House plants

Give good heat, water, hygiene and airflow to get them through to spring

Work your way through your borders, removing dandelion flowerheads before they get the chance to set seed. Flowers of dandelions are a useful source of early nectar for pollinators but if they are abl

Sow courgette and squash seeds now so you’ll have seedlings ready to plant outside in early summer. Fill pots or large module trays with peat-free multi-purpose compost. Place one seed in each pot, ab

Give flowering house plants a general house-plant feed every two weeks throughout spring, then switch to a weekly high-potash house-plant food as flower buds develop. Orchids don’t like heavy doses of

Add support to peonies that have, large, heavy flowers such as ‘Sarah Bernhardt’ and ‘Duchesse de Nemours’. Special tapered, cone-shaped supports for peonies are available and can be simply pushed int

It’s time for sowing, planting alpine containers and living screens and tidying up old growth