They don’t have thermostatic temperature control, it’s true, but you really don’t need it because the heating element maintains a steady temperature that’s roughly ten degrees (F) higher than the surrounding air, which is perfect for using indoors. Costing under £40 (and you’ll sometimes find one for closer to £20), it’ll more than pay its way. It uses very little electricity so it’s cheap to run. And it lasts for years.

Setting it up is easy. Spread an inch of clean silver sand (sold in small bags at garden centres) over the inside of the base tray, and keep this just moist all the time. Sit the clear plastic lid over the top, plug the propagator in and leave it for a few hours – ideally 24 – to warm up before putting pots of seeds inside.

The key things to sow now are peppers, chillies and aubergines, all of which need extra warmth as they are naturally slow-starters. If you want to raise tomato plants to grow in the greenhouse or a walk in poly tunnel get those sown now, too, so the plants are in flower at planting time.

Choose small – approx 2in square – clean plastic pots, and check they fit the propagator neatly with no wasted space; aim to pack as many in as possible to maximise the space.

Fill the pots with multi-purpose compost, sow your seeds thinly, then water and allow the containers to drain before placing them in the propagator. If there are any gaps after sowing your essential veggies you could sow slow-growing bedding plants such as non-stop begonias and pelargoniums, or pot-plants such as gerbera, or parsley – which germinates best at 70F.

Put the lid on top; it’ll soon ‘steam up’ as humidity builds up underneath, and helps take care of your seeds. You’ll need to take a peek every few days; tomato seeds often germinate within a few days. There’s no need to take the lid off and let the heat out, as you can see in – despite the droplets of condensation.

Seedlings are ready to prick out into individual pots when the seed leaves have expanded fully and the first true leaf appears; by then they are big enough to handle but the roots have not had time to get too entangled.

Every time you remove pots of seedlings, refill the vacant space inside the propagator with a fresh batch of seeds. Early to mid March are the best time to sow most bedding plants, also tomatoes for growing outside in the open. You might also add early varieties of cabbages and caulis to produce plants to transplant outdoors. Then in mid April, when the propagator is emptied again, use it to raise seeds of courgettes, pumpkins squashes, cucumbers and melons all of which germinate in a matter of days at 70F or more.

Used wisely, a propagator is as good as a gardener’s apprentice, any day. But better, since it never takes a day off.

Midwinter isn’t the time you’d usually be thinking of doing some serious plant propagating, but its perfect for tip-layering – an old but effective way of propagating all sorts of cane fruit (blackberries, loganberries etc) and ornamental rubus species such as Rubus thibetanus and ‘Benenden’; also the unusual dual-purpose Japanese wineberry which has stems clad in a ‘fur’ of attractive foxy-red bristles and tasty wine-flavoured berries that you’d never find in the shops.

You might even give this method a try for your favourite rambler roses; there’s nothing to lose. First select a few stems that are long enough to bend over so the tips touch the ground. Then in a suitable spot, fork a little well rotted organic matter into the soil, loop a stem over and hold it down with a bent piece of wire like a hairpin – some people simply dig a little hole and bury the tip a few inches down.

Water in dry spells, and in three to six months (longer for rambler roses) you’ll have a good young plant ready to sever from its parent, dig up and move. Now, if the soil isn’t very good or the plant is growing on a wall alongside a path so there’s no soil available to use, you can still tip-layer a shoot, but instead of open ground use a pot instead.

Choose one about five inches across with a single large drainage hole in the base. Push the shoot up into the pot through the drainage hole leaving several inches of shoot sticking out past the rim of the pot, then pack the rest of the pot with moist multipurpose compost. Wrap a poly bag round the pot held in place with elastic bands to stop the compost falling out, and lay the pot on its side.

You’ll probably need to water the compost so it can’t dry out badly, so check it several times. It’ll usually be obvious when the tip has taken root; then simply snip the ‘umbilical cord’ to release a brand new pot-grown plant. It’s a great way to produce more plants of varieties you grow, to pass round to friends, but it’s also a technique you can do in a non-gardening friend’s garden, and go back to collect your booty months later.

by Alan Titchmarsh

When you’ve cut your teeth – so to speak – on the usual radishes, lettuce, courgettes, carrots and perhaps a tub of tomatoes on the patio, most novice veg growers like to branch out into more exotic territory. And there’s plenty of scope.

