The New Year is unfolding and I can’t help wondering whether the promised barbecue summer will arrive this year instead of last. Perhaps it will be followed by the mild winter we were meant to have, too. The weather, a British obsession, is still highly relevant to gardeners and I tune into the rapidly delivered weather forecasts every morning and evening assiduously.

The vagaries of the British climate are nothing new. Gilbert White (1720-1793), the curate of Selborne in Hampshire, recorded the weather conditions throughout his life. His Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne (1789) is the fourth most published book in the English language and one of the few books to have been constantly in print. White was a neighbour of Jane Austen, but they never met. He endured some savage winters in the mid-18th century.

In one entry he describes a story about rooks “which attempting to fly fell from the trees with their wings frozen together by the sleet, that froze as it fell”. Despite the cold winters, he famously managed to grow melons in his garden, which is still open to the public even in winter (tel 01420 511275).

In the last couple of weeks, I have been traversing the M5 in order to visit the family and it has been apparent that the weather can vary greatly from locality to locality. While we shuddered under snow, Tewkesbury and areas close to Evesham and Worcester were completely ice free. Not surprisingly this area is a growers’ paradise. A little further north, close to Droitwich, severe frost returned.

These local differences affect planting times and it will soon be time to start thinking about planting onion and shallot sets. One of the new things I’ll be growing this year is a downy mildew resistant F1 onion called ‘Santero (exclusively from Thompson & Morgan). It matures in August and has yielded well in recent NIAB trials and it should be useful in drier parts of the country where downy mildew is most prevalent. Traditional plant breeding techniques were used to select using a naturally resistant wild species, Allium amethystinum. This is found growing in rocky places in the Mediterranean region. Sets and seeds are available.

Another significant breakthrough is a new bean called ‘Moonlight’ (from Plants of Distinction and Marshalls). This is a hybrid between a French bean and a runner and it will crop heavily in high temperatures – something runner beans struggle to do. The creamy white flowers are self-fertile so you could get a crop without a pollinator. The foot-long green pods look like enormous French beans and yet still have the runner bean flavour.

In recent years, outdoor tomato plants have suffered heavily from blight and this year Suttons have launched five varieties of tomato plants grafted on to disease-resistant root stocks. These been used by commercial growers for many years, but now the home gardener can also buy them. The rootstock encourages greater vigour and plants crop earlier and more heavily. Three plants cost an average of £10, but the extra yield should be worth it.