In these told dreary days, I really need to think about spring for the sake of my sanity. Getting my potato crop underway is a good start. There’s something so pleasurable about setting potatoes to chit, feeling their smooth skins as I look for the ends with the most eyes (rose end) and keep these uppermost. With the abundance of breakfast eggs eaten at the hotel I can always lay my hands on those enormous egg trays which are just perfect for chitting potatoes and, once I’ve placed the tubers in the trays I can even staple the potato label to the cardboard so I don’t get mixed up. The best way to treat February is as a run up to the spring, I find. Start as you mean to go on this spring by servicing and sharpening your trusty old secateurs – they’ll be seeing a lot of use later on! Strip them down and give them a good clean with some wire wool and a spot of metal cleaner to bring them up like new. Sharpen the blade with a whetstone, making sure you only sharpen one side of the secateurs blade, the other side has to lay flat against the opposing blade. Put them back together using a drop of oil to lubricate the moving parts.

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Although it’s a cold job, n this is the time I tend to I do all my apple and pear tree pruning. This is not a job to rush and , I’ve now had a chance ~*A to stand back and really study the trees H without their leaves for a couple of months so I know what I need to do to improve their overall appearance. First of all I stick firmly to the removal of the JDs: the dead, diseased and damaged wood and then I concentrate on artistry and opening up the tree to allow in plenty of air and light.