A lot of veggies that are rather pricy to buy in the shops are surprisingly easy to grow at home; they’re often easier than some of the old-faithfuls that a lot of first-timers start with.

If you can grow courgettes, you can also grow pumpkins, squashes and vegetable spaghetti. The timing and method is exactly the same, so spread your wings. I specially suggest trying ‘Turk’s Turban’ (a beautiful orange, green and cream-spattered squash shaped like a cottage loaf that tastes like roast chestnuts when its baked in the oven) and ‘Crown Prince’ (the very best variety of all for making pumpkin soup). If you fancy growing the notoriously temperamental butternut squash, DO choose a variety that’s been bred for the British climate, and give it your best warm, sunny, sheltered spot – you should get a couple of squashes per plant, even in a ‘traditional’ summer.

If you can grow outdoor tomatoes, you’ll do even better under cover. A small greenhouse or walk-in poly tunnel will give you a growing season that’s a good two months longer than outside so you’ll pick far more fruit, and it gives you the opportunity to try unusual kinds that only grow well under cover. You’ll be able to enjoy white tomatoes, green tomatoes (‘Green Grape’ and ‘Green Zebra’ turn a shade lighter when ripe, and taste utterly delicious) and giant beefsteak tomatoes such as the American heirloom variety ‘Brandywine’ which some tom-fanciers consider the tastiest tom in the world. All beefsteak tomatoes take longer to ripen than normal-sized varieties, so they rarely have enough time outdoors.

Once you have a greenhouse or poly-tunnel, you’ll also succeed with sweet peppers, chillies and aubergines which are grown in exactly the same way as tomatoes; they really don’t do well outdoors in our climate, but they are really worthwhile under cover. And if there’s room, cucumbers produce a brilliant crop too; grow outdoor varieties since these do best without any extra heat, and don’t plant them till mid May – you’ll have all you can eat from June till October. You could grow the usual long straight green jobs, or try white-skinned cucumbers, round yellow lemon cucumbers such as ‘Crystal Apple’, and the bite-sized baby cucumbers which are ideal for packing in lunchboxes and picnics, or simply eating straight from the plant as a quick healthy snack.

If you can grow radishes and carrots, you can also grow gourmet root crops such as yellow, purple or white carrots, and golden beetroot – the variety is usually called simply ‘Golden’ or ‘Burpee’s Golden’, but the flavour is fab.

If you’ve always grown runner beans, give the French kind a go. Dwarf French beans do very well in a growing bag on the patio or a warm sheltered spot in the veg patch, while the tall varieties are incredibly productive grown up netting under cover – even several weeks out of season. And do try some of the colourful purple or golden kinds, and thin, tender, tasty pencil varieties.

For no more effort than you’d devote to common-or-garden veg you could grow something extra-special that’s good for you, has the family begging for more, and saves a fortune on gourmet treats at the shops. Everyone’s a winner.

Although the Victorians mainly grew them as greenhouse and conservatory plants, they are brilliant for a wide windowsill indoors, and in a decent summer they also make stunning hanging basket plants for a sheltered patio or balcony. What’s more they are incredibly easy to grow.

But you won’t find plants on sale in the shops; achimenes are only available in early spring as dormant tubercles – which is the ‘proper’ name for the tiny odd-shaped tubers that the plants grow from. Garden centres often stock a few pre-packed in their bulb racks, but for the biggest selection of named varieties you need to order by post from mail order bulb catalogues (such as de Jager www.dejager.co.uk 01622 840229, and Jacques Amand  www.livingcolourbulbs.com 01962 840038). Buy at least three as it takes several plants growing close together to make a good potful; ten would be better still.

Start them off now or over the next few weeks. Put three or five tubercles in a five-inch half-pot, or ten in a full-sized five- or six-inch pot, using a mixture of 50:50 John Innes No.3 and multipurpose compost. Plant the tubercles half an inch deep and an inch apart. Stand the pot on a warm windowsill at 65– 70F, and water sparingly at first, increasing the amount slightly once shoots start to appear.

