This is an ideal time to plant garlic. Choose a variety suited to growing outdoors in this country, such as ‘Chesnok Wight’ or ‘Solent Wight’. Select a sheltered, sunny spot with a light, welldrained soil and dig over the ground to remove all weeds and debris. Split a plump, healthy garlic bulb into individual cloves and plant them 6in apart, with the pointed tips 1¼in below the surface. Keep the plants moist in spells of dry weather and harvest the bulbs early next summer. For mail-order plants, visit www.thegarlicfarm.co.uk .

Biennial wallflowers ( Cheiranthus cheiri) provide a warm and colourful display of scented yellow, red, bronze and orange flowers in mid-to late spring. Plant them over the next few weeks in welldrained soil in a sunny border, 9in to 12in apart. Soak the roots overnight if you buy them in bundles.

Bare patches on the lawn can be reseeded now. Use a garden fork (or a hand fork) to loosen the top few inches of exposed soil carefully, remove large stones and debris, then rake it over to create a fine and crumbly tilth. Use a watering can to moisten the soil, scatter the grass seed over the top and lightly rake in. Keep it moist until the grass germinates.

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