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With the fruit swelling on your strawberries it's time to protect them and cover the soil around the plants with a mulch. This will prevent the crop getting splashed with mud when it rains. And don't forget to net the plants against birds and keep

.Serious potting has started on the farm. This is two weeks earlier than last year as the light has been so good that our wintered cuttings are already putting on new growth.Once the plants are potted they are then covered with horticultural fleece. This protects

but they're also rather gorgeous to look at. Their rich colour lifts your spirits on a chilly winter day when everything else is looking drab and dull. As with all brassicas, red cabbages need protection from pests, but as I grew mine over winter I didn

and frolicsome fairies (incidentally, if you feel that you need protection from fairies then you should carry twigs of hawthorn, ash and oak tied together with red thread).Among other interesting stories: hawthorn used to be called 'bread and cheese' because

about on a summers day it's wonderful to feel the soil running through your fingers. But when it's freezing cold only the most deranged gardeners would lay into a berberis without some protection - a bit like those football fans (always the fattest

The recent stormy weather has played havoc with my crop protection - my elaborate constructions of cane, twine and netting are no match for the weather we've had!But we allotmenteers are made of stern stuff and have been out weathering the storm

, brought into the warm and protected environment of my greenhouse to ripen in time for Wimbledon. When I came to harvest them, bowl in hand, the fruits were gone.Now it's the blackberries, which are just starting to ripen and will hopefully provide rich

? Did he tunnel under the wire? Or did he just grit his teeth (snails have thousands of teeth so that is a lot of gritting!) and climb the copper? My favourite theory is that he climbed a lily stalk and fell off landing within the protective ring. It

. Is it really worth propagating what are relatively cheap bedding plants, and keeping these protected over winter to plant up next summer? I'm always in two minds. Pelargoniums, fuchsias and a host of others really need to be propagated now, too, if cuttings

Flower Show. They have been grown without extra heat and no extra light in a greenhouse where the temperature does not drop below 4°C at night. This temperature protects from frost but does not force growth. Another good tip for those that want to bring