JOBS TO DO THIS WEEK

■ You can sow courgettes and pumpkins in pots for planting outdoors next month. French and runner beans plus sweetcorn will also be ready for sowing outdoors after the final frosts are over.

■ Plant up hanging baskets but keep in the greenhouse or porch until it gets a bit warmer outside.

■ Prune early flowering spring shrubs such as forsythia and ribes after the flowers have gone. Early flowering clematis such as C. montana and the evergreen C. armandii can also be clipped back after flowering if necessary.

■ It’s a good time to start a compost heap to manage weeds and lawn clippings. Mix with brown waste such as newspaper and cardboard for best results.

■ Repair lawn patches with a seed and feed mix.

■ Make homemade liquid feed – stew leaves of nettle or comfrey in water for a high nitrogen feed.

■ Sow lettuces, radishes, spring onions and carrots at fortnightly intervals.