ORCHARD : A rising Waning Crescent brings a quiet but steady upward pull — just enough to encourage sugars and nutrients to move into fruiting wood. Spread a 6–8 cm mulch of well-rotted manure around the drip line of quince (‘Vranja’) and medlar trees, keeping a clear 15 cm collar around each trunk to prevent fungal collar rot / Check young peach (‘Peregrine’, ‘Rochester’) and nectarine (‘Lord Napier’) trees trained against a south-facing wall: remove any frost-damaged shoots cleanly with sterilised secateurs at the base, and tie in healthy new growth at 15 cm intervals using soft twine / On established fig trees (‘Brown Turkey’, ‘Violette de Bordeaux’), rub out any embryo figs smaller than a pea that formed last autumn — they will not ripen and draw energy away from this year’s crop / In a Mediterranean climate or mild coastal garden, you can now apply a balanced fruit-tree fertiliser (e.g. 70 g/m² of a 5-5-10 formulation) around the root zone of citrus and olive trees, watering it in well.
VEGETABLE PATCH : Strawberry runners planted last autumn (‘Elsanta’, ‘Mara des Bois’, ‘Honeoye’) will be stirring into growth — draw a hoe shallowly between rows to aerate the surface crust without disturbing the shallow roots, then top-dress each plant with a pinch of high-potash fertiliser (roughly 25 g per plant) to support the developing flower trusses / Sow tomato (‘Gardener’s Delight’, ‘San Marzano’, ‘Ailsa Craig’) seeds indoors in 7 cm pots at 20–22°C, 0.5 cm deep; expect germination in 7–10 days, and plan to pot on into 9 cm pots once the first true leaf appears / Direct-sow climbing French bean (‘Cobra’) seeds into deep root trainers under glass at 18°C — they will be ready to harden off and plant out at 20 cm spacing once night frosts have passed in 6–8 weeks / On heavier soils, raise beds slightly with a ridged draw hoe before sowing to improve drainage around fruit-setting crops like courgette (‘Black Forest’, ‘Defender’) planned for later transplanting.
LANDSCAPING : Flowering currant (‘Ribes sanguineum’) and ornamental quince (‘Chaenomeles speciosa’) are breaking into colour right now — a good moment to give them a light feed of rose fertiliser (50 g per shrub) scratched into the soil surface and watered in to sustain the flowering display / Prune winter jasmine (‘Jasminum nudiflorum’) immediately after the last flowers fade: cut flowered shoots back by two-thirds to a strong pair of buds to keep the plant compact and encourage a dense framework for next winter’s blooms.