Make sure garden birds have enough food and water

Apply organic fertilizers

Check plant supports are sound before they are concealed by new seasonÂ’s growth

Continue planting trees, shrubs, fruit trees, and bushes

Repot or top-dress shrubs in containers

Prune winter flowering shrubs, including winter heathers, when the flowers have faded, and summer-flowering shrubs that flower on new wood

Prepare seed beds for vegetables, lime vegetable plots if necessary

Feed and mulch fruit trees

Prick out or pot up seedlings sown last month

Protect gooseberry bushes from birds

Cut back overgrown shrubs and hedges before the nesting season starts

Finish pruning fruit

From “Gardening Through the Year” by Ian Spence

Start preparing seedbeds and cover them with cloches

Finish preparing deep beds by digging and top-dressing

Continue to harvest winter crops

Keep on sowing early crops indoors and take care of those sown earlier

Sow peas in guttering; when the seedlings have sprouted a few leaves they can be planted out under cloches

If the soil has warmed up slightly, sow seeds under cloches including lettuce, radish, salad onions, peas, broad beans, beetroot, summer cabbage, and spinach

Plant shallots

Plant Jerusalem artichokes

Prepare a bed for planting asparagus later in the year

Prepare trenches for runner beans

Feed spring cabbages

Cover parsley and other overwintering herbs with fleece or cloches

Top-dress shrubby herbs in pots with fertilizer

From “Gardening Through the Year” by Ian Spence