Courtesy of the RHS, here are a few things that we should be getting on with this month. There is always something to be done in the garden!
Fruit
- Protect almond, peach, apricot and nectarine blossom from frost, but make sure insects can access the flowers for pollination.
- Untie festooned fruit tree branches that have set into position.
- Harvest citrus fruit when ready.
- Cover outdoor, soil-grown strawberries with cloches for an earlier crop.
- Tip back summer-fruiting raspberry canes to 15cm (6in) above their top support wire.
- Apply a top dressing of sulphate of potash to all fruit if not done last month.
Vegetables
- Cultivate and prepare seedbeds, covering them with clear polythene, cloches or fleece to warm up the soil before sowing.
- Plan a crop rotation system for your vegetable plot.
- Rake in lime if you have acid soil.
- Prepare new asparagus beds.
- Feed spring cabbages with high nitrogen feeds.
- Dig over new beds, but try to avoid digging in wet weather.
Flowers & Shrubs
- Prune winter flowering shrubs that have finished flowering
- Divide bulbs such as snowdrops, and plant those that need planting ‘in the green’
- Prune Wisteria
- Prune hardy evergreen hedges and renovate overgrown deciduous hedges
- Prune conservatory climbers such as bougainvillea
- Cut back deciduous grasses left uncut over the winter, remove dead grass from evergreen grasses