This is a great time of year when most gardeners can’t wait to get out in the garden. Seeds are ready to be planted, buds are starting to burst open and green shoots are appearing everywhere. But even though it is starting to get milder we must also be aware of frosts at night and protect any delicate plants.

These days we have horticultural fleece that gives protection and also enables us to warm up the soil, thus allowing us to start planting earlier. As the soil warms up you will also find that our ‘friends’ the slugs and snails start to appear and precautions will need to be taken to protect those fresh new shoots.

• Make sure young trees and shrubs have enough water and retain the moisture by using a mulch of well-rotted manure or bark.
• Prepare sites for rhododendrons and other acid loving plants by using ericaceous compost in the planting hole to give the shrubs a good start.
• Plant bare-rooted deciduous trees and make sure the trees roots are wet enough by placing in a bucket of water prior to planting.
• Cut back the stems of dogwoods to within 5cm of the base to enable the plant to produce fresh new shoots that will provide great colour in the winter.
• Prune back roses by reducing the main stems by half and also cut out any dead or damaged shoots to give you a good show in the summer.
• If you are planning a new hedge dig a trench, fill with well-rotted manure or compost and plant the new shrubs by the end of the month.

• Dig trenches for potatoes and add plenty of well-rotted manure.
• Chit seed potatoes by placing the tubers in a tray in a light position. Once they have produced shoots of about 2cm long they are ready for planting out.
• So long as the ground is not too wet you can plant out your onion sets and early potatoes by the middle of the month.
• Plant out asparagus crowns and top-dress any established beds with well-rotted manure.
• Sow aubergines, basil, peppers, tomatoes, and summer cabbage and keep in a heated greenhouse or on the window ledge at a temperature of 18ºC.

• Top dress established beds by sprinkling a general fertiliser such as bone meal or chicken manure over the area and lightly forking in.
• Sow hardy annuals in the position you want them to grow and start half-hardy annuals in seed trays under glass to provide them with the warmth they need to get started.
• In mild areas plant out summer flowering bulbs.
• Deadhead daffodils and other bulbs that have finished flowering along with any winter flowering plants. It is also a good time to lift and divide any overgrown clumps of snowdrops to provide a much better display next spring.

• If the weather is warm enough it is a good time to sow new lawns making sure you rake the surface lightly to cover the seeds.
• Aerate established lawns and rake through to remove dead grass and moss. Finish by spiking the soil with a fork to aerate it and if you have a poorly drained lawn give it a top dressing.
• So long as you set your lawnmower blades to high you should be able to give your lawn its first cut of the season.
• Use a net or rake to get rid of algae from ponds.
• Top-dress baskets of water lilies and mulch with a layer of fresh grit.
• Cut back any marginal plants remove any dead or faded growth.

• Now is a good time to plant evergreen trees and shrubs along with climbers and heathers.
• If rhododendrons have completely outgrown their space transplant to a bigger site making sure you use plenty of ericaceous compost and water in well making sure it is kept watered on a regular basis until the shrub establishes itself to it's new home.
• Prune winter flowering heathers by cutting back the flower spikes as they fade. It is also worth giving them a top dressing of ericaceous compost to encourage new growth.
• Lightly prune shrubs that have finished flowering which include early flowering clematis and Japanese quince.
• Hard prune forsythias once they have finished flowering and prune Buddleja and Hydrangeas to give a good show of flowers in the summer.
• Deadhead early flowering azaleas and rhododendrons.
• Feed established roses with rose fertiliser and mulch with well-rotted manure. Also give new roses a mulch but do not feed. You can also cut back any stems to an undamaged bud, which may have suffered from frost damage to the tips.
• Tie in new shoots of climbing and rambling roses making sure you have them as horizontal as possible as this will help produce better flowering.
• Top-dress container grown trees and shrubs by taking off the top 5cm layer of compost, replacing with fresh and finishing off with a decorative mulch of your choice. This not only sets the plant off but also provides moisture retention during the summer months.

• Hoe between rows to keep down weeds and water vegetable patch during dry spells.
• As potatoes start to grow earth up around them and if a hard frost is forecast cover the leaves with some horticultural fleece.
• Plant out summer cabbage and thin out vegetable seedlings that were sown last month.
• Continue planting out onion sets and in colder northern areas early potatoes can now be planted out.
• To stagger harvest times sow salad crops in the greenhouse as well as outside.
• Sow brassicas such as purple sprouting broccoli, winter cabbage and cauliflowers but in colder areas it is as well to wait another month until the soil has warmed up.
• Plant out hardy herbs such as bay, hyssop, lavender, mint, rosemary and sage and sow annual herbs such as dill, fennel, parsley, marjoram and basil.
• Remove any flowers that may appear on rhubarb so as not to starve the plant of its energy.
• When asparagus is about 10-15cm high you can harvest which will probably be by the end of the month.
• Make sure the tree ties of newly planted fruit trees are secure and firm the ground of any trees or bushes that may have been lifted by any gales.
• Make sure strawberries are well ventilated by removing cloches in fine weather, which will allow bees to pollinate and prevent pest and disease build up.
• Prune stone-fruit trees especially morello cherry by cutting out any crossing branches and on fan-trained trees, remove any branches growing away from the wall.
• Spray the open flowers of peach trees with water to help the fruit to set and if any frosts are forecast protect with some horticultural fleece.

