Gardeners' World icon Monty Don has admitted that he 'cheats' as he prepares for a crucial gardening date that is coming up on the horizon next month.

According to Monty, February 15 is an important date for green-fingered Brits because it's when you should start sowing the first seeds of spring. Speaking to BBC Gardeners' World magazine, the 69-year-old explains that by then all seeds should have been ordered and delivered while they should also have been put away in the right place with the potting shed prepared for action.

The middle of February is too long to wait for Monty though, as the gardening legend admits he 'cheats' in an attempt to get a head start.

He wrote: "A whole garden is spread out on the table before me. An entire year's worth of vegetables and flowers, packeted up in little rattling parcels of promise, grouped into annuals, biennials, perennials, herbs, brassicas, legumes, roots and salads, with sub-divisions of type, variety and hardiness.

"Then they go into their draws in the potting shed and stand by until called.

"I cheat, of course. The middle of February is a long time to wait, although all experience shows that there is practically no advantage to starting any earlier on our cold, wet Hertfordshire clay.

"Sweet peas, chilli peppers, tomatoes, onions, leeks and early salads, can all be sown any time after Christmas - but it's not a race, and a seedling stuck in its pot or cold ground will be set back by more than any delay in sowing, as well as being more susceptible to slug damage."

It comes after Monty revealed an early spring activity that's 'always a mistake'.

He said: "It's very tempting to mollycoddle seedlings, especially early in the spring. This is always a mistake."

Warning fellow horticulturists not to "mollycoddle" their seedlings over the coming months, he has advised that, as they germinate, gardeners should remove them from any kind of heat from below and, instead, place them somewhere under cover and that has ample ventilation.

The 69-year-old issued further guidance when it comes to caring for the seeds while they begin their lives in the compost before they are later planted in soil.

Monty claims that he never overfeeds his seedlings and that this way they will be able to adapt to the soil more quickly and easily.

The gardening legend has been Gardeners' World's main presenter since 2003, replacing Alan Titchmarsh, and he also presents Monty Don's Spanish Gardens.