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All plants need nitrogen, potassium and phosphorous to thrive, plus various trace elements. Without nitrogen the leaves turn yellow and growth is spindly. Potassium generates good flowering and fruiting and helps ripen wood. Plants lacking potassium

Train cucumbers and prune back sideshootsPick off flowers on coleus to maintain their colourful leavesWater tomatoes regularly to prevent fruits from splittingTake cuttings from fuchsias, coleus, pelargoniums, marguerites and other tender perennials

and out before putting up bubble polythene for insulationSow hardy annuals, like calendulas, in pots for early displaysCheck bulbs, corms and tubers in store for signs of rotWater sparingly in winter, taking care not to splash water aroundPick yellowing

surrounding gardens, fields and waste-ground.Clump of leaves growing from a single or multiple point. Leaves and flower stalks ooze a milky substance when snapped. Bright yellow-orange flowers are followed by a fluffy seedhead or dandelion 'clock

in from surrounding gardens, fields and waste ground.A bushy weed that bears small yellow flowers and fluffy seedheads. Its leaves often have orange-brown pustules of rust fungus in summer and autumn, which can spread to cultivated plants. Pull out young

Annual meadowgrass, Poa annnua, can be found growing all year round, carrying out its short, six-week cycle of germinating, flowering and setting seed. This being the case, if it isn't appearing in large clumps, getting in the way of other plants

There are several different viruses that affect tulips, each with slightly different symptoms. Tulip breaking virus causes streaking or marking of purple, pink and red tulips, usually on the late-flowering cultivars. White and yellow tulips aren

tricky weed to eliminate from the garden, as it's difficult to remove the whole plant from the ground. It's best to get rid of it when it's young, before it's had time to spread. Creeping buttercup is easily recognisable by its glossy yellow flowers

. They then hide in the soil to pupate.Caterpillars eat holes in the leaves of verbascums, buddleia and figwort. In severe cases, the plant's leaves are completely decimated.The bright yellow and black caterpillars are easy to spot as they crawl across the leaves

Hardy tulipsIf you find tulips difficult to grow, you may find species tulips easier. These are quite unlike their large-flowered cousins, which can frustrate gardeners by dazzling in their first year, then all but disappearing the next