• The rule of thumb for pruning is to do it straight after flowering. So pruning daphnes and pinching out luculias now will encourage bushy growth. Daphne odora (the common scented one) and Daphne bholua (the Himalayan one) both benefit from regular pruning to stop them from getting leggy and twiggy. You can be drastic on bholua but it pays to be more conservative with odora. Thinning every year will encourage the plant to put on more attractive, strong, juvenile growth.
• While the weather is dry, you can start the spring round on pesky wandering jew (tradescantia) before it makes its bid for world domination. It is dreadfully invasive. If you decide to hand pull it, you have to remove it altogether or every little bit will grow again where you leave it. Grazon is a heavy duty spray but will knock it for six but you need a follow up spray in a month’s time. Amitrol works well too and is readily available for the home gardener. Don’t waste your time with Round Up on it.
• It is full steam ahead in the vegetable garden preparing beds for planting. Dig them over, add in compost and blood and bone and let them settle for about three weeks before planting.
• Pruning out any dead wood from shrubs such as rhododendrons improves their appearance considerably and pruning tends to be more fun than weeding.
• You can still lift and divide hostas but time is running out as they are in growth. This also means that every slug and snail in the vicinity will be packing their bags and moving in to munch them. Laying a ring of sawdust, sand or grit can act like a barrier and discourage them from sliming across to reach the delectable shoots.
• It is good time to give your spring bulbs a feed of blood and cone as they finish flowering. This growth period is critical for them to build strength in the bulb for next year’s flowering. If your daffodils have not set flower buds it is either because they are too shaded or they are too congested and need to be divided up for next spring.

Spring is indubitably here and Tuesday may have been our last cold snap. The danger of frosts in coastal areas is pretty well over now but inland areas will still need to expect a few.

• Warmer temperatures mean slugs and snails are back on the agenda and munching their way through fresh foliage. Mark is experimenting with flat beer which certainly attracts them but he is worried that it may in fact attract them along to eat the prized plants alongside (in this case tecophilia flowers). Slug bait is not very nice for birds, pets or hedgehogs so if you can find organic controls, so much the better.
• Clumps of dahlias can be lifted and divided now. When tubers get too crowded, they tend to fall apart in growth which rather wrecks the display.
• Groom grasses to remove dead foliage. If the clump is very dense, you can lift it and divide it or dig out some of the growing tips to encourage renewed vigour.
• Spring is the peak growth season for almost all plants so it is the optimum time for applying fertiliser as you see the plants start to grow. More is not better with fertiliser as over feeding can burn the foliage.
• In the vegetable garden, stay on top of the germinating weeds. Pretty well everything can be planted now (though it is too early still for beans). Spinach, silver beet, lettuce, onions, broccoli and peas can all be sown directly into the garden. Caulis and cabbages are generally planted out as small plants rather than from seed which ensures a better survival rate.
• Magnolias are at their peak this week so get out to parks and gardens to admire these aristocrats of flowering trees.

• Spring is upon us so it is panic time in the garden. It is time to sow everything – annuals and most vegetables. Keep sowing successions of potatoes and peas.
• Those with glasshouses can contemplate starting their special crops like melons and tomatoes in preparation for planting out in late spring.
• Do not delay any longer in pruning deciduous fruit trees and getting a winter copper spray on to them. They are poised to spring into growth.
• Sow main crop onions. If you have not yet sown your garlic, this is your last chance. Buy proper garlic cloves from the garden centre. The word on cheap Chinese garlic is that it is not virus free and it should not be grown for fear of spreading the virus further.
• Deadhead hellebores to prevent a future explosion of competing seedlings.
• If you are planning on sowing new lawns, you are running out of time. Preparing the ground in advance gives you the opportunity to deal to the germinating weed seeds by raking them off or spraying before you sow the grass seed. If possible, this should be done several times. However, unless you have already prepared for this, it is getting late to get it all established before summer. A lawn will only ever be as good as the preparation.
• If you have a magnolia opening its flowers to reveal a very distorted form, it is a safe bet that you have a possum with a taste for the buds. They eat out the centre and can do a great deal of damage. Similarly the bright and gaudy rosella parrots can do huge damage and reportedly took every bud off an established magnolia tree in Cambridge.

While we can still get caught by a late frost (and inland areas may continue having frosts for a while yet) temperatures are rising and the days are getting longer. These act as signals to plants to go into spring growth.

• Do not delay on moving larger trees or shrubs that you have in the wrong place. The sooner you can get these relocated, the longer the plant has to settle in before drier and warmer conditions cause stress (for the plant, not the gardener). If any such plants look to have very large tops in comparison to rather small root systems, then prune them to reduce the stress and water loss that will result from the move.
• Similarly, all woody plants are better planted out in the garden now rather than later.
• If you have not pruned your raspberries, then do it this weekend. Remove all last year’s fruiting canes and trim back the new canes to a suitable length if needed. Thin the canes to avoid overcrowding. It is not ideal to prune at this time – it is better to remove spent canes straight after fruiting in summer and to tidy up the new growth in autumn. But we will admit to having just done ours this week and we still expect a good crop.
• If you have not dug in any green crops you may have, then make it top priority this weekend (along with pruning the raspberries and grape vines). You will need to wait another six weeks before you can use the ground for planting.
• Kiwifruit should also have been pruned by now. Select out last summer’s long canes to be the fruiting wood for the coming season. Cut out all the weak and old growths and confine the plant to a limited number of strong fresh canes. It is usual to tie these down to a wire or similar support.
• It is not too late to sow broad beans for harvest in early summer. Fresh broad beans straight from the garden are a taste treat and bear little resemblance to either the frozen product or the tough old leathery things sometimes sold.