Give good heat, water, hygiene and airflow to get them through to spring

It’s time for sowing, planting alpine containers and living screens and tidying up old growth

Add support to peonies that have, large, heavy flowers such as ‘Sarah Bernhardt’ and ‘Duchesse de Nemours’. Special tapered, cone-shaped supports for peonies are available and can be simply pushed int

Work your way through your borders, removing dandelion flowerheads before they get the chance to set seed. Flowers of dandelions are a useful source of early nectar for pollinators but if they are abl

Sow courgette and squash seeds now so you’ll have seedlings ready to plant outside in early summer. Fill pots or large module trays with peat-free multi-purpose compost. Place one seed in each pot, ab

There are some vegetables that thrive in the cold, but unless you aspire to self-sufficiency Tom Coward recommends caution when sowing very early in the year. “It’s a mistake, although we always do it