WRAP UP THIS WINTER

Not so long ago the accepted wisdom was to dig your soil over in the autumn (maybe even double dig if you were a glutton for punishment), thus exposing it, and any pests that may be hiding in it, to the frost and rain. At the same time, you would incorporate your well-rotted manure or garden compost and by spring the soil would be crumbly and easy to rake down to a fine seed bed for sowing.

I started gardening with my father and there was an unspoken race among gardening friends to see who could get their plots dug the earliest before the onset of winter. There would be smug comments from the ‘winners’,