Take care not to let them dry out entirely at any time during the growing season, or they’ll take the hint and go dormant again – even if they haven’t started flowering. Despite what their name suggests, don’t water them with hot water – tepid is best. The plants originate from the West Indies, Mexico and warm humid parts of south America so they don’t like sudden cold shocks, and who can blame them.

By the time the first flowers appear, start adding a little well diluted liquid tomato feed to the water every week or so, and if your variety has tall floppy stems push in a few short twiggy sticks for support. (Old varieties often grow to a foot or 15in tall; modern varieties tend to stay shorter and more compact). They’ll flower themselves silly for months.

When flowering slows down in the autumn gradually reduce watering over several weeks and stop feeding, as the plants prepare to spend winter in deep dormancy. When the tops have died down naturally, trim the dead stems off close to the tops of the pot and stand them in a spare room at a temperature of 50F or above, and forget all about them till the following spring – it’s vital the tubercles remain bone-dry.

At roughly this time next year, tip the pots out onto a sheet of newspaper and pick out the tubercles to repot. (Don’t just start watering the original potful – they need fresh compost; without it they won’t perform half so well). But you’ll have a pleasant surprise; instead of your original three or ten tubercles, you’ll have anything from twice to five times as many. Hot water plants are great little self-propagators, so you’ll have plenty of spares to start new potfuls or give away to friends.

A good many shrubs that are growing in small gardens right now are really more suited to far larger places, and though they are undoubtedly lovely when first planted – and for several years after – they can in time outgrow their space by a large radius. Now, in many cases over-large shrubs are best taken out entirely to make room for something smaller and more suitable long-term. But some can be ‘doctored’ and turned from big bushy shrubs into good-looking, space-saving multi-stemmed small trees that look positively ‘designery’, by strategic pruning.

Good shrubs to turn into trees include myrtle, Viburnum rhytidophyllum, varieties of Acer palmatum, Viburnum opulus, Viburnum lantana, Cornus controversa ‘Variegata’, bushes of culinary bay, and Clerodendrum trichotomum. Even large species roses and shrub roses such as ‘Canary Bird’ make good multi-stemmed pseudo-trees.

The technique is simple, even if it looks a tad drastic at first. Start at the base of the shrub and cut out all the lower branches, leaving only several of the thickest main stems that are nicely spaced out to become ‘trunks’. Clean these up by cutting off any stems branching out from them up to a height of about four or five feet, so you have room to get underneath for weeding or mowing, and creating a light and open space in which to plant ground cover plants underneath.

Use a long-reach pruner to tidy up the tops; so they form nice neat shapes instead of looking shaggy. A few hours work is usually enough to transform the looks totally, and give back a large chunk of your garden. Don’t limit yourself to the shrubs on my list; frankly if you have any largeish shrub that’s truly outgrown it’s space, you might consider giving it a go on an experimental basis – and if it doesn’t work out, well, you’ve nothing to lose if the only alternative was to dig it out anyway.

When you want masses of colourful pot plants to fill your conservatory or indoor windowsills this season, keep costs down by growing your own – from seed. Nowadays all sorts of popular annual species are available in economical packets, which will produce more than enough for your needs, and probably provide spares to give away to friends – or to use for fund raising on plant stalls this summer. Seed catalogues (and the seed firms’ websites) offer a huge selection, but you’ll find quite a few on the seed racks at garden centres.

Good sorts to sow now include begonias, coleus, zonal pelagoniums, heliotrope (the deliciously scented Victorian favourite aptly known as cherry pie), feathery-flowered celosia, exacum (Persian violets) and dwarf gazanias. Sow them all now, one variety per pot, on a warm windowsill where it’s easy to keep an eye on them. Since the seeds are usually quite small (and begonias are more like dust), use a technique known as surface-sowing.

