Flower Garden

• Clear the last of the winter bedding from containers and borders and, if you have not grown your own, buy new summer bedding for planting out once all fear of frost has past
  
• Once the fear of frosts has past you can put out your hanging baskets and patio tubs full of summer bedding plants.
  
• Continue to dead head any remaining daffodils and tulips but do not take off the foliage until it is brown and then feed with a liquid fertilizer
  
• Shade the greenhouse and damp down the floors on hot days after opening vents and doors
  
• Prune spring flowering shrubs and clematis Montana
  
• Tie in new shoots of honeysuckle and clematis or if you have bare walls or fences now is a good time to plant new climbers
  
• When the danger of frost has past plant out cannas and dahlias
  
• Hoe the borders on a regular basis to prevent weeds from getting a hold
  
• At the end of the month plant up new pond plants and marginals in baskets. New water lilies that are not tall enough to reach the surface can be placed on upturned pots or bricks but be careful not to puncture the liner. Aim to have at least three quarters of the pond surface covered with leaves as this helps to keep the water from turning green
  
• Feed beds, borders and containers every two weeks

 
Lawns

• If the edge of the lawn is looking particularly untidy after the winter re-cut edges with a half moon lawn edger for a really neat look. After that keep the edges tidy by clipping with long handled edging shears for a pristine look
  
• Mow on a regularly basis, lowering the height of cut gradually but raise it again during any prolonged dry spells
  
• If you haven’t already fed your lawn this spring, give it a feed of a high nitrogen lawn fertilizer to keep it looking green

 
Fruit and Vegetables>

• Put nets over any fruits that are about to ripen to stop the birds eating them
  
• Remove any strawberry runners so the plants put all their energy into producing fruit
  
• If a late frost is forecast cover stone fruits with a fleece at night but remove in the morning so that pollinating insects have free access
  
• Make sure that any fruit trained against a wall or fence receive enough water during the fruit development stage. Plants can be in a rain “shadow” when up against a tall structure and will need extra watering
  
• To keep the codling moth from your apple trees hang pheromone traps amongst the trees
  
• Continue with successional sowings of salad crops
  
• Sow the seeds of runner and French beans into prepared rows outside or train then up wigwams if you have less room
  
• If you have not grown your own vegetables from seed you can buy small plug plants cheaply now and fill your garden with these
  
• If you don’t have a dedicated vegetable bed there are many attractive vegetables such as lollo rosso lettuce, swiss chard and even runner beans that look really good placed between flowering plants as they did in the old days to make a real cottage garden

 
Wildlife

• Be careful when cutting hedges that there is not a bird’s nest in there being used at the moment. If there is leave the hedge uncut until the fledglings have flown the nest. Neither the birds nor the hedge will suffer
  
• Keep the bird bath clean and topped up with fresh water
  
• Keep feeding the birds but make sure there are no large pieces that the mothers could take back to the chicks and choke them
  
• If you would like to attract the summer visiting birds such as swifts and housemartins you can buy special nesting boxes to put up in the garden.  Swallow will make their own nests

 
Looking Good This Month

Allium Gigantium - Ornamental onion with lavender coloured globe on stiff stem
Aquilegia Vulgaris - Grannys Bonnet. Many colours and varieties. Will self seed
Clematis Montana - Vigorous climber producing a mass of white or pink flowers
Exochorda Macrantha - The Bride. Shrub smothered in white flowers
Laburnum Watereri  - Golden rain tree. Small tree with long yellow cascading racemes
Papaver Orientalis - Oriental poppy. Papery flowers of many colours on long stems
Primula Denticulata - Drumstick primula that likes a moist soil
Rhododendron - Evergreen with highly coloured clusters of large flowers
Syringa Vulgaris - Lilac tree that comes in any colour from white to deep purple
Tulipa - Tulips come in every colour except true blue and many heights

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