Weekly jobs

Make sure pots and seed trays in the greenhouse do not dry out.

Cut off dead flower spikes from summerflowering heathers and prune young tree heathers.

Prune plum trees once they have started growing.

Make the first outdoor sowings of culinary and salad herbs.

Dead-head daffodils as they fade.

Apply a spring fertiliser to established lawns once they are actively growing and cut grass when it is about 8cm (3in) high.

Lift and divide herbaceous perennials, allowing them to colonise any bare areas of ground.

Encourage autumnsown broad beans with a dressing of superphosphate stirred into the soil along the rows.

Feed figs growing under glass with a dressing of bonemeal, along with a mulch of compost over the root run.

Sow a row of spinach beet for a summer crop in July.