Garden Work

If your daffodils flowered poorly this spring, you are not alone

If your daffodils flowered poorly this spring, you are not alone. Last summer's lack of light is probably responsible, as the embryonic flower-cells in the bulbs require a boost of sunlight to get going. To help next year's blooms along, remove the faded flowers (not possible, of course, if you have a host of thousands) so that energy is not wasted in seed formation. And give the remaining foliage a liquid feed to help it bulk up the bulb.

And while you're in a nourishing mood, it's time to start feeding containerised plants, including house plants. Strongly-growing subjects in pots outdoors - such as annuals and herbaceous perennials - will benefit from a weekly or fortnightly feed.

For the vegetable garden you can start the following seeds: salad crops, brassicas, peas, leeks, onions, spinach, carrots, beetroot and chard. Sow them either in a seed bed, in trays or cell-packs - or where they are to grow in the garden (take advice from the seed packet).

If you have not done so, cut back the stems of coloured dogwoods and willows to a few inches from the ground so that new growth can sprout in time to brighten up the garden next winter.