Garden Work

With the week that's in it, obviously you should be planting new trees now. Make sure to keep them well watered for the first year. You can also move existing trees and shrubs that have outgrown their spaces, or that were put in the wrong place to begin with. The more mature they are, the greater their rootspan, and the more disruption they will suffer. Prepare their new spot with plenty of organic matter and with a handful of bone-meal to encourage root growth. In the greenhouse, it is time to start sowing members of the Solanaceae family: tomatoes, aubergines, sweet peppers and chillies . Some of the latter are very ornamental and can be brought indoors to be admired. The F1 hybrid, `Apache' (available from Suttons Seeds), has a particularly attractive growth habit and neat red peppers. But be warned, it can be fiendishly hot.