Potato enthusiasts should be ‘chitting’ their seed potatoes now, putting them in egg boxes or on trays on a windowsill to encourage the potatoes to produce shoots, which will need to be about 2.5cm long before planting.

If you don’t have much space, you can grow potatoes in large pots or even used compost bags, spacing three to five tubers on a 10cm layer of compost and covering with another 10cm of compost and watering in well.

When the stems are 20cm tall, cover them to half their height with compost and gradually add more compost as the stems get taller, stopping when you ar nearly at the top of the container.

Keep plants well watered during dry spells. They should be ready to harvest about two weeks after the flowers appear.