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Spring projects for the garden

by Trish Gibson

How would you like to be rewarded with colour, enjoyment and maybe even a few edible crops in your garden? Spend a little time now on these simple, practical projects and that's what you'll get

As the weather warms up and the days get longer, things start moving seriously fast in the garden. It's time to get out there and take charge. An hour, or even just half an hour, a day will get you ahead and is better than trying to fit everything in at the weekend. Start your gardening year with these creative sowing and planting ideas and get a long-term gain in terms of colour, taste and satisfaction.

Sowing Colour

As the spring bulbs begin to fade, plan for more colour next year by sowing early-flowering biennials. These are the plants that flower in their second year, such as Honesty, Wallflowers, Forget-Me-Nots, Sweet Rocket and Foxgloves (right). Both Honesty and Wallflowers make good cut flowers too. Choose named varieties for better colours; Honesty 'Atrococcinea' is a bold red, 'Munstead Purple' is a good dark colour and there's also a white form which mixes well with them.

Wallflowers (left) have a deliciously spicy scent as a bonus. Good colours to choose are the rich, deep crimson 'Blood Red', dark marmalade-orange 'Fire King' and bright yellow 'Cloth of Gold'. On paper, it can seem a long wait for these spring-flowerers, but they are such easy plants to grow that it is really worthwhile sowing some now for enjoyment next spring.



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