Gardening jobs for the weekend – Brian Kidd

Remove all the dead flower heads from the daffodils – just take off the dead flowers and seed heads but leave the flower stem. This will make the bulbs become aware that they are no longer able to produce seeds and a hormonal reaction takes place in the bulb. The mother bulb will begin to produce a daughter bulb and next year’s flower will start to form in the centre of the mother bulb. Scientists will give you a more accurate description, but I write plain talk!

Dig out some rooted strawberry runner plants out from the strawberry bed. Take off the dead foliage and pot them into five-inch diameter pots in John Innes number three compost. Put them into the cold greenhouse and you will be picking strawberries during mid-May. 

This is the time to sow seeds of early Brussels sprouts and summer cabbages. Duncan F1 is a good choice – try to sow one seed in each cell of a 24 insert cell tray.???????