Now is the time to top up your borders with herbaceous plants. The joy of planting now is that you will have a nice pot full of foliage which will then establish very quickly and have a whole spring, summer and autumn to become big and beautiful in your gardens. We are planting our Gold Border in early April, a job we are really looking forward to.
Keep pricking out and potting on your seedlings. For your vegetables and bedding plants, you are looking for a healthy clump of foliage with the roots just popping out of the bottom of the pot at the end of May. If the plants become too pot-bound they will flower early, be stunted and not establish well.
Keep those weeds down in your vegetable plots and borders; if you lose the battle early, it is very difficult to sway things in your favour as the year goes on.
Plant your sweet peas out and give them a handful of fertiliser to help them establish and grow strongly. When they’re in bloom, keep picking for flowers into late summer.
It is worth going to gardens which grow a good selection of tulips so that you can see the bulbs “in the flesh”. Make a note of your favourites otherwise you will forget when those bulb catalogues come through the post. We have planted a beautiful collection at Parham this year, come and see if any take your fancy for next year!