Gardening Tips Your fortnightly gardening tips for indoors and outdoors

Plant out container - grown shrubs and perennials.
Begin sowing seeds outside
Tidy up the rock garden
Lay turf for a new lawn
Begin a programme of weed control
Propagate snowdrops and winter aconites
Planting
With the soil warming up and plenty of moisture about, most plants now become very active at root level. New plants will make quick new root growth, with the many tiny hair roots getting to work immediately to take up liquid nourishment.

SOWING SEED OUTSIDE.

For summer colour, seed of flowering annuals can be broadcast in the sites where you have gaps to fill. Such positions could include places in the border where clumps of daffodils and tulips are flowering now. A scatter of seed worked into the top of the soil can result in plants that will perform well later with almost no effort from the gardener. The easiest annuals to treat in this cavalier way include calendulas, candytuft, love-in-the-mist and eschscholzia. These will bloom and then drop their seed to stake a permanent claim to the territory. Self-sown seedlings should then appear in the autumn or spring; all you have to do is thin them out.

ROCK GARDEN.

It is sensible to check over rockery beds or gardens before the spring is too far advanced, so that small germinating weeds are dealt with before they get a strong roothold. This will save a lot of work later on. Whilst doing this job you may find series of seedlings from established rock plants, and some of these can be carefully removed and potted up for use elsewhere. The distribution and the young leaves of these seedlings will normally distinguish the good-guy plant seedlings from the bad-guy weeds. Early in the month it is worth scattering some more gravel or chippings where the layer seems thin, especially in rock crevices. Whilst most rock plants will manage nicely with normal diets and even starvation regimes, some leading alpine growers admit to giving their plants a very light annual dusting of bonemeal or general fertiliser.

LAYING TURF.

If you want a quick lawn or grassed area, laying turf in early spring may be the answer. Try to purchase weed-free turf from a reliable source.
Ensure that the ground is level.
Lay the turf on damp soil. Make sure that the edges of the turves are butted together tightly.
Brush over a light top dressing of sieved soil and compost.
Until the turf is established do not cut it too closely- maintain at least 4-5cm of grass. Do not attempt to lay turf too late in the season, when drought conditions may make the project vulnerable. It is better to wait until early autumn. The best time to kill lawn weeds with chemicals is when both grass and weeds are growing strongly; mid- spring is such a time. Apply a selective hormone weedkiller and follow the directions carefully - do not apply any more or less than recommended.

My sister and I went into a shop that sold a variety of nuts. The boy behind the counter asked if we needed any help. I said, "No, I'm just looking at your nuts." My sister started to laugh hysterically, the boy grinned, and I turned beetroot. To this day, my sister has never let me forget.

Sheringham in Bloom

In response to a comment in Vic’s column, a lovely gentleman telephoned in to say that Sheringham in Bloom were responsible for tidying up the flower bed opposite the bus stop, with the full permission of the owner.

They removed six ‘trees’ from the bed, which had seeded from the larger tree from beside the shop and mended the wall. Their plans to plant red roses and lavender in the newly prepared beds have been realised thanks to volunteers who continued to work in a downpour.

I think that they have done a fantastic job, as this is one of the first things that visitors arriving by bus see and if it is anything like the rest of the work that they do in Sheringham it will be absolutely beautiful. Well done again, Sheringham in Bloom team.