It’s the same every year, as winter approaches I’m always determined to continue gardening right through until Spring, let’s face it you can always find some jobs to do in a garden this size. But every year I don’t seem to manage it.

In my defence, it’s sometimes outside my control, for example last year we were under several feet of snow, and the year before I was decorating, but even so it seems to me the gardening switch in my head just turns itself off around the beginning of December, and refuses to fully switch on again until about March.

A lot of people don’t like January and February, but to be honest I quite like them, having a birthday towards the end of January probably helps a bit, but regardless of that, I feel the excitement of a new gardening year approaching and what’s not to like about that?

The trouble is I do tend to get a bit carried away, and as soon as even a hint of warm sunshine appears, I’m convinced Spring is here, and over-ride my gardening switch to go into the garden, even if it’s still February!

Consequently I have been known to come un-stuck occasionally, when I’ve tried to get things going a bit too soon, but this year it’s going to be different. Honest!

With that in mind, instead of rushing out to buy seed potatoes and onion sets, all I’ve done so far this year is plan the crop rotation in my vegetable garden. I’m going to plant a new strawberry bed this year, as the existing one probably peaked last year.

The ‘Lucifer’ seedlings that I sowed at the end of September and the ‘Rudbeckia’ experiment are both still hanging on in the conservatory along with flowering fuchsias and a few geraniums.

I’m going for long walks to keep me occupied until the weather improves and the switch in my head turns on and I can get back into the garden.