Work for the week ...

With the arrival of spring there is much work to be done in the garden, writes Charlie Wilkins

Mulching a border: The ground is now saturated after winter rains and a layer of rotted compost or shredded waste material will help to keep the moisture in.

I advise weeding from this weekend while the rest of the flowerbeds and borders are relatively quiet

WEEDS are growing as precociously as acceptable border plants in the mild far south. When I saw what our nearest neighbours and those across central Europe had to cope with of late I gave thanks for our benign, moist climate.

And yet our eyes are now caught by the well-advanced lime-green leaves of wild garlic on roadsides and the clusters of dark shoots appearing on garden Michaelmas daisies. But somehow, we ignore the progress on everything from dandelions to the little white-flowered bitter cress, both of which revel in a damp winter. I strongly advise early weeding from this weekend, while the rest of the flowerbeds and borders are relatively quiet and the intruders can be caught quickly before they flower.

CAMELLIAS: On a brighter note, we are now enjoying a splendid season of camellias — mainly in gardens with suitably acid soil. In towns, the nights have not really been cold enough to damage sheltered plants but should conditions deteriorate and hard frosts be forecast they should be covered with any kind of material to hand. If you notice that their foliage has turned black they are probably infected with scale insects. These legless and headless (to the naked eye) insects live on the undersides of the foliage, showing up as tiny brown flecks. Their waste is kicked away to fall on leaves lower down. At this stage it is clear, sticky, and extremely sweet. When it ‘goes off’ it turns black and is known as ‘sooty mould’. Clear by drenching the root system with Provado Vine Weevil Killer diluted as per instructions. I know of no other chemical cure.

COWPOTS: Take the guesswork out of seed-sowing this year with the use of CowPots. These are bio-degradable, composted cow-manure plant pots from Glas-Ri Renewables. Forget plastic pots-just sow seeds in CowPots and when ready for planting out, the pot and its seedlings go into the ground together (as was the case with peat pots). The walls of each CowPot allow roots to penetrate freely into the soil. As it bio-degrades, the inherent nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium helps to feed the seedlings. These are idea for vegetable, herb, and bedding plant cultivation. Available at selected garden centres and or www.glasri.com

MULCHING: We have reached that point in the calendar when gardeners can apply annual mulch. Next month will be too late. The ground is now saturated after winter rains and a layer of rotted compost or shredded waste material will help to keep the moisture in, even if the arrival of drying east winds should resume. Weed and mulch the ground now and the worst of the weed crop will be avoided from May onwards. Forethought pays off in this department and those of you who have compost or rotted bark will be well placed. Mushroom compost is a good alternative, but only if it has stood outdoors for a while to lose excessive alkalinity. Animal manure is very variable, because stables and farmers are most likely to give you a load with too much long straw in it.

It is not a good idea to put heavy straw manure on to flowerbeds at this time. If the weather turns dry, it will harden into an impenetrable cake. The straw will not decompose so readily in dry, warmer weather and will take too many chemicals from the soil as it rots on the surface. The ideal mulch for me is the fully rotted GeeUp horse manure and any garden compost I have produced. Applied now, these greatly reduce the year’s work in a well-furnished flowerbed. The job is satisfying, so long as you do not distribute a blanket of mulch on to existing weeds.

SLUGS: The gardener’s worst pest is the slug in its many voracious forms, all of which have had an excellent winter and are surprisingly active already. You can hide proper slug pellets on exposed flowerbeds. Slip a few under a piece of slate or similar (propped up an inch at one end with the aid of a stone) and be amazed by the casualties you cause in their hostile population. Be sure they’re in a spot where the birds or other animals won’t find them as they’re poisonous. I bless the blue pellets in particular for they really sorts out slugs and snails which are already rampaging.