I’m disinclined to venture into the garden when it’s cold and grey. I suppose I must own up to being a fair-weather (or at least warmer-weather) gardener. I’d love to be someone who can cheerily busy about outside in the cold but I have to accept that I’m just not! So, I’m sitting inside with my feet on the radiator dreaming of hazy days, beds bursting with colourful flowers, bees buzzing and birds singing.

Christopher Lloyd wrote in his wonderful book The Well-Tempered Garden, when giving advice about the best times to plant, “…I’m also a great believer in doing a job when I want to do it, and to hell with the consequences.” Wise man.