Gardening: Your weekend to-do list set by Brian Kidd

Our horticultural hotshot gives you plenty to do in your garden in the coming days.And now garden centres and some nurseries have re-opened you shouldn’t go short of supplies.
Blackcurrants - a real taste of summer.Blackcurrants - a real taste of summer.
Blackcurrants - a real taste of summer.

• If daffodil leaves are in the way when trying to plant summer bedding, don’t be tempted to pull off the leaves. Let them die down naturally. The sap goes into the underground bulb and will initiate next year’s flowers. If the seed heads are removed, leaving the flower stem intact, this will ensure blooms next spring.

• If the stems on potato plants look a bit thin, the crop will not be good. Thick haulms indicate a good crop. Scatter sulphate of ammonia along the rows, using two ounces per yard run and hoe this into the soil. Then earth up the haulms again and give the plants a good watering, this will increase the yield.

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• Did you prune forsythia? Use strong secateurs and remove all wood which flowered. If this looks a daunting job, pull out one branch at a time, look for side shoots close to the ground and cut back to where the side shoots are. Pull back the next branch and do the same. Use prunings to support perennial plants.

• Keep the hoe going, pick up all the weeds and put them into the compost bin. If left on top of the soil, it will cause Murphy’s law to strike.

• Blackcurrants like nitrogen at this time of year. Give them a dressing of sulphate of ammonia using two ounces per square yard and fork this into the soil’s surface. If you’re organic, top dress the plants with well-made compost but water the soil before and after the application.

• Tie in shoots of blackberry. Try to stop the tips rooting in the soil. If they insist on going down towards the soil, cut off the tips.

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• Potato and tomato blight will be here soon and this year we will be PREVENTING the problem – won’t we? Buy copper mixture, you will find this in drums at your garden centre.

• Plant out runner beans. Even if you don’t have a garden, just think: ‘I must have some runner beans.’ They look wonderful in a flower border or in growing bags – just use a little bit of imagination. Runner beans in July – won’t be long now!

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