In the Garden with Pat Duke

Meteorologically springtime has arrived but, as is nature's way it has reminded us who is in charge with several sharp frosts. This makes a mockery of all the summer bulb stands in garden centres recklessly proclaiming ‘plant now!’. What they should be saying is ‘hang on a few weeks’. I've lost count of the number of seeds, bulbs, and seedlings I’ve lost to frost over the years through impetuousness. 

In between changeable weather if you do nothing else, keep the hoe busy and prevent weeds from becoming established and forming deep roots that will need a grave digger's shovel to wrench out if left alone. Skimming over beds with a push/pull or a Dutch hoe will be all you need to do once a fortnight if weeds are regularly and frequently disrupted. In this way a major garden problem is eradicated using minimal effort. 

It's not all donkey work though, as late flowering clematis will need bit of renovation, probably best done on a sunny day with a mug of hot tea nearby. They can be cut back hard where the stems are dead and desiccated. Where they are still alive, cut back everything to about 50cm/20in just above a bud. They grow new shoots every year and love to weave themselves through other plants or structures so won’t swamp everything. After cutting back drop a few shovelfuls of compost on the roots. They love shady feet and sunny faces so this 30 minute task will see them produce masses of flowers either contrasting other plants or draping a fence in their own colours. 

Winter jasmine, climbing roses, ivy or honeysuckle can also be managed in this way whilst you’re having a walk round noticing the seasonal changes. 

Cutting a third from just the leaf tips of lavender will trick them into producing thicker foliage. Handy if you’re growing a lavender hedge and you want the plants to meet. The bees will thank you for it too. 

On the Plot

Preparing seed beds for direct sowing now will give you a head start as well as feeling smug. If soil is sticking to your boots then give it up as a bad job and harden off early vegetable sowing instead. Put them in a cold frame for a couple of weeks before planting out when they're more robust and can start to establish in the beds and then you’re off and running with actual plants growing in the ground by April. 

In our sunny corner of the country we are fortunate to be ahead of other more frozen parts of the North for example. Make the most of this advantage by sowing parsnips outdoors. They are notoriously single minded about germinating so they need to be sown in groups of four where with other less stubborn root veg, one seed would suffice. Sprinkle them at 15cm/6in intervals. If you want to be extra clever, sow some quick growing radish along the line so that you know where you’ve been sowing parsnips in case they choose not to appear. Should this happen, just try again. I’ve tried four different attempts before they've deigned to appear in the same conditions. 

Check on your seed supply as there’s nothing worse than running out of parsnip seeds to make you feel like the butt of their joke. 

Put out some feed for the birds as they are also coming to the end of a long hungry winter. A great thing about this time of year is the bravery displayed by robins and blackbirds while they take risks in coming closer to gardeners than at any other time of year. The combination of their desperation and our digging tasty worms out allows us to hear the soft flurry of their wings as they skip across a newly dug bed.