• Ensure floppy plants in herbaceous borders are staked before they grow too tall.
  • Water newly-planted bedding plants when the weather is dry, preferably with a sprinkler so that the water really penetrates the soil.
  • Keep weeding regularly and checking for pests and diseases.
  • If you live in a cold region, don’t be tempted to plant out your summer bedding plants until the end of this month or even early June. Be guided by your local parks – plant out your summer bedding plants when they do.
  • Apply a combined weed killer and fertiliser dressing to the lawn.
  • Earth up maincrop potatoes.
  • Plant water lilies and other aquatics in garden pools.
  • Sow broad beans, French beans, parsnips, peas, rocket, spring onions, turnips, leeks and lettuces if weather permits.
  • Clean the bulbs of early tulips and daffodils which have had time to die back and store them in shallow trays in a cool shed ready for autumn replanting. l Take basal cuttings from plants such as lupins and delphiniums and keep cuttings out of direct sun.
  • After flowering, cut back all last year’s growth of springflowering clematis, to 25cm (10in) from its point of origin.