The Spring Gardening Jobs

With warming soil and increasing daylight, the garden is waking up and will soon be full of vigour. Jobs come thick and fast now. I’ve combined March and April for a bumper Spring edition!

Welcome to Spring! The ‘to do’ list is already growing. For me, the priority for spring is really propagation, weeding, mulching, and a little pruning. I’ve combined March and April for a bumper Spring edition that you can save and refer too. Many of these jobs can be carried out during either month.

When you’re feeling overwhelmed…

Little and often is the key! Set yourself half hour slots and just tick off those quick jobs. Personally, if I’m feeling overwhelmed (which is surprisingly often) I’ll make a separate list of the quick jobs and attack those… I get the feeling of accomplishment and it helps kickstart my gardening mojo!

Happy Gardening!

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Into the potting shed and greenhouse

SEED SOWING: The usual “February’s Super Sower” event was slightly delayed, but seed sowing is now in full swing! There will be successive crops sown each month from now right through to August, maybe even September. So far germination rates have been excellent! I’m using SylvaGrow’s new Seed Compost and my veggie seeds are from Vital Seeds, Real Seeds, Franchi, with flowering plants from

Marlston Farmgirl

and a trial selection from Stocks & Green. I’ve just pricked out the first batch of salad crops and all my trays are parked under the grow lights with a few requiring heat mats.

If you’d like to read more about how I sow veggies, please take a look at this earlier post. It’s full of info! Alongside the veggies are the ornamentals for the various gardens… Cosmos, rudbeckia, foxgloves, agastache for the Flower Garden. Borage, calendula and nasturtiums for the Kitchen Garden. Aquilegia and more foxgloves for the Cottage Garden. Cosmos, larkspur, nigella, and more for cutting.

UNDER COVER GROWING: If you’re growing tomatoes and cucumbers in a greenhouse, you can sow immediately, otherwise wait until late March or early April for growing outdoors. I usually work by the 8-week last frost window. Here, that’s around 20th May, so I start these off in the last week of March. Cucumbers, courgette, and squash are so vigorous I usually wait until mid-April, so they’re raring to go after the last frosts. You can always pot-on tender crops into larger pots, if the weather stays especially cool and plant them out later in June.

SUMMER BULBS: Yes! They’re here! Orders of DutchGrown dahlias and irises have arrived and begging to be potted up to kickstart growth (under cover). I’ll be making a video on dahlias soon - taking them out of storage, potting them up, etc. This year, rather excitingly, I have a few NEW dahlias for the Cutting Garden and I’m giving over one of my raised beds just for cut flowers. They’ll also be a few new showstoppers for the Flower Garden borders.

Dahlia and Lillies are all potted up in 2-3ltr pots, filled with a free-draining compost mix - using added grit or perlite. They’re both kept inside the conservatory to grow under cover, protected from frosts. They won’t be planted out until the end of May, after the last frosts. Bearded Irises are hard as nails, so they’ll be left outside in a coldframe and will be either potted-up for a display or planted in the borders.

SWEET PEAS: You can still sow sweet peas, either inside in a cool room, conservatory, or out in an unheated greenhouse or coldframe. If you sowed them in autumn, they should now be ready for potting-up and growing on in a greenhouse or cold frame, ready to plant out in April. Once they have a few pairs of leaves, pinch them out to create bushier plants, primed for more flowers. If you’re sowing now and leaving them outside, remember to protect them from hungry mice and voles.

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Into the garden

BOX TREE CATERPILLAR: Those little blighters are on the move already and I’ve spotted some early nibbles. I strongly recommend checking your buxus as early as possible. The tell-tale signs: Leaves stripped leaving a curling leaf spine, spider-web like silk webbing binding leaves together, tiny little droppings visible on pot rims, etc. I use biological control called Xentari® (Bacillus thuringiensis) by TopBuxus. I use it early in the season to knock back any overwintered populations. This has proved very effective, but admittedly I only have around 20 topiarised balls and cones. Note: Only use this on Buxus sempivirens (Boxwood) plants and only when the boxwood is not in flower, so interaction from other insects is minimal.

COPPICING: After admiring those colourful stems all winter, it is now time to coppice dogwoods (Cornus) and willows (Salix). Prune to just above the previous year's cuts, to encourage new growth for more vivid stem colours. If you have new plants, just select a couple stems to cut down, or cut them all about half way. Hard pruning younger plants could slow their establishment and vigour… as I discovered!

