here does late spring finish and early summer begin? It has little to do with the calendar, I'm sure, but by my reckoning it will be about the time of the last frost.>

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Is it late spring or early summer?

Where does late spring finish and early summer begin? It has little to do with the calendar, I'm sure, but by my reckoning it will be about the time of the last frost.

When that will be is another difficult question. It seems to vary by a month or more in this part of the world!

No matter. There are still a lot of jobs to do and the rose bed will be a good place to start. My roses will soon be in full flower and this week I shall give them a good feed with the sort of fertiliser recommended for tomatoes, one rich in potash. Talking of tomatoes, don't feed until you see the first truss of tiny toms.

Grass growth is at its most vigorous when the days are damp and cool and a weekly cut is now essential. Here too it's time to feed with one of those fertilisers recommended for late spring (or early summer) and we should tackle the weeds at the same time. Keep on top of the moss and if it's a repetitive problem use an appropriate moss-killer which prevents re-growth for at least six months.

It's remarkable that some people never think that the lawn needs fertiliser. Look upon grass as a crop being taken weekly throughout the best part of the year and clearly there is a need to replace an awful lot of lost energy, especially on those lawns where we remove the clippings. Leaving the clippings does allow something of a return but even this is not enough.

It's much the same with garden hedges. Not many people actually think of feeding the privet, or hawthorn, or the other hedging plants that serve us so well, even the conifers that seem to thrive on nothing at all. Well they do need feeding, even the most vigorous of conifers which will otherwise merely rob the rest of the garden of nutrients.

A generous dressing of fertiliser all along the hedgerow, raked in well, can do a power of good. Where a hedge needs to thicken up an early trimming will help the plants to bush out.

Remove cloches from plants that don't need protection at this time of the year. Use them instead for the more tender subjects which can be hardening off gradually and making room in the greenhouse for something else. Sow next winter's vegetables, including sprouts, broccoli, winter cabbage and winter cauliflower. Summer may not quite be here yet but these things have a long growing season.

Press on with planting up hanging baskets to give the roots of all the plants time to knit together before going out of doors.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.