• Keep hoeing regularly between established plants to keep weeds down and water during dry weather.
• Use plant supports for tall perennials such as delphiniums. It's important to get these into position early so that the plant grows through the support and keeps it hidden when the plant is at its peak otherwise it can end up looking like a trussed up mess.
• Feed chrysanthemums with a general fertiliser, lightly raking it in as you go and put stakes into position ready to tie the plants to as they get taller.
• Check for lily beetles and squash any adults that you may find.
• By the end of the month in milder areas you can plant out lilies, gladioli, dahlias and chrysanthemums.
• Sow half-hardy annuals such as busy lizzies and petunias under glass.
• Plant out spring raised sweet pea plants.
• Any perennials that have been in the ground for 3 or more years can be lifted, divided and the healthy outer sections replanted.
• Pot up rooted dahlia cuttings and gradually harden them off by putting them in an open cold frame during the day and bringing them back in at night.
• Any dormant plants such as fuchsias and geraniums can be brought back into growth now by increasing the watering and giving them a liquid feed every couple of weeks.

• If you have not already done so, aerate, scarify and feed established lawns and sow or lay turf for a new lawn.
• Any persistent weeds in the lawn may have to be taken out by hand making sure you get the roots as well.
• Re-seed any patches in your lawn and top dress with a loamy soil or specially formulated lawn dressing.
• By the end of the month you should be able to plant both deep water and marginal pond plants using specially formulated Aquatic compost. Any underwater oxygenators can be weighted down and floating plants just placed on the surface.
• Divide and replant any established marginals into baskets and top off with gravel to keep the soil weighted down.
• Lift, divide and replant any overgrown water lilies. This will encourage better flowering during the season ahead.

• In hot weather make sure all trees and shrubs are kept well watered especially newly planted ones.
• To conserve moisture use a layer of bark as a mulch which will also help to keep weeds at bay. It is also worth considering using landscape fabric in an area to be planted up then a bark mulch on the top of that as this will considerably reduce the problems of weeds and help with moisture retention.
• Shrubs that are tender whilst young such as arbutus, choisya, clematis armandii, hardy fuschias and hydrangeas can be planted but no earlier than the end of the month.
• Dead head the faded flowers, shorten long shoots and thin out old wood from spring flowering shrubs such as ribes, kerries and spireas.
• Cut back newly planted hedges to encourage bushy growth.
• Check new growth on rose bushes for aphids and at first sign spray with an insecticide such as Rose Clear but if you would rather not use sprays then the aphids can be squashed between your fingers but remember to keep a regular check and do this frequently.
• If topiary such as buxus, bay and yew is starting to appear uneven it is now a good time to trim it back to shape.

• Prepare soil for courgettes, cucumbers, marrows, squashes and tomatoes and sow these seeds in pots or trays under glass ready for planting out next month.
• Put up supports for runner beans by using cross beams or making a tepee.
• Vegetables such as broad beans, carrots and early peas no longer require protection from hard frosts so cloches and fleeces can now be removed.
• At the end of the month sow French and runner beans, beetroot, kale, salsify and sweet corn. In the north of the country, where the weather is cooler it is best to sow runner beans under glass and then plant out later.
• Make further sowings of salad crops to prolong the harvest.
• Thin out herb seedlings sown last month and take cuttings of marjoram, rosemary, sage and thyme. Any mint and thyme plants that are becoming straggly can be divided to provide good new plants.
• Tomatoes that have been planted in the greenhouse can be tied into their canes as they become bigger.
• As the fruit on trees starts to swell make sure they are kept well watered.
• Fruit trees such as morello cherries, nectarines and peaches will produce much larger, even sized fruits if a few are removed from each tree. Also continue removing any outward growing shoots from wall-trained fruit.
• Protect the fruit of strawberries by placing straw underneath to lift it off the soil. You may also need to put some netting over the top to stop the birds having their share of the fruit.
• Grape vines fruit on the current seasons growth so prune to ensure one bunch of grapes forms on each spur.
• Remove the blossom from newly planted fruit trees to direct the energy into producing strong new growth that will bear fruit next year.

• If you are growing sweet peas as a cordon then pinch out the side shoots and tendrils and tie in the stems to the cane.
• At the end of the month or when all risk of frost has gone you can plant out and stake chrysanthemums and dahlias.
• Continue staking tall growing perennials before they start to flower in the summer.
• If danger of frost has past you can now plant out half-hardy annuals so long as you have hardened them off first.
• By the end of the month you can empty your boxes, baskets and containers of autumn/winter bedding and replant with summer interest plants. If using bedding plants in these containers it is advisable to keep them protected for a couple of weeks to allow them to grow on and harden off before going outside.
• Plants that have been over wintered and hardened off such as fuchsias and pelargoniums can now be planted out towards the end of the month.

• In dry weather keep newly laid lawns well watered.
• Start to regularly mow the lawn now. If it’s a fine lawn it will require a weekly cut whereas a coarser grass will only require a cut once a fortnight.
• Where bulbs have been naturalised in the lawn you can cut the grass as soon as the leaves of the bulbs start to die back.
• To prevent border plants flopping over onto the lawn and creating bare patches use some sort of support to hold these plants in position away from the lawn.
• Give any poorly growing turf a feed with a fertiliser high in nitrogen.
• Continue to plant ponds up with a mixture of deep and marginal plants along with bog plants around the pond. And divide and replant any overcrowded clumps of plants you may have.
• In dry weather make sure the bog garden is kept moist at all times to prevent the plants drying out.