Read the Soil Before You Do Anything Else

Spring is a season of temptation. The first warm Saturday arrives, the garden centres are full of colour, and the urge to get stuck in is almost irresistible. But the single most useful thing you can do in early spring is slow down and check the soil. Work it too soon and you will compact the structure you spent last autumn building, leaving yourself with clods like brickbats and drainage that never quite recovers.

Push a fork into a bed and lift a handful. Good working soil should be crumbly, smell faintly earthy and hold together when squeezed without releasing water. If it smears or drips, give it another week. If it crumbles easily and the soil thermometer reads around 7°C, you are clear to begin.

• Fork over only the top 5cm, leaving worms and deeper structure undisturbed.
• Stay off wet beds entirely, and use boards to spread your weight if you must cross them.
• Pull annual weeds now, while their roots are short and the soil is soft.

Feed Beds and Borders for the Season Ahead

Spring feeding sets the tone for everything that follows. After winter rain has leached nutrients away, beds that produced well last year will be running on empty. A generous mulch of well-rotted compost or manure, spread 5–8cm deep across the surface, does two jobs at once: it feeds the soil life beneath and suppresses the weed seedlings that are about to appear.

Keep mulch clear of stems, crowns and trunk bases, where damp material can cause rot. On heavier soils, a general-purpose granular feed scratched into the surface at roughly a handful per square metre gives a steady release through the growing season. For roses, clematis, fruit bushes and hungry perennials, a dedicated rose or shrub feed high in potassium pays dividends later in the summer.

Be selective, though. Lavender, thyme, rosemary and other Mediterranean plants resent rich conditions and will grow soft and leggy if pampered. The same goes for established trees and shrubs, which rarely need more than a mulch. Containers are a different matter entirely: scrape off the top few centimetres of old compost, replace it with fresh, and start liquid feeding once growth is clearly underway.

Repair Lawn Edges and Wake Up the Grass

A crisp edge transforms a lawn more than any feed or weedkiller. If yours has slumped and blurred into the borders over winter, now is the moment to put it right.

• Run a string line along the edge you want, then cut down vertically with a half-moon edger to a depth of about 5cm.
• Lift the severed strip of turf, turn it and firm it back into the border, or add it to the compost heap.
• Backfill the narrow trench with a 50/50 mix of topsoil and sharp sand, firm it gently and water.

For bare or worn patches, fork the area to relieve compaction, scatter a matching seed mix, cover with a thin layer of sieved compost and keep it moist. Grass seed germinates in seven to fourteen days in mild conditions, but birds will find it first unless you net or fleece it. Hold off the first mow until the new growth has reached about 5cm, then cut on the highest setting. As a rule, never remove more than a third of the blade in a single cut.

Sow Hardy Seeds Once Frost Risk Has Passed

Timing matters more than technique here. Last frost dates vary enormously across the UK, from late April on the south coast to well into May in northern and inland areas, and a single cold night can wipe out a fortnight of effort. Watch your local forecast rather than the calendar.

Once the risk has passed and the soil has warmed, hardy annuals can be sown straight into their flowering positions. Calendula, cornflower, nigella, larkspur, poached egg plant and sweet peas all resent transplanting and do far better direct-sown. Prepare a fine tilth, sow in shallow drills about 1–2cm deep, water gently and thin the seedlings as they appear so each plant has room to develop.

In the vegetable plot, carrots, parsnips, beetroot, chard, spinach, radishes, lettuce, spring onions and broad beans can all go in now. Successional sowing is the secret to a continuous harvest: sow a short row every three to four weeks rather than one long row that matures all at once. Hardy herbs such as parsley, coriander and dill can be treated the same way.

Anything raised indoors or in a greenhouse needs hardening off before it faces the open garden. Move plants into a cold frame or a sheltered spot for seven to ten days, bringing them in at night for the first few, and only plant out once they have spent two or three nights outside unprotected.

Stake, Tie In and Tidy

Support is far easier to install now than to retrofit around a collapsing delphinium in July. Push in stakes, canes and grow-through rings while plants are still small: peonies, lupins, sweet peas, climbing beans and tomatoes all benefit. Tie in climbers loosely with soft twine, and check wall shrubs for shoots that have worked loose over winter.

Prune spring-flowering shrubs such as forsythia and flowering currant immediately after they finish blooming, cutting back the oldest stems to the base to encourage fresh growth. Deadhead daffodils but leave the foliage to die back naturally for six weeks, feeding the bulb for next year. Keep an eye out for slugs on young growth, aphids on soft tips and the first signs of blackspot on roses.

Keep the Momentum Going

Spring rewards consistency more than bursts of effort. Hoe weeds on dry, sunny mornings when they wilt and die on the surface. Water newly sown areas and fresh plantings regularly until they are established, aiming for a thorough soak rather than a daily sprinkle. Top up mulches after rain, and keep a notebook of what you sowed and when, so next year's planning is easier still.

Do a little often, work with the weather rather than against it, and by early summer your beds, borders and lawn will be carrying the season beautifully.