I can now categorically state that it was worth starting some vegetables off early this year.

I sowed a few brassicas and lettuce at the end of January and into February and they have come to fruition as expected - we've had a couple of cabbages and a couple of cauliflowers and lettuce by the bucket-load!

As the brassicas have now been harvested I can use the containers they grew in for the next generation of crops - some dwarf runner beans, for example.

This successional planting doesn't work for things like tomatoes - they just take too long - but it's great for the quicker maturing veg. It means that even if you have very little space and just a few pots, you can have at least one more crop from the same container during the growing season.

Cabbages, cauliflowers, lettuce and carrots have worked well for me - sown in January and February in the greenhouse, they were put outside with fleece for protection during March. They survived snow and sun, and gave a wonderful early crop.

I'll have to wait a few weeks before I can determine whether my efforts with "early" tomatoes was really worth it, but there are some large fruit already, so fingers' crossed.