Plenty to do during January

aphids) as not only do they drain the life out of beans and tomatoes, they can spread disease. Squash them by hand. It’s very effective (and quite satisfying) for keeping the numbers down early in the season. Keep slugs and snails in check too. The best time to catch them in the act is on a wet night. seed is very fine so take your time carefully sowing the seed. Try not to sow it too thick, as you’ll need to thin out the seedlings later. And if you have cats, you’ll need to cover the seed row to stop them digging the seeds up before they sprout. Use bird netting or get a 30cm wide piece of chicken wire, as long as your row, and bend it in half to make a triangular-shaped cover to lay over the top. Sow carrots between rows of onions to help confuse the carrot rust fly, which is attracted to the smell of carrot foliage. blossom end rot (brown patches at the base); too little and they’ll fail to develop at all.

Feed your tomatoes with liquid food every week if possible for the best crops. You might notice that the oldest leaves on your tomatoes (the ones at the bottom) are starting to turn yellow and look unhealthy.

Don’t panic. Just use a sharp, clean pair of secateurs to snip them off. Removing the lower leaves also lets sunlight in to ripen the fruit and improves air circulation around your plants, reducing the risk of blight. Don’t take off too much foliage though. If tomatoes are fully exposed to the sun, their skins can burn.