It’s bed-time for asparagus
Asparagus
Asparagus crowns are available in garden centres. Before planting, choose a site for a bed, remembering that asparagus should be considered a long-term crop and will be happiest in the same spot for up to 20 years. It grows best in light and free-draining soil.
Weed the bed thoroughly, removing all perennial weeds, such as twitch, convolvulus, dock and oxalis. Then cover bed thickly with compost.
Plant crowns about 5cm below the soil surface and 40cm apart, with 1m between rows.
Edibles
Seeds of beans, brassicas, courgettes, cucumbers, eggplant, lettuce, spring onions, pumpkins, rocket and tomatoes are among those that can be sown now under cover, such as on a sunny windowsill or in a heated glasshouse, for planting out later when temperatures rise.
Put glass or PVC cloches in place to warm up the soil a week or so before planting seedlings of hardier vegetables to get them off to a good start.
Cut seed heads off rhubarb and feed with a sprinkling of blood and bone.
Plant with haste early potato varieties, such as Jersey Benne and Swift, if you want potatoes for Christmas.
Get vegetable plots ready for a productive season by removing all weeds and top dress with plenty of well-rotted manure and compost.
Lime all beds except where potatoes and blueberries are to grow. Liming is best done a couple of weeks or so before planting.
Planting may commence as long as the soil is not too wet.
Ornamentals
Plant gladioli corms – staggering planting until early November will mean a longer period of flowering.
Sow sweet peas in a sunny spot with rich, free-draining soil and something to climb up, such as a trellis or wire netting.
Flower seeds to start off under cover for planting out later include achillea, antirrhinums (snapdragons), aquilegia, astilbe, bishops flower, calendula, cosmos, delphinium, didiscus, echinacea, eryngium, foxglove, honeywort, larkspur, lupin, nasturtium, nigella, poppies, stock, and sunflowers.
Feed azaleas, camellias and rhododendrons after flowering.
Female thrips will be emerging from their winter homes in the soil and litter around trees and shrubs ready to lay eggs which become wingless, leaf-sap feeding larvae. This is not always a problem as many healthy plants will outgrow it, but it can disfigure leaves and, with severe infestations, kill the plant. Spray horticultural oil all over the affected plant, including the upper and lower sides of the leaves, to suffocate the insects.
– Mary Lovell-smith