The daffodils are over but there are seedlings all over the garden of various plants such as Lunaria annua “Variegata” one of the few variegated plants that come true from seed.

Dig seedlings up and give away to friends or move them to another part of the garden.

The purple helebores are not so purple now and looking a bit sad. Cut off the old flowers, but I always leave one or two to ripen and set seed in the garden. Who knows you might just get lucky and produce  a new exciting variety!

Bulbs that are dying back can be fed with a foliar feed to give the bulbs a boost for next year. Do not cut down the foliage.

Spring flowering plants such as Kerria and Forsythia should be pruned as soon as they are finished flowering. Cut the flowering branch to the ground as new growth produced this year will be the flowering wood for next winter/spring.  Give them a topdress of mulch and feed them with a general fertilizer.

When is a weed not a weed?  “A weed is a plant in the wrong place” so the saying goes so last week when I was on the train coming back from a judges meeting on Britain in Bloom and coming into a station through the corner of my eye (with variofocals!) I saw a bed full of lovely yellow flowers. Only when the train stopped I could see they were dandelions! A plant in the wrong place or one years seed seven years weed?!

I’m feeling old this week as it seems every time I do gardening my back aches! I was thinking about this yesterday when weeding and should have been kneeling but squatted instead! A friend of mine used to say “Never stand when you can sit, never sit when you can lie”!

So do I go and get that knee pad now?

Happy gardening. See you next week. If you want to know more about gardening join me on www.babicz.com

Andrew