SPOTLIGHT ON

Now is the perfect time to sow a few of the earliest vegetables indoors.

By raising your first batch of plants on windowsills you’ll give them a head start when you come to plant them outside in four to six weeks’ time.

Try small varieties of lettuce such as Little Gem, fast-maturing summer cabbage such as Hispi, peas (mangetout, sugar snaps and shelling peas) and early varieties of broad beans.

Choose a bright but not too hot windowsill and use small individual pots or one of those egg box-like trays of “cells” filled with multipurpose compost.

When they come up, weed out all but the strongest single seedling then keep them watered and, when they are three weeks old, start giving them a well-diluted dose of liquid feed once a week.

They’ll be ready to plant out when their roots fill the original pot, the leafy tops look strong and well developed and the weather is kind.

Sow sugar snap peas