Time to tackle weeds
Traditionally the Easter weekend is when many gardeners take to the garden in earnest for the first time of the year.
Although slightly later this year, there can still be a nip in the air and Jack Frost can damage any delicate unprotected plants or buds.
Weeds are arly risers and they a tendency to grow quicker than the plants or flowers you are trying to cultivate.
If the weather stays dry for a few consecutive days the best advice is to get out the hoe and chop the weeds down.
Weeds that appear year after year such as docks and stinging nettles need to be tackled as soon as possible.
One way is to get the spade and dig out the offending weeds which should then be placed in an incinerator for burning.
The other choice is to treat the area with a weedkiller containing glyphosate which, while killing the weeds, does not poison the soil.
In small areas, pulling out the weeds by hand or grubbing are the only way to remove them. This is easiest to do while the ground is damp.
When tackling weeds that are growing between paving slabs it is possible to use a knife or hand fork and in a method known as grubbing, the technique is to loosen the soil around the weed before removing it.
Easter is a great time for planting.
Starting with vegetables, potatoes can be planted either in the open ground or in containers.
Peas, broad beans, radish, lettuce, onions, carrots and parsnips can be sown directly into the ground in prepared seed beds where they are to crop.
It is a time when you can also plant your greens, the cabbage, cauliflower and other brassicas. For continuity, the advice is to sow a few seeds of later maturing types in a seed bed along with leeks to plant out later on.
When it comes to flowers, now is the time to finish dividing any herbaceous plants.
You should also be able to prepare hardy annuals for sowing directly where they are to flower.
Depending on your personal favourites your choice can include
cornflower, nigella (love-in-the-mist), the annual chrysanthemums, clarkia, godetia and eschscholtzia (Californian poppy).
A top tip from Evening Telegraph gardening expert Nicholas Warliker, is to prepare the bed and allow the weed seed to germinate, hoe it off, and then sow the hardy annuals. It will save a lot of weeding later on.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Kettering
Monday 13 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 2 C to 7 C
Wind Speed: 20 mph
Wind direction: North west
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 5 C to 7 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: North west
