AT-A-GLANCE YOUR INSTANT GUIDE TO THE YEAR’S ESSENTIAL JOBS

Plan Your Sowings

Plan what you intend to grow in the garden this season. It’s well worth working out some sowing dates for a continuous supply of salads and vegetables.

Clear Away Cabbages

As you harvest winter cabbages and Savoys their old stems can be pulled out of the garden to gradually clear the ground.

Order Potatoes

Buy seed potatoes as soon as possible to make sure you get the best choice of varieties.

Force Rhubarb

Cover established rhubarb that wasn’t forced last year with a large bucket or forcing pot to exclude all light. This will encourage the tall, very pale sticks that are wonderful to eat in spring.

Clean Cold Frames

To get ready for the busy growing season in spring give your cold frame a good wash with warm soapy water to remove dirt from the glass and give the frame a good scrub.

Protect With Fleece

Protect any early sowings of vegetables such as broad beans with garden fleece. Even if the pots or trays are in a greenhouse or polytunnel the fleece will give a little protection on cold nights.

Compost Brassica Stalks

As soon as winter brassicas such as Brussels sprouts and winter kale have been picked, the old stalks can be pulled out of the garden, chopped up and composted.

Attend To Raspberry Canes

As summer raspberry canes start into growth, now is a good time to trim off any dead ends to the canes that have died back over the winter. Snip back to a strong, healthy bud.

Monitor Soil Temperature

If you have a probe soil thermometer, push it into the vegetable plot to see what the temperature is a few inches down. Sowing can start once it is showing 7C (45F).

Check Asparagus

The cutting season traditionally starts on April 23, St George’s Day, but in mild weather spears can start to push through a week or two earlier. Start cutting when the spears are 15cm (6in) tall.

Feed Soil

April and May are the main months for sowing vegetable seeds outside. To make sure the plants have a good supply of nutrients through the growing season, feed the soil before sowing with a general, balanced fertiliser.

Prepare For Sowing

Spring is a busy time and the more you can prepare in advance the better. Take a little time to sort out seed packets into sowing times.

Harden Off Tender Veg

Tender vegetables that have been started off under cover can be hardened off over the next few weeks in a cold frame to prepare them for planting out once the danger of frost has passed.

Protect Potatoes

In many parts of the country there is still a chance that we’ll get some night frosts through May. To protect soft growth such as potatoes pushing through the soil, keep some fleece handy.

Thin Young Seedlings

Spend just a few minutes thinning rows of seedlings when they are large enough to pull out. This will allow them plenty of room to develop and grow properly over the summer.