The month dawned sunny and bright, but also with the horrible Covid-19 virus looming large in everyone’s lives.

Since the lockdown was put in place on 23 March, the weather has been sunny and welcoming, and a time when we all want to be outside, with friends and family. But we need to stay home and stay safe, and for some who are luckier than others, that means in your garden, and in good health. Or maybe you can help someone nearby with their garden?

But where to start? After a wet and windy winter there are so many things to be done, where should you start? Well, anything is often better than nothing so here’s a quick list:
– It’s ok to now remove old seed heads and flower stalks, collect up leaves and put in a bag to start as a compost bin, or start a new compost heap if you have one
– tip out any compost bins, and spread the contents around shrubs, over flowerbeds, across your veg bed
– look at the seeds you have, and try to get those you need (it used to be easy by going to the garden centre, but not so now)
– sow some veg seeds and flower seeds and keep on a sunny windowsill
– in the garden, lift and split any big clumps of plants, and move plants that are maybe in the wrong place?
– start hand weeding and digging out perennial weeds, and hoeing off annual weeds but check first as they may be poppies, or marigolds, or nigella
– leave the dandelion flowers for insects, and then pull the flowerhead off before it sets seed
– watch the birds nesting, the bees flying around, and help any beneficial insects by sowing predator friendly flowers like Corn Marigold
– tip out pots with dead plants, and tip out plants that need repotting with new compost, but in a bigger pot
– try leaving any grass to grow long, just keep a small bit mown for sitting on
– plan what you’d like to grow, salad and herbs can be easily grown in pots and windowboxes and saves trip to the shops
– if you have a greenhouse, tidy it up; if not, see if you can make a coldframe from pieces of wood, or a plastic sheet, for when seedlings are too big for the windowsill and need to move out