Good new for allotmenteers in Manchester. Thousands of pounds that has been collected from criminals has been donated by the police’s payback scheme is being given to an allotment project in Wigan.

The Norley Hall allotments will get about £5,000 to spend on a project to help youngsters who have been involved in anti social behaviour to give a little something back. They will grow produce and flowers which will be given to local victims of crime.

The scheme has been running for a while now and the area has seen a notable decrease in petty crime and anti social behaviour as a direct result.

The thing about having a garden is that it’s not just all hard work. When the sun shines, as it occasionally does in the UK, we look forward to reaping the rewards for all our hard work.

The weather has been dismal over the last few months so we are really looking forward to the sunny weather that is forecast for this weekend. We might even cut the grass!!!!

Even if you are a gardening novice you will appreciate how great it is to sit in your garden on a warm sunny day with a cold drink in one hand and your current read in the other. We are not pessimistic but we think we might invest in a good set of garden furniture this year. And a parasol to catch the drops of rain once we fire up the barbecue.

Just when we thought that spring had finally arrived, the heavens opened and destroyed just about all the seedlings we had planted out - a day in the life of the allotment gardener.

With the winter in the UK proving to be one of the worst in decades we thought that by the end of March we should be safe in the knowledge that things wouldn’t show a downturn, how wrong were we!

In hindsight there are things you can do to stop calamitites like this:

1. Start your seedlings under cloches or in the greenhouse where they are not susceptible to excessive rain or wind.
2. Plant out only established plants that will be able to take a degree of bad weather.
3. Be ready with covers if the weather starts to turn.

You will always lose a few seedlings in the early months of spring, especially in the UK. But when the weather finally gets better the fruits of your labour will finally be rewarded.

The end of March is the perfect time to start sowing your Sweet Peas. You can start them off in late autumn but if you start them now you will lose less germinating plants because of exceptionally cold weather or pests.

Sow the seeds about ½ inch deep in a large tray filled loosely with seed compost. Don’t be tempted to push the seeds down. Then make sure they are watered regularly. If you place them on a heated sill or green house bench they will germinate in around 12 days. When the first two pairs of leaves show, pinch out the upper tips to encourage strong root growth. You can plant them out in late April or May depending on the weather.

Chitting potatoes is an allotmenteering institution. It must be done every year and it must be done properly.

When you but your seed potatoes it is no good to just put them in the ground, they need to be kept in a cool light place for their eyes to start sprouting. This can take anywhere up to around two weeks to happen.

When the eyes have sprouted you will notice about 6-10 shoots from the potato – now is the perfect time to sow them. If you want a few large good quality potatoes it can be a good idea to rub off a few of the sprouts so only about 3 or 4 shoots take. Otherwise leave them all on and harvest the small potatoes early for lots of yummy early spuds.

After a cold winter it can take a great deal of effort to get out in the garden before the true start of spring. You may have noticed a few snowdrops and daffodils starting to peep through the earth and with Easter now only a few weeks away the time is nigh to remove those winter cobwebs and get gardening.

With ground frost still a distinct possibility you can still do essential jobs for the year ahead. Two of the first of these are the regular clean of teh greenhouse and shed. Keeping these two essential items well organised and free from clutter will mean that teh year ahead will run much more smoothly.

If you fancy getting your fingers dirty after the cleaning why not start to sow some early tomatoes in the greenhouse. If you sow them now your first crop will be in mid to late June, perfect for that summer salad

If you haven’t already decided which crops to sow this year, then there is no time like the present. You can order your seeds online now and they shouldn’t take too long to arrive. If you have been following a strict crop rotation pattern over the last few years, you might already have planned your beds for the coming year. If not, here are a few ideas of crops that you can start off with now so you can enjoy yummy veg over the coming few months.

If you warm the soil using cloches or even black plastic and are sure that frost is not going to strike your crops down before they get started, you can plant - broad beans, leeks, onions, shallots, peas, parsnips, spinach, carrots, lettuce and Brussels sprouts out now. Make sure you dig in some well rotted compost from your compost heap before you start and you will soon see the shoots starting to emerge.

At last the winter seems to be finally over!!!

We can start looking forward to a great allotmenting year ahead which promises to be another year of great times and great produce from our plot.

Before we can be really sure that winter has given up we can still do a few things on the allotment to get ready for the year ahead.

• Remove debris from last year and turn the compost heap
• tidy shed
• plan crop rotation for this year
• sort through old seeds and discard any that are unusable

Some crops can be started off now under glass or in the greenhouse. Spring beets and even carrots and broad beans  can planted under cloches or in the greenhouse now and planted out in the next month or so.

Things are slowing down at the allotment after the glut of fresh produce we had during the summer months. The cabbages and Brussels sprouts are still going strong and we hope to crop them in the near future, but we have now removed all the potatoes and carrots and stored them for the winter months.

Most of your time at this time of year is spent clearing the beds in readiness for next year’s plans, so why not get together with some of your allotment friends and celebrate the bountiful harvest we had during the summer months.

You could arrange a late summer barbeque and use some of the fantastic produce from the allotment to create wonderful salads and amazing side dishes. Why not celebrate the end of summer with a bang? You could have a bonfire and buy fireworks to turn your party into a real celebration. You could use solar lighting to create a great atmosphere down at the plot and see off the summer in style.

It is always worth checking with your allotment association if they will not mind the event taking place at the allotment. Some associations don’t mind if you can prove that numbers will be strictly limited and most people who are at the event are allotmenteers themselves.

If like me you have used loads of herbs over the last couple of months your plants could be looking a little wilted or even threadbare. If you have not been tempted to overuse them, then now can be a good time to take cuttings. Woody herbs like Rosemary, Thyme and Sage go mad in July and produce loads of great new shoots.

If you are new to taking cutting don’t worry because these herbs are really easy. Fill a pot with a good potting compost and take cuttings from the shot tips about 4 inches long. Remove the bottom leaves and dip the cut end into organic rooting powder. You can fit about 4 or five cuttings into a 5 inch pot, then water well. Place these cuttings in your cold frame or greenhouse and after about seven weeks the cuttings should have established themselves enough to be transplanted into individual pots.