My gardening DIARY

MONDAY Thinking of summer and planting out Campanula persicifolia ‘Wortham Belle’, a blue, double-flowered form of the peach-leaved bellflower. Choosing two slightly different sites to see where it does best. It sometimes suffers from rust so it was best to plant it out.

TUESDAY Evergreen ferns are appreciated most during winter when there’s so li le else around.

Dryopteris erythrosora, from China and Japan, is still looking pukka and will make a perfect backdrop for snowdrops, as will the soft shield fern – Polystichum setiferum.

WEDNESDAY Really regre ing having got rid of the Jerusalem artichokes. Rather than plant them in part of our limited veg-growing area they could go in the narrow bed along the hedge where their close cousin helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’ thrives. The catch? They have a reputation for causing flatulence!

THURSDAY We’re trying some early peas; ‘Feltham First’ and ‘Early Onward’ are two tried and tested varieties. We’re sowing in modules, one pea per compartment. We won’t be in any hurry to plant them out. They should give us a really early crop.

FRIDAY Skimmia ‘Kew Green’ is flowering precociously. It started at the beginning of December. Some years it’s reticent to flower at all, but this season it’s superb.

SATURDAY We’ve cleared the big raised bed where we grow beans and sweet peas. Their hazel pole supports are still in place – they should be good for at least another year. It’s lovely that they’ll last but it’s difficult to weed round them.

SUNDAY I sowed some sweet pea seed ridiculously early. It’s ‘Cupani’, the original sweet pea. Each seed had its own compartment and grew so rapidly, they were put outside to slow them down. They seem impervious to frost.