The Flower Garden
- Sow sunflowers outside, directly where you want them to bloom
- Trim winter-flowering heathers, removing faded flowers and tidying up their shape
- Pick off faded flower heads from hyacinths, to prevent them wasting energy setting seed
- Plant groups of gladioli corms in borders
- Give azaleas and acid-loving shrubs a generous feed with acidic (ericaceous) fertiliser
- Plant out sweet pea seedlings sown last autumn
- Support oriental poppies with canes to prevent them flopping
The Fruit and Vegetable Garden
- Place card collars around the stems of brassicas to prevent an attack of cabbage root fly
- Sow pots of herbs such as parsley, coriander and basil
- Plant out early potatoes, onion sets and shallots
- Throw sheets of fleece over fruit trees on frosty nights to protect blossom
- Sow seeds of the following crops this week if conditions are fine: beetroot, parsnips, turnips, onions, peas and mangetout, broad beans, lettuce and salad leaves, spinach, radish, rocket, mizuna, pak choi, cauliflower, cabbage and Brussels sprouts
The Greenhouse
- Pot up rooted cuttings and young plants that have outgrown their pots
- Sow seeds of marrows, courgettes, squashes, cucumbers and melons in a heated propagator
- Water pots and trays of seedlings with a solution of copper fungicide to prevent damping-off disease
- Sow summer bedding, such as tagetes and dahlias
- Move young plants into cold frames to acclimatise them to cooler conditions
Around the Garden
- Treat timber fences, trellis and posts with preservative
- Install water butts to all downpipes on your house, shed or greenhouse, to collect rainwater
- Apply moss killer to lawns
- Fork compost into any unused border area, ready for summer bedding
- Cut away unwanted suckers growing around the base of trees and shrubs
- Lift large waterlilies from ponds, divide and replant them
- Clean pond pumps and filters, and make sure they are working properly
- Hand weed alpine and rock gardens
