Worked in the garden seeing small early signs of Dutch elm disease (6)
I believe the answer is:
weeded
'worked in the garden' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'small early signs of dutch elm disease' is the wordplay.
'small' becomes 'wee' (Scottish term for small).
'early signs of' says to take the initial letters (the earliest letters).
The initial letters of 'dutch elm disease' is 'ded'.
'wee'+'ded'='WEEDED'
'seeing' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for weeded that I've seen before include "Took out garden invaders" , "Removed unwanted or wild growths from garden" , "Removed unwanted wild plants from garden" , "Removed invasive, unwanted plants" , "Cleared garden" .)