UK mail order for worms and natural compost

This week in the garden

It's important to keep up with the myriad tasks in the garden. Over the comming weeks we will post those tasks which are key to maintaining the garden you cherish.

April 22 - April 29

Growing sweet peas from seed made simple. You can grow them on a sunny free-draining, well manured (or add worm castings) patch, or in a large patio pot or tub. If growing them in the garden, use a draw hoe to take out a two shallow furrows around 13mm deep and 30cm apart. Press the seeds 23cm apart into the furrows and rake soil over them. Support stems by erecting a 1.8m framework of canes and pea and bean netting along the middle of the row. When two or three paires of leaves have formed, nip out the growing points, to encourage much stronger roots. If using a container, set seeds 23cm apart around the edge and train them up a pymarid of canes. Use sweet pea rings to secure stems; cut out tendrils before they grip and distort flowering stems. Feed with worm tea (worm cast mixed with boiling water ratio 10 to 1) or miracle grow if you prefer, until the buds form, then switch to a high potash liquid tomato fertiliser or stay with the worm tea!

March 5 - 12

A reason for Daffodils not flowering is hunger. A starved bulb has enough energy to form leaves, but insufficient for flowers. Daffodils and tulips should be fed every year. Ideally, in spring, when leaves are perky, sprinkle 4oz per square yard of fish, blood and bone meal over the soil around them and hoe it in.

February 19 - 26

A few tips on going organic:

1 Stop using all toxic sprays, pesticides and weedkillers. Your local council can advise on how to dispose of any leftovers.

2 Clear perennial weeds or unwanted, non-woody plants from a badly infested piece of ground by covering for a few months with pieces of carpet, roofing felt or vinyl flooring.

3 Do use organic fertilisers including wormcasts, blood, fish and bone-meal; bone-meal;hoof and horn; seaweed extract; dried blood, and organic potash. Don't use artificial fertilisers, such as sulphate of ammonia, sulphate of potash or Growmore.

4 Compost garden and household waste in a wormery or composter.

5 Improve the soil by digging in bulky manures, such as VermiSell manure mulch, well rotted stable manure or farmyard manure.

6 Use a wormery, feed the worms with finely chopped vegtable waste, and dilute the liquid fertiliser they'll produce to feed your crops. Once you try this you will wonder how it had escaped you before!

7 Wild birds will dispose of many garden pests. Put out water, mealworms, seeds and nuts, and grow bushes and climbing plants to provide shelter and nests sites.