In what Nub News hopes will be a regular monthly feature we are going green (er) with an expert column on gardening.

Here with a monthly round up of gardening guidance Frome's Trug and Lettuce, offers up tips for the coming month.

You can also catch his green fingered advice on Frome FM where he is a regular with horticultural inspiration, sound seasonal advice and how to take satisfaction in the simple fruits of a job well done.

"In the garden – February.

"Spring is in sight – well it's seven weeks away from the beginning of February – this year spring starts 21st March. And it was only a couple of weeks ago we woke up to our first dusting of snow.

"At the beginning of February and with the sun setting at just after 5pm we should be enjoying 9 hours and 14 minutes of daylight. Don't forget those minutes!

"Compare that to sunrise an hour earlier and sunset almost an hour later at the end of February and it's little wonder that we're seeing more and more bulbs coming through. As our outside space starts to spring into life We've got a few jobs that we need to think about this month that will also get us outdoors.

"These are our Top Five jobs for February.

"Prepare your vegetable beds ready for an early sowing and sow some vegetables under cover. We got our garlic in recently and when we last looked it was doing rather well. We've also got our broad beans and some calabrese seeds in pots in our own seed compost – hopefully they'll be ready to be hardened off where necessary and transplanted in a month or so.

"Chit potato tubers. Yes, its time to get your seed potatoes in egg boxes or seed trays with their eyes upwards and to encourage them to get growing. We started our off on the kitchen table the other day and the eyes are starting to sprout. Six weeks or so and they'll be ready to be planted out!

"Protect the blossom on your apricots, nectarines and peaches. We have covered a peach tree that we're training against a fence so as to protect it from any cold winds that might have been heading our way. The reason that's important is if we lose the blossom due to the weather then we can kiss goodbye to any crop this year.

"Think about netting your fruit and vegetables. We always try – and don't quite make it – to net our gooseberries and currants and to make some better protection for our brassicas. This year we've bought – at great expense – a roll of chicken wire and we're hoping to find the time soon to fix that to the wooden frame we have around that soft fruit. We also have some lengths of plastic water pipe that we're aiming to fix over the brassica bed and then drape net over – such to keep the pigeons at bay. This year………

"Prune your winter flowering shrubs. Those deciduous shrubs that flower in late winter - like Kerria, Forsythia. Mock Orange (Philadephus) and Weigela will benefit from a good trim to encourage strong, healthy shoots. Annual pruning also prolongs the life of these early flowering shrubs. They usually flower on the previous year's growth and pruning immediately after flowering gives them as much time as possible to develop fresh growth for new flowers in the following year. We'll be doing ours shortly!

If you'd like to know more, or if you have any comments or questions, then we'd love to hear from you. You can find our contact details at www.trugandlettuce.co.uk or you can email at [email protected]

We'd love to hear from you! "