THIS winter’s endless storms have, I fear, done for my purple sprouting broccoli.

It’s not that they’ve been toppled by the winds. I long ago learned the hard lesson that tall, overwintering brassicas need to be thoroughly staked if they are to survive. Preferably, the stakes themselves should be taller than the plants, even once they’ve been driven 18 inches (46cm) into the ground. The stem of the plant must be tied to the pole in several places.

My stakes had held, and so had the old bootlaces I used as string, but when I went to check the purple sprouting after one of the recent gales I found the fine-mesh netting had blown away.

It was there to prevent pigeons eating the plants and — well, let’s say the pigeons noticed its absence before I did. They didn’t leave much.

In the hope that your luck is better than mine, now is a good time to give your PSB some maintenance. Start by checking the stakes and the ties. If the stakes are wobbly, you might need to take them out of the soil and bang them in again. If you’ve got the patience, change all the ties for new ones — they can rot in the cold and wet, and they will almost certainly be looser than when you first applied them.

Weed around the plants, if necessary, and snap off any yellowed foliage or broken stalks.

All brassica vegetables, but especially the taller ones like Brussels sprouts and PSB, need very firm soil around their relatively shallow roots to prevent them rocking in the wind. You’ll have firmed them in when you planted them, but it’s a job worth repeating now.

Wearing your biggest, heaviest boots, stamp around the base of each plant until the ground is thoroughly compacted. Compacted soil is usually a bad thing in gardening, but in this case it’s an essential.

It’ll soon be time to sow the seeds for next winter’s crop of purple sprouting. For a spread-out harvest, try sowing in March and again in late April. The earlier batch will have to be indoors, either in a greenhouse or similar (no extra heat required) or on a light, cool windowsill. By April you could sow the seeds outside, or do a second lot under cover like the first.

Use seed or multi-purpose compost to fill a small pot, seed tray or any kind of cellular or modular tray. The latter’s favourite, I think, because it means you don’t have to disturb the young roots as you move the individual seedlings on to progressively larger pots.

By early to midsummer the plants should have several pairs of healthy looking leaves, and be somewhere around 5 inches (12cm) tall.

They’re now ready for planting out into the ground. Choose a spot that’s sunny, not too windy, and with rich, heavy soil. And first of all, remember to move to a town where there aren’t any pigeons.