Plants, like people, don’t like to be overcrowded, so by removing a few seedlings from crowded rows of direct-sown crops; you will give seedlings left behind space to develop properly by reducing competition and improving airflow to combat fungal problems.

Pull up unwanted seedlings when they have stems that are long enough to grab with your thumb and forefinger.

This isn’t just for salad leaves or spring onions but root vegetables and leafy crops as well. They usually need space unless they were sown very sparingly.

Leave one seedling every 15cm for parsnips, one every 10cm for beetroot and one

every 5-8cm for radishes. Firm the soil and water the rows after thinning.

Don't forget to use the thinning from beetroots as delicious tiny baby leaves in salads.

IN THE GREENHOUSE

In the greenhouse there’s quite a bit happening, I’m moving things in and out to get them to ‘harden’ up ready to plant out when I am sure we are not going to have any more frosts. My tomatoes are nearly ready to bag up - I’ve given up planting them in a polytunnel as they seem to suffer from blight in there. Instead I will keep them in grow bags in my greenhouse.

When the sun chooses to show its face things are pretty hot in there so remember to ventilate the greenhouse by opening vents and doors but remember to close them up at night as it is still chilly, even better if you have automatic

openers!

You can bring strawberries into the greenhouse now to produce early flowers and fruit but container-grown plants are susceptible to the dreaded vine weevil.

Act now to prevent one of the most destructive pests from ruining your plants by applying nematodes, which are a natural vine weevil predator that you mix with water like a powdered fertiliser. Water this onto compost and the nematodes will search for the vine weevil grubs in the compost and destroy them.

THE YELLOW SEA

Love it or hate it, you could call it the ‘marmite’ crop as it seems to have the same reaction, you can’t help but double take as you pass by the fields of oilseed rape which is now in full flower.

The acidic, stringent yellow crop seems to be every increasing sight in our landscape.

In the UK the oilseed rape crop was barely known until the 1970s, now, around 400,000 hectares of it is grown annually, roughly one eighth of the area of wheat and barley.

I must admit, as I am not a hay fever suffer I love to see the fields of yellow and the resulting cooking oil it produces so for me it’s a double plus!

LONDON CALLING

I can’t finish without mentioning this week's Chelsea Flower Show. It promises much and even though I am not going I am looking forward to watching it on TV

and seeing what they have in store for us.

Do you have a gardening question?

If so Lucy is there to help. From lawns to lillies, trees to turnips if you need some advice contact Lucy by emailing gardening@
thekmgroup.co.uk. We’d also love to post pictures of your garden online as well as telling all of the county about your gardening news.