JOBS TO DO THIS WEEK

You can sow courgettes and pumpkins in pots for planting outdoors later this month. French beans, runner beans and sweetcorn will also be ready for sowing outdoors after the last frost has gone.

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

Continue hardening off tender bedding for outdoors.

Build wigwams from bamboo for climbing decorative or edible plants.

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.

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.

Sow lettuce, radish, spring onions and carrots at fortnightly intervals.

Pinch out seedlings of annuals such as cosmos and zinnia to form bushier stronger plants.