COLUMN: Weeds, slugs, and planting out - trouble-shooting in spring

Everything seems to be suddenly bursting into flower now. Clematis, rhododendrons, roses, and pond irises have all been stunning.

With this wetter, warmer weather however, now the dreaded slugs come out to challenge us.

There are loads of different ideas out there to deal with slugs organically, so try out a few.

I am currently experimenting with giving everything a dose of coffee spray, so I will let you know how that goes!

If you are on the slug and snail hunt, don’t forget to look on the underside of leaves, and in the rim of containers where they like to hang out. Also, move pots regularly and check the underneath if you can.

One good tip is to add in plants to your garden that are known to repel slugs, such as lavender, peonies, alyssum, astrantia, and lobelia.

These are all lovely additions to your garden in their own right so why not give them a go?

I have noticed that a tub that only has petunias in it has been particularly badly decimated compared to one that has lobelia, rosemary, and some chives.

Broad and runner beans are now planted out and growing happily up their canes and soon the broad beans will be ready to pinch out. This is an easy way of preventing blackfly getting a hold on your beans.

If you are not sure what you are doing, there are lots of YouTube tutorials you can watch which shows you exactly how to do it and when.

This would be a usual time to start thinning out some of your direct grown crops – such as spinach and lettuce – but to be honest, mine are still quite small and slow growing so I am going to leave them a little longer.

Don’t forget to make repeat sowings so that you don’t end up with a glut of one thing, but rather your produce keeps coming throughout the growing season.

Just be careful to label where you have made new sowings, so you don’t disturb the soil when weeding.

Weeds will spring up super-fast now so keep on top of that if you can. Little and often is the best way.

Make sure you let some of your onions, chives, and leeks go to seed which basically just means leaving them to flower.

The seed heads can be absolutely beautiful and are so beneficial to pollinating insects. I have planted some cosmos this year in between some seeded leeks because I love the pinks, whites and purple combinations.

Cosmos gives so much for so little, just keep deadheading to ensure the longest flowering season. This goes for all of your flowering plants.

I deadhead and chuck them in a bucket which has been collecting rainwater to make an organic plant feed. It smells pretty bad after a while, but seems to work wonders on the garden.

If you do have way to much of something, seek out your local plant swap. They happen all over the place at the moment or why not start your own.

Happy growing!