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pots, which gives them a good head start. They'll develop a healthy root system before being planted outside sometime in February or March. Make sure the bulb is sitting about halfway down the pot. Two or three weeks before planting outside, throw down

scores highly on taste.Sow them directly into the ground or start them off in pots or root trainers, then plant them out when they are a few inches high. If you don't have space in the garden you can now buy patio planters which have very useful built

.If you have limited space, or are growing in pots, I always consider alpine strawberries a better bet than garden strawberries. Alpine strawberries are exquisite in taste, and although much smaller, they are ever-bearers, which means they go on

, low-maintenance and rewarding. Considering their price at the supermarket, they are also inexpensive.Don't be tempted to impulse-buy those specimens stuffed into pots that you see in large garden centres. In my experience, mail order plants from

, but you can peel them off to get to the red core in the middle at harvest time. If you want to increase the colour contrast, you can put a clay pot with the hole covered up over the R. 'Treviso' two to three weeks before harvesting.For succession planting

the Christmas decorations to the shed this morning - always a tinge of sadness - I stopped off at the greenhouse to harvest the last of our Christmas potatoes.We planted a variety of spuds in pots and compost sacks when we got back from holiday at the beginning

on the season. When you buy the dried tubers, start them off in pots with general purpose compost and water well. Keep them protected and then plant them out in May when all danger of frost has passed. You can keep dahlias in the ground over winter, providing

of the offsets so that you have a few leaves and a bit of root at the bottom. You can either pot this on till you are ready to plant out, or, put it where it will live permanently.  At this stage plants can be a bit vulnerable, so they need watering well