IT'S time to sow. Many gardeners will he sowing seeds of main crop vegetables and hardy annuals directly into the ground now, first raking the dry soil to a fine tilth and watering well afterwards with a gentle spray.
I like to start everything off in seed trays to be transplanted later on. Although things receive a set-back by this method, you have more control over your crops. Rows of young plants that fall prey to snails and slugs can he restocked with back-up troops from the seed trays.
Sow sprouting broccoli and other brassicas, peas, spinach, onions, leeks, beetroot, carrots and salad crops. It's still too early for tender crops such as beans, courgettes, peppers or tomatoes, hut all of these can he sown in a greenhouse or on a bright window sill, to be planted out at the end of May when all risk of frost is past.
For the flower horders - and to intersperse artfully in the vegetable beds - sow easy cottage-garden nasturtiums, calendula, cornflowers, poppies, love-in-a-mist and Virginia stock. Don't forget night-scented stock: pop some in wherever you pass frequently and its lovely coconut-clove fragrance will continually delight you.