Weekly jobs

Watch out for scarlet lily beetle and remove where found.

In the veg garden, as well as harvesting you can be sowing seeds – lettuce, beetroot, Swiss chard, spring onions, swede and spring cabbage. Feed crops with liquid fertiliser.

Keep roses well watered in warm weather and regularly check pots for watering.

Peat-based composts can dry out, so plants may need complete dunking in a bucket of water until bubbles vanish.

Tomatoes need regular watering to prevent splitting.

Warm weather can lead to an increase in algae and duckweed in your pond, so fish it out with a small fishing net or twirl it around a cane. Barley straw in the pond can help keep the problem at bay, or if you can’t get hold of this there are liquid products available that contain extract of barley straw which will do the same job.

Keep your bird bath topped up in order to help your thirsty feathered friends.