Pinch, snip, squish

Little actions now – a new shoot detached here, an aphid dispatched there – will pay big dividends later, says Mary Lovell-Smith.

EDIBLES

• Make small but successive sowings of lettuce, radish and spring onions to ensure continuity of supply – and avoid the glut or famine scenarios.

• Other vegetables to be sown direct into the garden now include beans, beetroot, peas and spinach.

• Sow corn, courgettes and pumpkins under glass for transplanting out once the weather settles.

• Snip off the top of broadbeans and steam lightly for a fresh tasty green. This may also help rid the plant of aphids, should they be a problem.

• Mulch soft fruits – raspberries, red, white and black currants and gooseberries – with compost or well-rotted horse manure to both feed the plants and help retain soil moisture into summer.

• Sow cape gooseberries. If sown, or planted out in a suitable spot – that is, sunny and sheltered from frost and wind – you should have them filling your colanders every autumn. While plants, which are a light shrub, can live for several years, under suitable conditions they will self-sow abundantly. Do not fertilise them, but pinch out new shoots to encourage bushiness.

ORNAMENTALS

• Give ornamental beds a good going over to remove annual weeds. The likes of scrambling fumitory (with its small purple pea-like flower) and cleavers (aka sticky weed) will be climbing up and over many plants, threatening to overwhelm them if left to their own devices.

• Pull out weeds before they flower and set seed – remember that one year’s seeding is seven years’ weeding.

• Aphids will be building up in numbers. Either squish between fingers or spray – preferably with a natural spray. If you do spray, be a considerate gardener: remove all other insects that you don’t want to harm, such as praying mantis, for example. • New lawns or lawn repairs need to be made with haste, before the days get too hot and drying. For repairs, rake over area, spread a river sand and screened soil mix over bare patches and into dips, filling them. Water well, then scatter lawn seed, firm down well with a board and sprinkle a tad more soil over the top. Do not let these areas dry out till the grass is well established.

• Divide waterlilies, should they be getting crowded – this usually needs to be done only every four years or so. Lift the plants out of the water and with a sharp knife cut off small side rhizomes, ensuring each has a shoot. Then repot in aquatic baskets just under the soil surface with a layer of pea shingle on top.