Spring Jobs

• When spring bulbs have finished flowering, don't cut the foliage off them straight away but leave it to die down naturally (or tie in knots) as this will allow bulbs to get plenty of food for next season's flowers.
• Leaf curl is a virulent fungal disease of peach, nectarine, and sometimes apricot and almond, trees. It makes the leaves distorted and unable to photosynthesise properly and so drastically affects fruit production. Spray with copper oxychloride or lime sulphur (both have low environmental impact) when the buds first start to swell - once the buds begin to open it is too late.
• There's still time to prune your roses, if you haven't already done so. Feed them with a good rose fertiliser or mulch plants with well-rotted compost and animal manure (don't pile up around base of plants as this can cause collar rot).
• Now is a good time to tackle overgrown climbers before they fully start into growth as they have easily visible buds that help identify any stems that are dead. Climbers that can be cut back hard include honeysuckles, ivies, rambling roses and winter Jasmine.
• Dead-head winter iris
  
• Clear gutters and downpipes of rotting leaves and dirt and add it to the compost heap.
• Prune late-winter/early-spring flowering shrubs and trees, including wattles, immediately after flowering. As most plants are already under some stress, try to do this after there has been some moisture or give them some shower water after you have pruned.
• Time to start thinking about putting in vegetable seeds for summer. Sow into trays and keep moist until they germinate.