by Justine Hutchinson
Happy spring and welcome to our first ‘gardening jobs for the month’ post
As the earth begins to warm you’ll have started to notice all those new shoots bursting through – signs of life from ‘proper’ plants and weeds alike! The fruit trees, too, continue their lovely floral display, and the tulips have started coming into their own. It’s a beautiful time of year, but also a busy one in the garden. So let’s get to it:
Seed Sowing
Now’s the time to sow annuals and many vegetables in seed trays under cover (check the back of the packets for further instructions). If you live in warmer climes protected from cold overnight temperatures, you can begin succession sowing outdoors veg like salad leaves and spinach, but do take account of your soil. Clay soil takes longer to warm up, so you may have to wait another couple of weeks if that’s your soil type. Veg like summer squashes and beans should only be sown toward month’s end.
If you sowed a few seeds earlier in the year – sweet peas, for instance – it’s time to pop them outdoors in a cold frame to harden off for a few days, before planting them in the garden.
Early variety seed potatoes should be chitting away merrily in a dark spot somewhere. If that’s the case, plant the chitted tubers out now, but do remember you may need to fleece them if a sharp frost is predicted over the next few weeks.
If you’ve ordered and received your new season dahlia tubers – as we have! – pot them up to get them growing. Remember not to over-water: dahlia tubers are prone to rot if kept too wet so are best left on the dry side until their shoots have truly shot!
Pruning
This is the last call for hard pruning ornamental cornus to ensure a lovely, rich stem colour for next winter. Cut back all stems to about 6 inches above ground level, taking out completely any weak, dead or crossing branches. Commonly, this practice is carried out annually in late winter / early spring, but if you’d like your dogwoods to flower for the bees, you might consider cutting them back once every two years.
Lightly trim your lavender to remove spent flower heads and maintain the shrub’s shape. Do be careful not to cut into any old wood, however.
Dead head all your daffs and other spring flowering bulbs, but remember to leave the foliage to brown completely before removing. This will ensure the bulbs are fat and healthy, ready for flowering next year.
Moving & tying-In and other jobs
Spring is an excellent time to take stock of what’s coming up your garden. If they’ve been happy, plants like verbena bonariensis, polemonium, myosotis and digitalis will have produced seedlings galore. Lift them now and pop elsewhere in the garden to repopulate bare patches and avoid overcrowding.
Tie in new growth on clematis and vines, and gently reposition vertically the long shoots of your climbing roses to encourage more blossom later in the year.
Speaking of roses, feed them now and spray for black spot – especially important this year after the mild, damp winter we’ve had. Fruit and ornamental trees can also be fed now, as can hedging.
Check new growth on plants like lupins for aphid infestation and pick off or spray the little beasties with an organic bug killer. Stock up on organic slug control, too.
Now’s the time to have a crack at that weeding! Getting it under control earlier in the year makes the May weed rush all the more easy to handle
Take cuttings from last year’s pelargoniums. Snip off a healthy, 3 to 4 inch section from just above a leaf joint on the mother plant’s main stem. Remove all buds and leaves from the lower half of the cutting, and re-cut the stem just below the lowest node, where lots of the plant’s hormones are located. Dip the base of the cutting in rooting powder, and plant the stem in a pot filled with compost mixed with sharp sand. Water and keep the pot indoors in a well-lit area. Do not cover as this may encourage mildew, and keep an eye on the soil’s moisture levels: it should be damp but not wet. After 6 – 8 weeks, roots will have started to form and you can now transplant your cutting into a larger pot for growing on.
Have fun in the garden, Everyone!