FEEDING ROSES: If you’re so inclined, you can use a balanced fertiliser like Growmore or Fish-Blood-Bonemeal to feed those hungry roses. Empathy has a very good Rose Feed that I used last year, alongside Uncle Tom’s Rose Tonic, with great results.

Just be cautious and conservative with the fertiliser. Over-feeding will produce vigorous growth, but with lots of lush leaves and sappy stems that attract the aphids. Feed should be low in nitrogen, high in potassium for more flowers and less foliage. If you have particularly light or poor soil, by all means feed, but you might be better off layering on a thick mulch of nourishing compost or manure.

DIVIDING SNOWDROPS: As their pretty little nodding blooms brown and crinkle, you can lift, divide, and replant clumps of snowdrops (Galanthus). You can happily wait until their strappy leaves are yellowing, if you’re nervous or unsure. Replant at the same depth. Where the white of the stem meets the green, that should be level with the soil surface.

WEEDING: Those dastardly perennial weeds will be itching to grow with any hint of warmth. I’ve learned my lesson and you should too. Weed, little and often. Stay on top of the weeds in your cultivated areas and paths. Get them when they’re small. Top of the naughty list here are bindweed, ground elder, nettles, dandelion, and thistle. For these, I use a sharp trowel and try and sever the roots as deep underground as possible.

I will never roughly dig over an area as you’re just breaking the roots which can regrow, as well as bringing dormant seeds to the surface. I’m not as obsessive as I used to be about weeds. Many wildflowers are welcomed, but just pruned or pulled before they seed. The veg beds and paths are the key areas that I will weed mercilessly. The cottage garden and flower gardens are so densely planted, weeds struggle to get going. I usually only find them if I’m planting or pruning.

WISTERIA PRUNING: If you haven’t already, you can still prune Wisteria but do it asap. Cut back any laterals and shortening any growth you pruned in summer. Take these back to just 2-3 buds, so that those gorgeous racemes are unobscured by leaves.

THE POST-WINTER TIDY: By mid-February I could see new growth emerging from the crowns of herbaceous perennials. With the increasing daylight hours and a few days of warmth here and there, herbaceous plants will start growing vigorously. Any remaining stems, left for winter interest can now be cut down.

These can be either chopped up for the compost heap, or you can ‘chop and drop’. Cut the stems off, then roughly chop them and leave them on the ground like a mulch - slowly breaking down and feeding the soil while providing cover for insects and other invertebrates. I’ve chosen to pile up all my dead stems intact, in the corner of the garden, so any overwintering bugs can crawl off in their own time.

MOVING & DIVIDING: Speaking of herbaceous perennials, if you have any monsters that can benefit from dividing, now is the time. Actually anytime from now to May is fine. I just tend to avoid periods of hard frost. I have several plants to move this spring as part of the Flower Garden edit. Plus a few monster Geranium ‘Rozanne’ to divide.

You can use a fork, going around the plant and levering it up gently, or chop it out with a spade. I usually prefer the spade, taking a wider cut and a really sizeable chuck of soil with it. I tend to chop herbaceous plants and grasses into quarters, cutting out the weak/dying centre, then replanting the remaining portions - two quarters together but spaced apart, for example. Remember to water in any new plantings. Be brave. Dividing every few years, will really help maintain a healthy and vigorous plant. You also make free plants and who doesn’t love free plants?!?

LAWN CARE: Not here! My lawn is currently speckled with colourful crocus and iris, so I won’t be taking my mower anywhere near it until May. My lawn jobs are very limited as it’s now mostly moss. One of my ‘big jobs’ for the autumn will be to scarify and resow it, but I am most definitely not obsessed by lawns! I’ve systematically removed all but one. And I have my greedy eye on that one too.

AN EYE ON EMERGING PESTS: As the weather warms, however slowly, aphids and caterpillar numbers will be increasing. They’re essential food for a plethora of beneficial insects as well as hungry birds and their young chicks… So DO NOT annihilate them!

