What to plant where
* Wait for mild weather and a dry, slightly warm soil surface before sowing seeds. Sow spinach, turnips, chard, spring onions, garlic, beetroot, lettuces, rocket and annual flowers in seed beds or containers. (Save carrots until June to avoid carrot fly.)
* Plant out your new broccoli plants at this time, adding a little lime to the soil.
* When putting in any plant, hollow out a shallow soil 'saucer' around each one to act as a reservoir when you water.
* Plant potatoes when they are well sprouted; plant 15cm deep, so foliage doesn't emerge until the frosts have gone. As the plants grow, keep 'earthing up' the soil around the stems to protect the potatoes from sunlight. In a 'potato tub', keep adding more soil, but always leave some foliage showing.
* Sow cabbages, in a seed bed or pots of seed compost, with a teaspoon of lime to each plant. Start off aubergines, peppers and chillies indoors in a sunny place.
* Beans and peas need to grow in a deep bed of moist compost. To help retain vital moisture, first line the bed with layers of well-watered newspaper.
* Start runner beans off mid-April in the south, two weeks later in the north. Soak the beans overnight in water, then plant one bean per 9cm pot.
Keep lightly moist (if too wet they will rot), and plant out in May when two big leaves have grown. For support, erect a tall, cane wigwam with 30cm between canes, or use a trellis. Also, sprout a few beans in jam jars lined with double sugar paper; keep moist and see how seeds grow.
* For peas, make a chicken-wire cage, or a 'trellis' of criss-cross sturdy sticks or twiggy branches that the peas' tendrils can grasp.
* Thin out radishes as they grow and keep well watered.
Unearthing minibeasts
* If children scream when they find garden bugs, be quick to teach them to call out 'Look!' instead - and observe the creature together.
