Lighter (and hopefully warmer) days are now with us and some sowings can be made directly into well-prepared ground. Carrots, beans, peas, parsnips and beetroot can all be sown directly into the soil. Radish, lettuce and salad leaves can be sown in pots.
Tender crops such as courgettes, tomatoes, cucumbers and squashes should be sown under some protection.
Potatoes should be well chitted: Good Friday is the traditional day for planting them.
Autumn fruiting raspberries such as Joan J and Autumn Bliss will have had their canes cut to the ground and will benefit from a general-purpose feed such as bonemeal.
Seeds of hardy annuals such as marigolds or love-in-a-mist can be direct sown (and thinned when they come up).
Basal cuttings can be taken from perennials such as campanulas and delphiniums. Hostas can be divided and replanted.
And while we are on the subject of hostas… the slugs are back with us. A range of deterrent methods is the best plan of attack: copper tape around the tops of pots, organic slug pellets or simply picking the little critters off by hand – a multi-pronged approach yields best chance of success.