Gardening: Time to take advantage of sowing window before it closes

The recent deluges over the weekend might have led to the hose pipe ban being lifted or morphing recycling boxes into pelagic containers floating aimlessly along our A roads.

What all this means for the garden is usually good news and this week it’s exactly that. Lawns and beds will be revived, making grass and soil better to work with.

It’s a good time to nurture the tired lawn whilst the thatch (dead grass) is damp and will easily attach to the rake. Raise the blades on the mower and cut it after raking and then it will be ready for some kind of fertiliser and even a touch of aerating with a fork later in the month. Try and do work on the lawn here and there rather than all at once as it will need time to recover from say, scarifying or hollow tining/aerating.

Spreading grass seed or re-turfing is ideal in conditions like we have now. It will save you a few hours of lumping watering cans and thoroughly water the lawn in a way we never could.

Whilst you’re down near the beds, you might want to take a few pictures for when you come to plan next year's festival of colour. I always forget what’s been growing where or even what’s there by the time spring comes around. Every other year I’m pleasantly surprised by the biennial Sea holly (Eryngos) and Hollyhocks. Two years far surpasses the capability of my memory as well as many of my gardening friends.

Drag out all the dead matter from the beds which should create bare soil patches . Most of the crocosmia has expired now for example. In the space you’ve created you might want to plant a few hardy annuals ready to come out in late spring. We still have a few weeks left in our temperate climate to sow them. This is the last sowing window of the gardening year and you can include such favourites as Larkspur, Chrysanthemum, Corncockle, Cerinthe, Marigolds, Ammi majus, Salvias viridian and the handsome and ever reliable Scabious.

On the Plot

With the softer ground we can give the winter veg a bit of support. Kale and purple sprouting can get a severe battering from high winds so give them a temporary help in the form of a stake at an angle and tie them in. This will help the roots remain stable and do their job of carrying vital nutrients from the soil. More roots equates to more dinner/tea. Drop any form of substrate known as mulch and they ll be much happier with this scarf around their roots.

Just like in the flower beds, remove any dead leaves and turn them into compost.

Cut down Jerusalem artichokes now they've flowered to protect against wind (ironic given their culinary properties).

Keep the hoe busy between root crops and earth up carrots even if just to confuse the badgers.

The rain has brought out a wide variety of garden pests, especially at night in the form of slugs and snails. Dispatch them, or not, in the manner of your choosing and also keep an eye out for caterpillars underneath cabbage and kale leaves.

If like me, you have clay soil it’s time to think about adding organic matter to make the soil structure more open to growing a variety of plants. If you cover it now, you can review the situation in December and think about covering it again if the worms and rain have done their job while you’re sat at home staring into the fire planning next year's veg beds and plotting revenge on gastropods, birds and butterflies (Cabbage whites!!).

Soak up as much of what intense sun we have left and that way it makes it feel much quicker for Spring to show its smiling face.