The weather has been more than usually frustrating this year, with a long cycle of freezing night following an unseasonal warm spell in March spelling disaster for some of the fresh new foliage and plum blossom. Much will recover, although the damson harvest may be limited this year, but do take care not to expose new precious seedlings to cold too early. Some seedlings are hardier than others. Sweet peas for example, and indeed all peas, are hardy down to about -5 so can be put out but only if they have been hardened off properly. This ‘hardening off’ merely means acclimatizing new plants gradually to colder temperatures. Don’t take them straight off a sunny windowsill or heat mat and stick them out in the frost. If you have a cold frame, that is a great halfway house, otherwise you can pop them out in the day and bring them in again at night for a few days before taking the plunge and planting them.
In the meantime, so long as you have space on the windowsill or greenhouse, keep sowing! All manner of flowers and vegetables can be sown now, although I tend to hold off on French and runner beans for a while as they are quick to grow and cannot take any cold. The soil is still too cold for much to be sown directly – you should be able to put your hand on the soil and feel some warmth before sowing most seed, although there are some that are quite happy with colder temperatures. Parsnips and spinach will happily go into colder soil. You can however happily plant out any shrubs and perennials. Despite the cold temperatures do keep these watered as there has been little rain over the last month. If you can, water in the morning so the soil has drained before the frost hits it.
Now is a good time to divide many herbaceous perennials, and specifically grasses are good to do now. Dig up the plants and insert two forks back to back then push them apart. The ensuing ripping sound is a little alarming but will result in two plants where you previously had one! This gives plants for free and keeps existing plants in bounds. Some grasses, such as Miscanthus, and some herbaceous perennials such as Agapanthus are a tougher proposition. Again you need to dig up the plant or tip it out the pot and either whack it with a sharp spade through the middle, or in the case of the latter, take a pruning saw or bread knife to it and carve straight through. The Agapanthus will ‘weep’ a little so set the divisions to the side for an hour or so to callus over, and then replant. Cruel to be kind…
Finally, you can also start pruning early flowered shrubs such as Flowering Currants, Chaenomeles (Japanese Quince) Forsythia, Spiraea Arguta, and winter jasmine. First take out the dead, diseased and crossing stems, then to promote new growth, remove about a third of the oldest stems down to the ground on older plants. For wall trained shrubs, fan out the remaining growth in a pleasing shape. Job done. While doing this, make sure you enjoy the sounds of birdsong filling the air (don’t prune any shrubs with bird nests in), and the increasing warmth of the sun on your back. Summer is coming.
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