Outdoors, spring is finally stirring, about a month later than last year. The soil has had a chance to dry out, buds are bursting, and wild flowers starting to appear.

Bumble bees have been bumping about the allotment, as if still drowsy from winter, honey bees are busy collecting nectar and pollen from the flowering heather and berberis in our front garden.

Indoors, growing activity is also stepping up. Our tomato seeds, sown just a couple of weeks ago, have already been moved into larger pots. We've sown Marmande and Brandywine – my two favourite big tomatoes; both top for flavour. Gardeners Delight is equally good for flavour, but is a medium sized fruit. And finally we have cherry tomatoes, a variety called Balconi Red which are compact enough to be grown in hanging baskets. Many of these seeds we've had for years, and are well beyond the "use-by" date on the packets – a useful reminder that it's worth trying to germinate a few before just throwing out an old packet.

Our early seed potatoes are showing the first signs of strong sprouts; the means of a good head start, once they are nestled into the ground.

"Chitting" seed potatoes, the practice of sprouting them before they are planted, gets them going faster, meaning they should produce a crop a little earlier than they would otherwise have done. Many gardeners chit their early potatoes, but it is not always considered necessary for maincrop potatoes. In fact, the same principle holds true for these as for the earlies; you will get a faster crop with bigger potatoes if you do.

Even more importantly, if late summer is wet, or, conversely, very dry, you will really appreciate the benefit of getting your crop to harvest sooner. Not only will the digging be lighter work, but the earlier foliage will have avoided blight attack or possible drought. The last two years have seen blight attack by mid August. So, the more growth the potato plants have managed before then, the better. Similarly, you'll have had the opportunity to lift your crop before slugs can get there first, which is what might be called a prevention, as well as a cure.

One way to chit your seed potatoes is to lay them out in a single layer in a box; large egg trays, are ideal, with the "rose" end uppermost. This end is often a little narrower than the other end, has the most eyes or buds, and sprouts will emerge from these.

Putting this end uppermost avoids the sprouts having to struggle around corners in their reach for the light, which can lead to them being broken off by clumsy fingers later.

Ideally, the chitting seed potatoes need to be kept in a light, cool but frost-free place. Sprouts will begin appearing within a couple of weeks, ready to put into the soil later in March. By planting time, the sprouts should be no more than about an inch long.