Prepare to have a salad in your garden
Edibles
Sow courgette and pumpkin seeds in trays under cover but hold off planting them and tomatoes, aubergines and peppers for at least another fortnight in all but the warmest districts – till the ground dries up and warms a little, air temperatures lift, and the weather is a little more settled.
In the meantime, make sure the beds are ready for them by ensuring they are clear of weeds and mix in plenty of organic matter, preferably compost, or sheep pellets. Pile it on top if you’re a fan of the no-dig method of gardening.
Tomatoes like a sunny spot with good airflow to help combat fungal diseases that can beset them.
Courgettes, aubergines, peppers and pumpkins are also sun lovers, while leafy crops will generally cope with a bit of shade.
Carrots, leeks, onions, parsnips and radishes may be sown direct into the garden. A fine tilth will yield best results – both in germination rates and health of plants. Hold off sowing corn outside for another fortnight or so.
Swot up on what tomato varieties you like best – big and fleshy for cooking; small and sweet to pop in your mouth, acid-free... Each year garden centres and farmers markets and the like seem to stock more and more varieties – an almost overwhelming choice, and it pays to have a rough idea of your preferences.
Failing that, buy several different types.
Netting might be needed over strawberries to stop birds picking off the fruit as it ripens.
Ornamentals
A firm hand pruning fuchsias will encourage an abundance of blooms.
Prune flowering shrubs and trees once flowering is finished.
Remove dead flowers from tulips to stop them setting seed – it can take up to 30 per cent of the bulb’s energy – which could be better employed growing the bulb and its offsets.
As they reproduce readily and reliably from seed, the likes of sparaxis, freesia and muscari (sailor boys) should be removed, rather allow them to naturalise.
All bulbs’ leaves should not be removed for at least eight weeks after flowering as bulb regeneration is through photosynthesis through the leaves. Generally, when the leaves go yellow it is OK to remove them. However, this is only done for appearances, it serves no other purpose than to make the garden look tidier.
Feed spring-flowering bulbs with a liquid fertiliser, or mulch around them with compost.
Lightly rake lawns to remove old plant debris and alleviate the stifling effects of thatching.
– Mary Lovell-Smith