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
- Pull off suckers appearing around the base of fruit trees.
- Liquid feed fruit trees growing in pots with a balanced feed every fortnight.
- Deblossom strawberry runners planted since September.
- Water blueberries, cranberries and lingonberries when needed with rainwater, but use tap water when butts are empty.
- Take softwood cuttings of kiwifruit.
- Remove any winter protection from figs and carry out pruning.
- Move growing-bags into the greenhouse to warm up two weeks before planting indoor melons, and water well two days before planting.
- Gently run your hand over indoor grape vine flowers to pollinate them.
- Make sure fruit isn’t drought stressed, especially those in containers, against a wall or newly planted.
- Make sure bees can access caged and cloched fruit flowers to ensure pollination.
- Keep a check on late frost forecasts and protect blossom as necessary.
Vegetables
- Earth up potatoes when the shoots are 23cm (9in) high, in order to prevent the new tubers going green. Earthing-up is the drawing up of soil around the stems of the plants, leaving just 5cm (2in) of shoot uncovered so that the plant has enough foliage to continue growing.
- Start to remove sideshoots from cordon tomatoes as you see them. The sideshoots develop in the leaf axils (i.e. between the stem and leaf), and if allowed to develop will sap the energy of the plant and reduce the quality of the yield.
- Strings stretched along the tops of broad bean plants can support them, and prevent them flopping once pods develop.
- Peas need staking with pea sticks, netting, or pruned twigs from the garden.
Flowers & Shrubs
- Watch out for late frosts. Protect tender plants
- Plant out summer bedding at the end of the month (except in cold areas)
- Water early and late to get the most out of your water, recycle water when possible
- Regularly hoe off weeds
- Mow lawns weekly
- Check for nesting birds before clipping hedges
- Lift and divide overcrowded clumps of daffodils and other spring-flowering bulbs
- Watch out for viburnum beetle and lily beetle grubs