What a couple of wild weekends we have had, with Storm Ciara swiftly followed by Storm Dennis.

I’m sure I wasn’t alone, but I was sitting in the conservatory watching what the wind was doing to trees and hoping that it didn’t blow the fence down.

Alas I was not so lucky and lost a couple of panels – but that was not nearly as bad as what happened to some of our poor tenants up at the allotment.

Shed roofs were blown off, doors were ripped off their hinges, one greenhouse lost most of its Perspex and we even had a shed blown over.

Believe it or not, spring is on its way and there is plenty to be getting on with.

All my seeds have arrived this week, so I will be starting the propagation of tomatoes, chillies and peppers in the next few weeks. They all can be sown and grown in a very similar way.

What I do is get some module seed trays filled with a mix of good quality compost and vermiculite – a 70-30 mix – and put one or two seeds in each module, then sprinkle with fine vermiculite to cover.

Keep them moist but not waterlogged, as this would encourage a disease called ‘damping off’ and cause your seedlings to die.

Put them in a fairly warm place or a heated propagator and they should start shooting within seven to ten days.

Once the second set of leaves has formed, put them into three-inch pots with the same mix of compost and keep frost free.

Tomatoes and chillies are great to grow even if you don’t have a greenhouse.

A chilli plant can be grown on a window ledge and as you will probably have too many plants for yourself they make great gifts for people.

A good window ledge variety to try is ‘Basket of Fire’. If you have space in the greenhouse try ‘Joe’s Long Cayenne’, which dry very nicely and look great hung up in the kitchen.

A tomato to try if you don’t have a greenhouse is ‘Gardener’s Delight’, which is a prolific producer. If you do have a greenhouse, I grew ‘Sweet Million’, which my children loved. It produced hundreds of marble sized fruits which were delicious.

There are lots of other jobs you can be doing at this time of year, such as planting roses.

I was in Hillier’s the other day and they had a huge selection.

Gladioli corms can be placed in empty seed trays in a frost free light spot to encourage shooting before planting. This will give them a good head start.

You can still sow sweet peas. The varieties are almost endless and the scent in early summer is glorious.

If you are planning to lay some turf, now is a good time to think about getting on with that – provided the ground is not too wet or frozen. You can also get ahead by edging your lawn to create a crisp edge.

You can even mow the grass, but make sure that you have the mower at its highest setting so as not to damage the grass.

Steve Amos