Three-quarters fill each pot with multipurpose compost, then top each one with a thin layer of horticultural vermiculite or silver sand, smoothing if off so its perfectly flat. Then carefully sprinkle the seeds thinly and evenly over the surface. Don’t do anything more in the case of fine or tiny seeds; anything larger can be very carefully covered but only to its own depth with more vermiculite or silver sand. Then water, but so there’s no risk of washing away tiny seeds, simply stand the pots in several inches of tepid water for a few minutes, till you can see the surface ‘topping’ turning a slightly darker colour, showing that it’s damp.

Then after letting surplus drain away, stand the pots in a drip tray or saucer on your warm windowsill to germinate; they’ll do very well over a radiator. Use the same technique to water again any time the compost starts drying out, which again you can tell as the topping turns a lighter colour.  Prick the seedlings out when they are big enough to handle, but that won’t be for quite a while yet.

You might have to pass on the rest, but a hotbed is entirely do-able even in today’s tiny veg-plot or allotment, and it’s well worth having. It’s a natural form of under-floor heating, traditionally used for producing early crops under glass or out in the open. A hotbed is a great way of making the most of a small veg-growing space. And since it uses materials that you’d otherwise put on your compost heap or simply dig in, it won’t cost you a penny. Here’s what to do.

Find a sunny, sheltered, well-drained corner where the soil has previously been well-prepared, and construct a rectangular frame about four feet long by two feet wide from old planks. Alternatively make a hotbed in a greenhouse border or under a walk-in poly tunnel.

Fill the frame with a mixture of kitchen peelings, cabbage leaves, eggshells, teabags, also any soft annual weeds, old bedding plants, and some fresh lawn mowings if you’re able to cut your grass. If you have a source of fresh manure – horse, ideally, with plenty of straw  – add that, mixing it in with the green waste, otherwise use plain straw, or dead leaves raked up from round the garden. Tread the mixture down firmly, and water so it’s evenly moist, then cap the lot with six inches of good topsoil or used growing-bag compost.

Now you’ll need a soil thermometer (this looks like a long clinical thermometer, from garden centres). Stick it into the centre of the mound and watch the temperature start rising as the contents start to rot; it’s just like a compost heap. After the temperature has peaked it will start to drop slowly, and when it falls to 75F you can start to sow or plant into the soil on top.

By then it’ll be February or early March, so you can use the hotbed to sow or plant early crops such as lettuce, spinach and spring onions. To make the most of the free ‘bottom heat’, cover the hotbed with cloches or sit a cold-frame on top. A Victorian gardener would also have used a set-up like this as a propagator for sowing seeds of veg and annual flowers to provide young plants for transplanting into the garden later. You can still do that nowadays.

But where a hotbed really scores hands-down is for growing frost-tender crops including French and runner beans, courgettes, squashes, outdoor tomatoes and sweet corn, since these are all ‘greedy’ crops that like rich soil and the extra warmth means you can start them several weeks earlier than out in the open – late April instead of mid- to late May. And cover seeds or young plants with cloches or ‘fleece’ till all risk of frost has passed. The natural heat generated underneath will do the rest.

So start now; by using a hotbed you can extend the growing season by a month or more at each end, which means you’ll be harvesting home-grown veggies and salads for far longer than usual. And when your first crop is over and the hotbed has finished rotting down, you’ll still be left with a patch of exceptionally rich soil full of very happy worms that’ll stand you in good stead for future crops. What have you got to lose?

Farmers in ancient times believed olive trees would not grow well if planted more than a short distance from the sea but modern experience does not always confirm this, and, though showing a preference for the coast, they have long been grown further inland in some areas with suitable climates, particularly in the southwestern Mediterranean (Spain and northeast Africa) where climates are mild.

Because of their preference for a warm climate and their dislike of the cold (temperatures below -5 can kill a mature tree), olives rarely fruit in the UK. The Chelsea Physic Garden had a bumper crop in 2006 and there are specimens around Kew Gardens which have produced fruit but the crop is not reliable due to the UK temperatures. It is estimated that in order for olive production to be sustainable as a commercial proposition in the UK, we would need a rise in average summer temperatures of 6 degrees Celsius.

