Writing from the snow covered Alps thoughts of my veg patch at the height of its summer productivity may seem a long way off.

But I know it will be here in a blink and I'll need to get going soon, my seed order had just arrived as I left so I'm itching to get some things started as soon as I'm back.

Tomatoes; cucumbers and chillies can all be sown undercover preferably in a heated propagator, I'm not bothering with aubergines this year as I seem to be the only one that likes them!

Leeks, onion and celeriac can also be sown undercover also but no heat needed and I'll get some salad leaves going in sections of guttering for less root disturbance when transplanting; rocket, mizuna, winter purslane and mustard being my favourites for a peppery mix.

Get your veg beds ready by digging them over and removing weeds. Make the most of bad weather days by planning your plot trying not to put the same thing in the same place two years running this helps avoid a build up of soil borne diseases.

Spud you like:

My potatoes have also arrived, I've gone for my old faithfuls international kidney, a second early, waxy salad potato, which takes 13 weeks from planting in April until harvest.

I'll give them a head start by chitting them, this is basically encouraging the seed potatoes to sprout before planting by placing them end up in an egg tray or other modular tray in a bright frost free place, near the window in my shed.

Year round raspberries:

To encourage new canes to fruit you need to cut down your autumn fruiting raspberry canes to the ground but trim just the tips of summer fruiting raspberries canes just above a bud.

Although its lovely to have some autumn canes I am lacking in summer ones and I do think they are the tastiest so I'm going to plant a few of the variety 'Glen Moy' which produces an abundance of fruits from June to July on canes which are virtually spine free and therefore pain-free!

I'll get sowing as soon as I'm off these Alps!