Anyone who grows fruit and veg in their garden or at an allotment will be able to remember their own crops turning up in unusual forms with regularity.

This weekend I dug up my first crop of parsnips, many of them were knobbly. Some, where I had obviously dropped a few seeds into the same area, had grown into a fantastic confusion of twisted roots. They came out ridged and sensuously curvy where they had grown around their neighbours.

The Times reports that the EU have finally decided to end the ban on selling strangly shaped fruit and veg in the supermarkets. (You can read it here) I think that this is a sensible idea and it’s a shame they have taken so long to put an end to the waste that this regulation must cause.

After all, there is nothing wrong with this food apart from the way it looks. It may be fiddly to prepare but it will taste the same as more photogenic specimens. I hope it will also mean that fruit and veg grown in this country will have an easier time making it into our supermarkets.

Of course, if you want to have a go at growing your own ‘interesting’ vegetables then try the tips for growing your own here. Believe it or not this is a good time to start planning a vegetable garden or allotment because you can set up beds, improve soil and order you seeds at this time of the year. Then you’ll be ready to start growing in spring 2009.