There may be more cold weather to come but we can be sure that the worst of the winter -- meaning the longest part of it -- is over. Spring is just around the corner.

Now there's a warming thought for a cold day. And here's another -- it's time to make up a hot bed.

In its simple form, the hot bed is a hole in the ground, two feet deep or more and filled with a manure mixture in a place that won't become waterlogged in heavy rain. In practice I make hot beds rather like long and narrow trenches so that I can erect tunnel cloches on top of them. Clearly you can vary the measurements in any way you wish to suit the dimensions of the cloche.

Into the trench goes a thick layer of fresh, strawy horse manure, watered well and trampled firmly, followed by a second layer of manure evenly mixed with leaves, and a third layer which has perhaps more leaves than manure. Finally there is a six inch cover of top soil which raises the level to just above the garden surface and, of course, this will sink back in due course.

Practice varies but my method is to make up the three layers in separate heaps above ground, turning them two or three times over a period of about a fortnight, by which time the trench will have been dug in stages. The pre-mixed layers will heat up quickly and will remain effective for at least a couple of months.

The leaves, by the way, help by preventing the heap from becoming too hot and scorching the roots of your crop. If you have no leaves available, a mixture of old manure or compost will act in a similar way.

There's a much more modern practice of making hot bed frames using soil-warming cables which are easily obtainable in a variety of lengths. I am told they are easy to instal but caution is advised and expert advice needed when it comes to connections to the electricity supply.

I shall continue with the hot beds of yesteryear as dug by generations of gardeners. The first will be for a crop of early lettuce, carrots, spring onions and leeks. A second will be made up in the next week or so, this one for sowings of a variety of early vegetables, including cabbages for later transplanting into the open.

Later there will be a third pit -- a raised trench with a foot high mound of rich soil in which courgettes will get a very early start, with cloche protection that will last until the spring frosts are a thing of the past.

Most of my tender and half hardy annual flowers are raised in a greenhouse, but there is no reason why these shouldn't be given the hot bed treatment too.

The same goes for cuttings and also for pots of herbs, including mint, chives and tarragon, which are quick to break into growth when placed on a warm surface under a cloche or frame. I usually place a few of these, and pots of parsley, wherever there is space over a hot bed.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000.Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.