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Early spring flower garden: -
Plant bare rooted shrubs, trees, roses and hedging when weather conditions allow. Move shrubs or other plants that have outgrown their current position. Always prepare new planting site first. Water well after replanting.
Rake out hedge bottoms and burn pest-harbouring debris.
Keep compost heap fully covered to exclude chilling rain, which inhibits waste from decomposing. It also prevents rain from leaching away much of the nutrients. Fences, pergolas and gazebos may require maintenance, check for rotting at soil level.
Kitchen garden: -
Check Brussels sprouts when picking over them remove any yellow leaves and firm each plant against wind rock. Taller plants may need to be stalked.
Chit tubers of seed potatoes by placing them in egg cartons or seed trays, eye-end at the top, in a light, cool but frost-free location.
Shallots can be planted in a sheltered position 6-inch (15cm) apart in rows 12-inch (30cm) between the rows. Cover the bulbs to prevent birds from pulling them out. Take cuttings of currants and gooseberries.
Cover clumps of rhubarb with tubs or buckets to force early stems.
Cut back raspberry canes planted in the autumn or winter to about 6-inch (15cm). Blackcurrants planted during the last four or five months should be pruned back to within 2-inch (5cm) of the soil.
Greenhouse garden: -
Ventilate greenhouses on warmer days.
Water plants sparingly in the morning if they appear dry and avoid wetting foliage. Check fuel levels regularly on paraffin and bottled gas heater.
Start begonia and gloxinia tubers, planting them close to one another in shallow pots or boxes.
Sow cucumber seeds in 3-inch (7.5cm) pots; exclude light until they have germinated.
General advice
Give lawnmowers an overhaul: sharpen summer-worn cylinder blades with DIY attachments. Remove caked on mud, then clean and oil all moving parts. Dig over vacant soil, ready for planting.
Clean out nesting boxes ready for the new breeding season.
Move houseplants to windowsills during the day to give them plenty of light.
Begin the general routine work of - hoeing, sowing, thinning and planting.
Stake herbaceous perennials before the foliage grows too thickly or to difficult to handle without breaking. Strong, twiggy sticks are ideal but there is some excellent thick wire support frames now available that are ideal, they will become completely concealed once the foliage bushes out.
Late spring: Begin to mow the lawn at regular intervals; the cutting blades should be set high so as not to damage the grass roots.
Flower Garden: -
Prepare soil for sowing hardy annuals in April.
Don't miss out on those important seed sowing dates, it's a good idea to organise your seed packets into sowing date order.
Lift and divide any congested clumps of snowdrops.
Plant out lilies, gladioli, gattonias and other summer bulbs.
Trim winter flowering heathers as soon as the flowers fade. Cut back lightly and never into old wood.
Finish pruning roses.
Prune back summer flowering clematis, cutting to just above the lowest shoots. Stretch black cotton over crocus and polyanthus if birds attack and shred the petals. Prick in bone meal around narcissi, scallas, tulips and other spring-flowering bulbs to encourage fine blooms next year.
Give herbaceous borders an overhaul; cut back dead stems to just above swelling crown buds and fork lightly around clumps, working in a balanced fertiliser.
Continue to prune early-flowering shrubs after they have finished flowering. If required, cut back branches of evergreen shrubs to improve the shape.
Feed roses and lilies with liquid fertilizer.
Window boxes and hanging baskets can be planted up. They will require regular watering from now on.
If you are intending to plant summer bedding, spring bulbs can be lifted in late spring. Heel them in some corner of the garden where they won't be disturbed the beds can then be prepared for the summer display.
Kitchen Garden: -
Prepare seed potatoes by putting them into trays with the eye uppermost and leave them in a cool, bright position to develop shoots.
Buy onion sets to plant out later in spring, or plant them in small pots if your soil is too cold and wet.
Sow crops of parsnips, early salad carrots, leeks, spring onions, peas, lettuces, radishes, beetroot, summer cabbage, corn salad, kale, parsley and broad beans when the conditions are suitable, i.e. when soil can be raked to a tilth and doesn't clog. Force rhubarb by covering crowns with large pots or buckets.
Keep hoeing between rows of seedlings, thin out where necessary.
Plant out Brussels sprouts, Cauliflower, Leeks, Marrows, summer cabbage, and Squash seedlings that have been raised under glass and hardened off.
Sow broad beans and dwarf French beans when the danger of frost is past, cloches may be used at night to give protection. Also sow Beetroots, Broccoli, winter Cabbage, Chicory, Courgettes, Cucumbers, Fennel, Kohl Rabi, Lettuce, Radish, Swedes and Swiss Chard.
Thin out shoots of raspberries, leaving six or seven canes to each plant. Mulch both raspberries and black currents with clean straw.
Erect cages or netting over soft fruit to protect it from birds. Top dress blackberries, raspberries and other cane fruits with 3/4 -oz. per sq. yd. dressing of sulphate of potash. Plant strawberries in a well prepared soil.
Pick off and burn blackcurrant buds that resemble grapes- these are infected with big bud mite.
Greenhouse Garden: -
Sow seed of summer bedding plants such as petunias in a heated propagator. Tomatoes and peppers can be sown now.
Learn about asparagus fern and staghorn fern at the Plants And Flowers site.
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