April is the month when it’s time to really get on top of your garden. If your beds and borders and fruit and veg plots are weed-free then you’ll have a great chance to keep it that way with ease throughout the growing season. Here at Sheffield Park and Garden we are on our knees (in a good way!), busily removing all unwanted vegetation.

You can’t scrimp here; ensure you remove weed roots as well as leaves. Then mulch the weed-free area with the top dressing of your choice, to a depth of ten to 12cm – my garden team and I use pulverized bark. This helps suppress weeds and retain moisture, with the added benefit of creating a bit of warmth too.

Here at Sheffield Park we are at the forefront of organic gardening: no watering, no fertilisers or pesticides, and we leave fallen leaves in situ. This really pays off at this time of year when “pests” are on the move, as the balance between the pests and their predators lies in favour of the good guys.

Try this test in your own garden: put a flat stone in a bed or border and check it from time to time to see if a thrush utilizes it as an “anvil” to dine on snails. If it does, you’re on the right road to greener gardening. If it doesn’t, start to turn the balance in the natural predators’ favour by reducing your use of herbicides and pesticides. Also, compost your green waste and get it back into the garden, either as a mulch or soil improver.

Our shop sells “habitats” that will encourage nature’s friends into your garden, as well as some great garden tools to help you achieve weed-free status.

April is a great month to visit Sheffield Park, as it’s the start of some wonderful spring colour displays: bold and vibrant azaleas, big showy rhododendrons, lightly scented bluebells, the delicate bell-shaped flowers of enkianthus, pretty pink Cornus florida rubra, and many other wonderful flowering trees and shrubs burst into bloom.

  • Sheffield Park and Garden, Sheffield Park, East Sussex, TN22 3QX, Tel: 01825 790231, www.nationaltrust.org.uk/sheffieldpark.
  • Gardens, restaurant, shop and parkland open every day (except December 25)