This is another case of little and often. Check over pots and borders and control any early infestations by hand only. Do not spray. If you destroy the entire population, there is no reason for predators to remain in your garden. You’ll then have a real issue later in the season because there won’t be any predators to scoff them. Then you’ll have to use even more chemicals to control them… break that self-perpetuating viscous cycle and just relax! Let nature take its course. Eventually the cavalry will arrive in the form of ladybirds and lacewings (and their voracious larvae), hoverfly larvae, earwigs, spiders, beetles, parasitoid wasps, birds…

MULCH IS MIGHT: Smothering bare soil with an invigorating layer of organic mulch has multiple benefits. Mulch feeds the soil life and, by various mechanisms, feeds your plants. Mulch prevents evaporation, conserves moisture, and suppresses weeds. The actions of a trillion lifeforms incorporates the nutrient-rich organic matter into the soil, improving fertility and structure, opening clay, enriching sandy and chalky soils. It is a marvel and a must!

SURFACE MAINTENANCE: After a long winter on the north-side of a hill, all the hard surfaces are slick and slimy with algae and grime. Not to mention a healthy dose of bird guano! I clean the Terrace paving with a Karcher K4 pressure washer and surface cleaner head (a useful accessory that keeps the water and grime from spraying everywhere). I rarely use chemicals on the paving. Sometimes the odd watered down sloshing with bleach. I am not a fan of biocides or any kind of *cide in general.

However, sometimes the algae on the paving is really stubborn and no amount of scrubbing with broom and sand removes it, besides, it always returns quickly. So, once in a while, perhaps every 4 years or so, it gets a deep clean with something like Patio Magic. It’s not something I’m comfortable with but slippery paving is treacherous and I’ve already broken two ribs on it!

GARDEN EDITS: I have been reviewing photos and notes from last year and have a list of plants to move or remove. The Cottage, Flower, and Courtyard gardens will all be edited over the next two months or so and I’ll explain all the changes in a series of posts here.

SPRING BULBS: They’re surging upwards and the earliest are now in bloom. If yours have been undercover, give them a really good watering! I watered mine as soon as I saw their green noses pushing through. Because I make such a coarse gritty potting-mix, I make a point of lifting my buckets and boiler pots to check their weight. If they’re light, they get a watering. It’s a simple hack that takes the guesswork out of it. This year I’ll be giving them a regular seaweed feed too. I want to see if it actually makes a noticeable difference to blooming longevity and bulb size at the end of the season.

DEADHEADING (Already?!): Oh, it’s such a shame. We spend months waiting for those precious spring blooms and all too soon, we’re back in the throws of deadheading. Narcissus ‘Arctic Bells’, ‘February Gold’, and ‘Tête-à-Tête’ are the first to flower here and I’ve already started deadheading the Gold.

Simply snip or pinch off fading flowers and seed pods. Leave the stems and foliage to die back naturally as they’ll continue photosynthesising and recharging or forming the new bulb for next year's flowers. The great thing about spring bulbs in pots is that they can be removed from the display and placed somewhere sunny, but out of view.

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In the Kitchen Garden

VEGGIE BED PREP: At the end of March, my first sowings will be ready to plant out along with a direct sowing of carrots and planting seed potatoes. In preparation, the no-dig beds have beed weeded, which literally takes a matter of minutes, thanks to No Dig. An invigorating layer of fresh homemade compost has been smothered over the surface.

That’s usually all that happens. However, following last year’s slug-infested devastation, i.e. The Great Slug Plague of ’24, this season I will be making a preemptive strike on the slugs, treating the beds with nematodes to reduce any entrenched slug populations waiting to wreak havoc.

Note: Nematodes do not affect snails so these will still require removal. Please, please, please, do not use slug pellets!

FIRST CROPS: Planting out into no-dig beds is ultra-simple. I draw shallow drills for sowing carrots directly. I use a trowel to slice a hole and plant potatoes just a few inches below the surface. Every other crop is planted in a dibbed hole, in either rows or blocks. All new plantings and sowings are given protection with horticultural fleece, laid directly onto the crops. These are frost hardy plants, but the fleece helps retain more warmth during the day, deflecting chilly winds, and defends the tender leaves from torrential rain or hail.

