April:

• Start weeding the soil around soft fruit and apply a dressing of fish, blood and bone.
• Start mowing the lawn, sow annual flower and herb seeds, divide herbaceous plants.
• Deadhead daffodils as they fade.
• Start staking herbaceous plants in borders.
• Prune any spring or winter flowering shrubs after flowering and start clearing pond.
• Plant dahlia tubers towards the end of the month and plant evergreen plants and hedging.
• Start planting hanging baskets, marginal plants and pond plants.
• Sow all vegetables now except tender varieties like tomatoes, runner beans, French beans, cucumbers, squashes and courgettes.
• Sow main crop potatoes in April for harvest in late September.

May:

• Lay new turf or sow grass, continue sowing annual herb seeds and clearing ponds.
• Finish plant hanging baskets and dividing herbaceous plants and being to clip deciduous hedges and topiary.
• Plant out courgettes, squash and outdoor tomatoes towards the end of May and reduce runners on strawberry plants.
• Sow lettuce, herbs, carrots, peas and spinach and any other vegetables you enjoy eating.
• Cover rows of early potatoes with mounds of soil to prevent the growing tubers from turning green.
• Continue to mow your lawn.

June:

• Prune early-summer flowering shrubs such as viburnums and philadelphus by cutting a third of the old wood.
• Hoe the borders to keep down the weeds.
• Thin apple, pear, plum and grape crops if needed.
• Continue to sow annual flower seeds and clip evergreen hedges.
• Liquid feed container plants and carry on mowing the lawn.
• Make sure you keep the garden flowering by deadheading flowering herbaceous and annuals plants and repeat-flowering roses to encourage more blooms to grow.
• Plug any gaps in your borders with late-season dahlias and salvias.
• Trim slow growing evergreens such as box and holly but leave yews until August.
• Harvest early vegetable crops and dig up the first early potatoes after the middle of the month.
• Use the space for courgettes, squash or cabbages.
• Now would be a good time to buy broccoli, Brussels sprouts or leek plants.