Now that much of the flower garden has been — or is about to be — cleared of seasonal winter into early spring flowers, it’s time to top up the soil, pull out weeds or dig them in, with an organic mixture of homemade compost and old, well-rotted manure. Lightly dig it in, removing lumps/stones in the process and directly sow a flower quilt of incredible colour and delight.

Select flowers of a similar height and with similar soil and water requirements — the less thirsty, the better. Put a mix of these seeds in a bowl and scatter them, a pinch at a time, on the soil surface, taking care not to overcrowd so that the plants have enough space to reach their full potential. Lightly rake them in and spray, again lightly, with water when done. A light watering, preferably in an evening just as the sun is going down, should suffice unless/until temperatures soar when heavy watering may be required.

The following are all ideal for this treatment:

Californian poppies in blazing orange, bronzes and burnt orange, fire-engine red, delicate peach, sunshine yellow, pristine white, silky pinks, sultry champagnes and every other shade in between; in a matter of a few weeks, your eyes will open wide by their dazzling beauty.

If you want swathes of flowers in your garden in the warmer weather, this is the time to plant the seeds

Easy-as-pie Cosmos, that dance in the slightest breeze atop their feathery foliage, are always a dependable plant. They can be found in colours as diverse as pure white, pale pink, deep crimson, sulphur yellow and startling tangerine. You may be lucky and find fluted ones, picoted and double ones, too.

Then there are sunflowers, and not just in golden yellow but in every shade of yellow imaginable, with reds, chocolates, crimsons and earth-coloured ones as well.

Zinnias, in every brilliant or pastel shade, also take this method of sow-and-grow-on-the-spot very well.

With any of the aforementioned, a decent scattering of flaxseeds (alsi), bought for eating from the bazaar, provides an undercrop of tiny, bright-blue flowers, on stems around 12 inches or so tall which are a visual delight.

Other flowers to sow this month, mostly better started off in pots/seed trays and planted out when large enough to handle, include: gaillardia, rudbekia, amaranthus, celosia, nicotiana, gomphrena, matricaria, mesembryanthemums, tithonia, portulaca, coreopsis, tagetes, French marigolds and sprawling, old-fashioned, petunias.

In the vegetable garden: You can never have too many tomatoes, be they large or small, red, yellow, blue — yes, blue, black, pink or striped — so off you go and sow some more. Then you have aubergines, capsicums, cayenne peppers, cucumbers and don’t forget mooli, red radish, lettuce in partial shade, seasonal, fast-growing cabbage, karela, bhindi, green onions, climbing beans, bush beans, courgettes/zucchini, marrows, pumpkins and other kinds of summer squash, Japanese and Chinese salad greens, Swiss chard/leaf beet, spinach, fenugreek and sweet corn. Sweet potatoes can be planted now too: sweet potato vines can spread over quite a large area so it is best to give them a bed of their own.

Summer fruits: Watermelons, sweet melons, Chinese gooseberries and, either get hold of a few pineapple plants or propagate your own from the healthy tops of store-bought pineapple fruits.

The herb garden: Sow a selection of different kinds of basil — liquorice basil is interesting — with different sized leaves in different colours and with intriguing flavours. Plenty of coriander is a must, as is a wide range of chillies; borage is always a pretty blessing, chives and garlic chives are a ‘new age’ culinary essential, rocket/arugula, feverfew, chervil, nasturtiums, calendulas, summer savoury, aniseed, dill, lemon grass, turmeric and ginger.

Herb of the month: Borage — Borago officinalis — happens to be one of my favourite herbs for many reasons. Simple to grow from seed, it bears the most beautiful azure blue flowers and, if happy, merrily self-seeds all over the place. In our climate, borage can be sown almost all the year round in hot spots such as Karachi, with just a short gap in sowing when summer temperatures are extreme (and with an obvious winter gap in areas across the north where it snows regularly in winter). During the winter months, borage enjoys full sun where it grows, but prefers morning sun only or partial shade in summer. It does need daily watering in hot weather.

Seed that has self-seeded will pop up when temperatures are right and, it can catch you quite by surprise. Reaching a height of one or two feet, borage, in clumps, is incredibly pretty in the herb or flower garden. It can also be grown in pots. Flowers and young leaves can be eaten raw and they look lovely scattered on salads. Older leaves can be cooked like spinach. The entire plant has a high content of mineral salts, calcium and potassium so it is a great addition to the compost heap and to compost tea. There are also white-flowered varieties and at least one with variegated leaves.

Please continue sending your gardening queries to zahrahnasir@hotmail.com. Remember to include your location. The writer does not respond directly by email. Emails with attachments will not be opened.

Published in Dawn, EOS, April 7th, 2019