Another month has flown by and the weather is not doing us any favours, as far as gardening is concerned, with frost on the ground this morning. I am waiting for the sun to do its job of thawing the frost before I can get out into the garden.
Jobs for the Vegetable Garden
It is now time to start planting early potatoes, but be aware of late frosts as the shoots emerge, so it is a good idea to earth them up into ridges to help protect the young shoots. As the ground is starting to warm up, it is time to start sowing a wide range of vegetables or to start planting, with a full range of vegetable plants being available at all good garden centres. Why not try one of the grafted range of tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers that are available? Although they are more expensive than the traditional plants, they are a lot more vigorous and start to crop early and finish late, as well as being more resistant to pest and diseases.
Jobs for the Flower Garden
As new shoots start to emerge on herbaceous perennials, it is a good time to lift and divide any large clumps, to ensure that they don’t get too woody and to help to keep them young and vigorous, or just to propagate any plants that you want to produce more of, to spread round the garden. Any perennials that have not had last year’s foliage cut off can now be done to ensure the new growth for this year doesn’t get tangled up in the old foliage, making it difficult to remove at a later date.
Jobs for the Lawn
As the weather allows, lawns can now be mown regularly as they start to grow and all lawn clippings can be saved to make good garden compost that can be recycled back onto the garden when it has fully rotted away. And don’t forget to recycle all your waste vegetable peelings etc onto the compost heap. April is also a good month to sow new lawns and repair any bare patches in existing lawns. It is also time to start thinking about feeding the lawn with a lawn feed and, if weeds and moss are a problem on the lawns, a good quality feed with a moss and selective weed killer all mixed together as one product is available at any good garden centre. For all you wildlife enthusiasts, April is a good time to sow wildlife meadows which are so important for our insect populations and especially to help our bee population.
Jobs for the Shrub Garden
There is still time over the next couple of weeks to move evergreen shrubs, but don’t forget to make sure that are kept well-watered over the summer months until they become well established. April is a good month to give all shrub borders a good general purpose feed with something like Growmore and also to apply a good mulch with some well-rotted garden compost.
Other Jobs for April
Keep weeds under control to save a lot of work later on
Protect fruit blossom from late frosts
Tie in climbing and rambling roses
Sow hardy annuals
Prune outdoor fig trees
Divide bamboos and waterlilies
The sun has now come out, so I am afraid it is time to get the wellies on and get out into the garden, but I will be back with another update for May.
Paul Robson – the Pant Gardener