JOBS for the week

The seeds of most outdoor spring-sown crops won’t germinate until the soil has warmed up to 7C so be patient or start them off indoors.

Start chitting potatoes.

Have you pruned your shrub roses? It’s time to cut them back and remove old or diseased stems.

You can help your soil heat up in the veg patch by using cloches. This can be as simple as a plastic bottle cut in half.

It’s time to prune summer and autumn-flowering clematis.

Lift and divide hostas before they come into leaf.

Summer flowering shrubs, such as fuchsia, spiraea, perovskia, lavatera, buddleja, and deciduous ceanothus (eg Gloire de Versailles) usually flower on new growth, so a good chop now will stimulate plenty of this.

Mulch shrub beds with well-rotted manure or compost organic matter to retain moisture and reduce weeds.

Lift and divide summer flowering perennials such as rudbeckia, hemerocallis, aster and heleniums.