POTATOES: My lovely spuds, chitted or not, go in the ground in late March or early April and will be ready for harvest by early July. You can still chit potatoes, but it’s hardly worth the faff now. In my no-dig raised beds, I just plant them at a trowel’s depth and cover. As they grow, I’ll earth up over the stems 2-3 times. That’s it. From the second earlies like Charlotte and Marfona, I average 1.5-2kg (over 3-4lbs) of spuds per plant.

If you’re growing in containers, potatoes do grow very well. Just pop the seed potatoes in a large tub half-filled with compost. As the shoots emerge, keep topping up the compost, covering the stems and leaves, until the tub is full. By the end of June you’ll be able to have a rummage around and feel if the spuds are nicely formed.

WOODY HERBS: Lavender, rosemary, thyme, and sage need a prune to keep them compact. Without a regular prune, they grow straggly and very woody. I’ll roughly cut them back to within a couple of centimetres of the previous year's growth and this keeps them more compact. Then they receive another buzz just after flowering.

EASY COMFREY, EASY GO: Confession time! I have a comfrey bed. I do not know what I am going to do with it. I do not like the plant. It’s usually covered in rust. The foliage is an irritant and gives me a nasty rash. I made the implausibly beneficial elixir from the leaves. I didn’t make the soup. I stuffed an airtight drum with leaves, covered with a plate and weighted down with a brick. The pressure and decomposition produced a thick, near black liquid, that I carefully decanted into a jar.

I say carefully, because this has to be the most damned awful, most disgusting, vomit-inducing repellent smell known to mankind! I liken it to a blocked sewer drain, but worse. Maybe if the blocked sewer also had a rotting animal carcass inside? But still, so much worse. It made be gag and retch. You get the idea! Am I going to make a watering can full of this? No chance!! So this begs the question, what to do with the comfrey? Dig it up? Probably. Replant the space with rhubarb, most definitely! Don’t hate me. I know how much comfrey is revered!

COMPOSTING: Do you compost? I do. I am passionate about it. What better use for all the garden waste, than recycling it into an incredible plant superfood?! Spring is a good time to install a compost bin or build your own bay(s). By June, you’ll have a good combination of older woody stems and lush grass. I made this post (above) all about composting. Lots of tips! Do have a read! If you can, locate your compost bin/bay directly onto soil. This allows drainage, but equally as important, access for those essential soil organisms to move upwards into the heap.

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Gardening for wildlife

NESTING BIRDS: If you’re looking to prune trees, large shrubs and hedges, please complete the work ASAP. Birds will now be nesting. In the UK, March to August is the main breeding season for our nesting birds and it is illegal to disturb active nests. Always check, thoroughly, for nests before carrying out any work.

While we’re on the subject of our feathered friends, consider installing nest boxes. You can also leave out potential nesting material, such as moss from indoor winter plant displays, pet hair, wool, feathers from old pillows, grass clippings, etc. This all helps to encourage birds to nest in your garden… and predate on those slugs, snails, caterpillars, and aphids! Please also remember to keep your feeders and bird baths nice and clean.

WILDING: Ready to go just a little wild this season? How about looking around your garden for a little corner that you can happily leave a little messy. Somewhere the grass can grow longer and where a few volunteer wildflowers can establish. You could even scratch the soil surface and direct sow hardy annuals, such as cornflower, corn marigold, oxeye daisy, poppy, and yellow rattle. Or use a seed bomb. Anything you can do to promote the number and diversity of native flowers for our pollinators.

INSECT ASSISTANCE: On the warmer days you may see huge bumblebees bobbing around and clinging to any available flower. These are the queen bees, utterly famished from a winter’s hibernation. You may find them on the path or clinging to a wall in the sun. You don’t need to give them honey. They’re probably just basking as they’re cold blooded. They need the warmth before they fly.

As you’re clearing away last year's vegetation and dead stems… go gently. There will still be ladybirds and other critters clinging to stems or hunkered down on the crowns of plants. I pile-up all my prunings intact, in the corner of the garden, against a sunny fence. This way, any bugs still amongst the stems can either stay put or crawl away in their own time. By May, I’m sure they will have moved off and I can run the stems through the shredder and use as ‘brown’ material for the compost.

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Coming up…

If I could turn back the clock and just have a little chat with my younger self, just as he took his first tentative steps along the winding garden path, I would say this: “Embrace failure”. Failure is a good thing. I would go as far as to say that failure is arguably the most potent learning device there is.