JOBS TO DO THIS WEEK
Prepare outdoor seedbeds for March sowings – clear of weeds and cover with polythene or horticultural fleece.
Plant summer flowering bulbs such as liatris, begonia and gladioli in pots indoors.
Prune winter flowering shrubs such as mahonia when they have finished their display.
Apply well rotted farmyard manure or garden compost around rhubarb crops.
Bulbs that were forced to flower indoors such as hyacinth can be planted outdoors now.
Sow tender crops such as tomato, chilli and cucumber in a heated propagator or sunny windowsill.
Delay turning your compost heap at the moment as otherwise you may disturb sleeping hibernators.
1570: Queen Elizabeth I was excommunicated by Pope Pius V who declared her a usurper.
1601: Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, was executed for high treason after trying to raise the City of London against Queen Elizabeth’s counsellors.
1723: Sir Christopher Wren, English architect and designer, notably of St Paul’s Cathedral, died in London and was buried in the crypt of his cathedral.
1939: The first of 2.5 million Anderson air raid shelters appeared in Islington, north London. The sunken, corrugated iron huts were to protect people from bombs but were used after the war for keeping chickens, cars, garden tools, etc.
1964: Cassius Clay (later Muhammad Ali) won the world heavyweight boxing title for the first time, knocking out Sonny Liston in round seven in Miami.
1983: Tennessee Williams, US playwright whose plays include A Streetcar Named Desire, The Glass Menagerie and Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, died in a New York hotel.