More olive facts :

1. The top 5 olive producing countries in the world are Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey and Syria. Spain produces nearly 18 1/4 million tonnes of olives each year.
2. The olive tree grows better in a weak soil and prefers a limestone craggy slope. In rich soils they are predisposed to disease and produce poorer oil than in poorer soil.
3. Freshly picked olives are not considered edible because of the presence of oleuropein, a glycoside which makes the fruit taste bitter. The fermentation process results in the oleuropein leaching out, leaving a palatable olive. (One exception is the throubes olive, which can be eaten fresh.)
4. Olive trees are long-lived. Many will continue to produce and fruit for well over a hundred years.
5. Olives are harvested in the Autumn and Winter. In the Northern hemisphere green olives are picked at the end of September to about the middle of November. Blond olives are picked from the middle of October to the end of November and black olives are collected from the middle of November to the end of January or early February.
6. Most olives today are harvested by shaking the boughs or the whole tree. Using olives found lying on the ground can result in poor quality oil. Another method involves standing on a ladder and “milking” the olives into a sack tied around the harvester’s waist.
7. There are an estimated 3 million olive trees on Corfu island alone!
8. The gifted american landscape artist John Singer Sargent (January 12, 1856 – April 14, 1925) toured europe frequently throughout his life and painted several landscapes entitled Olive Trees in Corfu.
9. Olive trees generally start to bear fruit four to five years after planting.
10. Olive trees rare reach more than 4m tall in cooler areas although they do have a spreading habit and will develop a broad, spreading canopy unless regularly pruned.

Oh, I know you could probably buy what you want from your local garden centre in spring, but there’s a lot to be said for shopping in advance from seed catalogues – or their online versions – as in practice they offer a far more extensive range. Everything you need to make an informed choice is there at-a-glance. It’s all very armchair-friendly.

But if, like me, you invariably find yourself picking out far more seeds than you have room to grow and end up with a mind-blowing bill, try my back-of-envelope calculation method.

Starting with flowers; if you want enough bedding plants to fill a few tubs and hanging baskets on the patio, as a rough rule-of-thumb, allow one packet per container. You can still ‘mix and match’ the varieties that go into each, but you won’t massively over-produce or over-spend. Veggie-wise, it pays to draw up a paper plan of your veg plot on squared paper, and do it to scale, so you have a rough idea of the number of rows you’ll have room for given an average spacing of – say – a foot apart, and calculate your seed purchases accordingly. It’s the easy way to avoid over-buying.

That’s not the only place you can make savings. As you skim through the catalogues you’ll see there’s a huge difference in the price you can pay per packet, from one variety to another. So do you really need to pay top whack?

As a general rule the seeds that cost most are the very newest varieties, (particularly when they are F1 hybrids, which cost far more to produce); as a double-whammy, these also have the fewest seeds per packet. Now, that’s fine when you want to try the very latest new things, or they have some big in-bred advantage – a lot of new veg varieties are specially bred for resistance to pests or disease, so you can grow them organically without spraying.

New varieties may also have other assets. Amongst this years crop of catalogues you’ll find several with useful benefits. There’s ‘Butterbush’ squash – a compact butternut type that’s ideal for growing in containers on the patio (Dobies and Suttons), and white baby beetroot ‘Albania Vereduna’ that’s said to be far sweeter than red kinds, and likely to appeal to folk who don’t enjoy red goo oozing all over their plate. (Dobies)

From Thompson and Morgan comes a purple-podded mangetout pea ‘Shiraz’ which also has two-tone mauve and pink flowers, pretty enough to grow as sweet peas with a plus, up trellis on the patio; the same firm bring us ‘Best of British’ courgette which is bred to crop well even in a traditionally poor British summer. DT Brown have introduced a range of seeds to produce exhibition veg, so give them a go and make this the year your enter something in your local show. (They make great eating too).

But when you want lots of the same variety – perhaps for stocking-up the freezer, feeding a big family or dotting flowers round a large garden – then you might find that older and cheaper varieties of seed fit the bill perfectly well. So find a happy medium, with a few old favourites and some new varieties to try-out. Best of all, you’ll stay within budget.