You reap what you sow; that phrase never seems more true - or more literal - when applied to the garden. Walk or drive through any Lincolnshire village or street in April, look a little closer than usual and you will see evidence of keen gardeners quietly getting ready for a great summer.

Look for warmly-wrapped gardeners huddling over containers, roaming amid beds with stakes or even passing buckets of chicken manure over fences! Peer into greenhouses and you will see the ritual of careful fingers sowing virtually invisible seeds into well-prepared trays of rich compost. April is a time of preparation, nurturing and anticipation.

One gardener who is busy during April is cutting garden expert and florist, is Rachel Petheram whose cutting garden business Catkin is based in Doddington Hall's kitchen garden near Lincoln.

For Rachel, flowers are not just about adding colour and beauty to a backdrop of mellow Elizabethan garden walls. As she relies on her blooms to fulfill her floristry orders, for Rachel getting it right is crucial. During spring, Rachel ensures that her beds are well fertilised. Even though there are many different types available, a couple of her ideas are less obvious.

"Seaweed fertilisers are a good organic option." explains Rachel from her rustic potting shed full of gardening and floristry paraphernalia based in near the hall's Kitchen Garden.

"You can try diluting the liquid from a worm composter or make your own fantastic liquid plant food from Comfrey."

Comfrey is a perennial herb of the Boraginacaea family with a black, turnip-like root and large, hairy broad leaves that bear small bell-shaped white, cream, light purple or pink flowers. Well known for its fertilising qualities, mature plants can usually be harvested from around April.

Rachel is particularly interested in herbs, which explains why so many of them appear in her floristry work, and she grows so many nestled in locations amongst her blooms.

This is something you could try yourself in April; planting outdoor grown herbs such as mint, oregano and chives in spots in beds where they will please both the eye and table. Alternatively, try to sow Flat Leaf Parsley.

To make fertiliser from Comfrey, explains Rachel, place the plant's leaves into a large container; preferably one with a tap or hole at the bottom.

"A tight lid is important to exclude water and flies as well as keep any smell inside; fill your container with the Comfrey leaves, which you should cut before flower buds appear." Says Rachel. "You can use a block of wood and a brick on top of the pile to press it firmly and gently down without crushing it. A black liquid smelling of ammonia will soon collect in the bottom. To use it, drain it off into a screw-topped bottle then dilute 15 to 20 times with water before application in the garden with a watering can or a spray."

Other types of fertiliser available include controlled release fertiliser; ideal for containers, slow release fertiliser; good for feeding plants in the soil and fast-acting fertiliser for plants in need of a 'pick me up.'

April is also the best time to put in your stakes for your plants. "It is so easy to forget to do this." admits Rachel. "If you do, you may then battle to support them once they get too large to handle!"

Rachel's tip is to keep any stout twigs, prunings or small branches throughout the year. You can push these into the ground around a clump of plants to give them support.

You can also support a clump growing plant by circling the clump with bamboo stakes and wrapping twine around the perimeter of the stakes to form a 'cage.' This will support the entire bottom growth of stems, while allowing the clump to retain a natural shape on top.

Big plants like delphiniums, sunflowers and dahlias - which Rachel grows in abundance at Doddington Hall - may be too big to be held up by willow birch or pea sticks and should be supported individually with a chunky stick or cane.

Push the canes well into the soil so that a third of its length is in the ground and the cane left standing is half the final height of the plant.

Tie the plant loosely to the stake by twisting your length of twine into a figure of eight, so that the stem is not pulled tight up against the stake. Plants with large flowers, that tend to be top heavy, will need to be tied to the stake all the way up to the flower.

However, Rachel also admits that she is not keen on using twine and so last year made a change, which you could also try.

"Last year I copied a technique I saw using forked hazels sticks which prop up the plants so you don't need twine."

"This worked well for me, but the trick is to find enough forked sticks. Over time you will build up a supply and you could phase out the twine method."

If you grow Dahlias, April is an important month. If you haven't yet grown them, they are worth considering. Ranging from dark lush black to bright shocking pink they are, particularly to the novice gardener, a floral feat of perfect roundness.

Impossible not to touch, they remind you of old-fashioned powder puffs or those woollen pom-poms children made in the 1970s; but to the touch they are firm like fruit. Extraordinary!

"Dahlias are one of the most important flowers in the cutting garden as they prolong the season until the first frosts." explains Rachel. "They do best in sun and in moist, well-drained soil."

Dahlias will grow in almost any location and in almost any soil. If you choose to use a commercial fertiliser, be sure to keep the nitrogen (the first of the three content numbers) to a low number. For example, a 5-20-20 would be adequate.

In April, they can be bought as tubers and should be potted up with a gritty mix of compost in generous sized pots. Keep them in a light frost-free place. Keep them watered and when the shoots appear remove all but five.

"This will produce strong vigorous growth and lots of flowers." concludes Rachel. "The ones you have removed can be stuck into compost and kept in a warm light place and they should root to make new plants but do not plant out until all risk of frost is over."

Finally, just what are those people up to sharing chicken manure with the same pleasure normally reserved for pots of jam or windfall apples?

It makes for a brilliant fertiliser, which is handy to know if you keep a few hens or you know someone who does!