This is a very busy month so we must be brief. Any parts of the garden not yey cultivated will need to be dug, taking care to remove any roots of ground elder, bindweed and creeping buttercup.
Container-grown trees, shrubs, roses, climbers and conifers can be planted and forsythias and lavenders should be pruned. Start regular spraying of roses and cut the lawn once a week now. Treat moss and weeds on lawns and sow or turf new lawn areas. Plant potatoes, sow brassicas and French beans and keep the weeds down. Before planting apply Growmore fertilizer to encourage good growth.
In the greenhouse plant up the hanging baskets and tomato plants in gro-bags. Pot up bedding plants and keep them all well watered. Pansies, bellis and aubrietia are hardy and can be planted in the garden, as can seeds of such flowers as clarkia. Plant out dahlia tubers and summer-flowering bulbs and dead-head the daffodils as soon as the flowers die. Stake the perennials, clean out the pond and feed roses and flowering plants with Toprose fertilizer. Protect delicate plants from attack by slugs and also from late frosts.
Do visit the garden centre for ideas but don’t plant out bedding plants until next month and just enjoy all the amazing colours and scents that fill the garden this month. Terry Simmonds