How Does your Garden Grow?

With spring within touching distance, many gardeners are getting their plots ready for the warmer months ahead. Whether you grow flowers or vegetables, at this time of year there are plenty of jobs to be getting on with.

After the long hard slog of winter, you might be fuelled by enthusiasm to get sowing seeds straightaway, but it pays to plan first. Keep a diary detailing what you want to achieve from your plot, and how and when to do this.

One of the first tasks of the year is to get your soil in good shape for the growing season. As well as weeding your plot, giving your soil a good mulch with organic matter, such as compost or manure, can provide it with the structure and nutrients it will need to allow your plants to flourish.

If you haven't yet bought any seeds, now is the time to do so. When choosing seeds, think about how well they'll grow in your particular type of soil or position in the garden, and how they'll work with the rest of your planting. What do you want them to achieve? Are you looking for plants that provide visual appeal, or maybe ones that are attractive to wildlife? Gardening guru Charlie Dimmock advises us to opt for plants that are pretty yet practical, and if you're short on time, avoid any plants that require lots of attention.

When choosing vegetable seeds, only buy those that you enjoy eating! Although this may seem obvious, it can be easy to get carried away with buying too many seeds, and if you're restricted by space or available time, you might need to limit what you can feasibly grow.

Pests and diseases are a bugbear for gardeners, but according to gardening expert Alan Titchmarsh, if you don't want to spray your plants with chemicals, look for seed packets that offer good pest or disease resistance, such as carrot fly-resistant carrots, blight-resistant tomatoes or mildew-resistant lettuces.

Read the seed packet instructions carefully to know when to sow your flowers or vegetables, and start them off indoors or under cover to encourage germination. Sow seeds little and often, so you don't end up with a glut.

Knowing when to plant out your seeds is important. While potatoes can be put in the ground in early spring, other seedlings such as cucumbers, courgettes or pumpkins aren't suitable for transplanting outdoors until the last risk of frost has passed - usually after the end of May. Other seedlings do better under the cover of a greenhouse, such as peppers or tomatoes, unless you've got a south-facing, sheltered plot.

Wait until the soil has warmed up before planting out. A good rule of thumb according to gardening legend Monty Don, is that if weeds aren't yet growing, then it's still too cold for your seeds to be planted out.

Organisation is the key to success throughout the growing season, so if you need to store seeds and other garden essentials, Solent Plastics offers a wide range of convenient storage solutions.