10 WAYS TO MAKE THE MOST OF SELFISOLATION

SELF-ISOLATING

1

Scratch the soil. Use a hoe to gently ‘tickle’ the top 10mm (¼in) of soil, to remove weed seedlings and reduce compaction. It makes the soil look more ‘tended’ without digging or forking.

2

Get the mower out.

If you aren’t going for the ‘wildflower meadow’ look, mowing makes the garden look instantly greener and neater. It’s like going for a short walk, but with the added bonus of a tidy lawn afterwards.

3

Tidy shrubs. Restrict yourself to trimming back shrubs that have already flowered this spring such as ribes, abelia, chaenomeles and choisya. Remove dead, diseased and damaged stems, and take out congested stems to the base to improve overall shape.

4

Put your feet up. Looking at your garden in the sunshine is a lovely, gentle thing to do.

We don’t do it enough. Enjoy birdsong, bees buzzing and pristine new flowers in bloom. Marvellous!

5

Lift and divide. Feeling energetic? Lift and divide established plants to make more. You can pot them up for socially-distanced friends (leave pots by their back door) or use them to fill border gaps.

6

Become a plant Mum or

Dad. There’s no greater joy than hearing the (very quiet) yawn-and-stretch of tiny seed leaves unfurling into the sunlight. Use a quiet moment to bring some new lives into the world by sowing this month’s cover-mounted seeds. They’ll even pump out oxygen for you, by way of thanks.

7

Wash your gardening gloves. If they’re hard-baked into a claw-shape it’s time to put them in a bucket of soapy water and massage out the mud.

8

Sort out the shed. Take stock of all your gardening tools, clean and sharpen them with a whetstone. That includes the spade blades too.

9

Repot container shrubs. Treat overgrown container plants by potting them up in a bigger pot. Gently tip the pot on its side and slide the rootball out onto a bin liner. Check for potbound roots and tease them out. Repot into a bigger container using peat-free loam-based compost for long-term potted shrubs.

10

Go shopping! If you have internet and wifi, treat yourself to some new plants. There’s always space for one more! Check your online nursery can safely deliver to your area before buying.