Gardening Tips for April

Wildlife

• Continue to feed birds so that the adults have enough energy to provide for their young.

Trees, Shrubs and Flowers

• Pick off dead flowers from spring flowering bulbs but leave the green leaves alone as they feed the bulb ready for next year and will die back once they have done their job.
• Lightly cut back lavender.
• Prune winter flowering Jasmin.
• Trim winter flowering heathers.
• Delay pruning spring flowering shrubs such as Forsythia until they have finished flowering.
• Spray roses with a product such as Roseclear or Multirose to help keep pests and diseases at bay.
• Feed roses and flowering plants if not done last month.
• Tie in climbing and rambling roses and other climbing plants.
• Put supports in place for perennials.
• Divide overcrowded perennials.
• Harden off summer bedding plants gradually, bringing them out for a few hours a day and put back undercover at night.
• Sow Sweet Peas outdoors.
• Sow seeds of hardy annuals, herbs and wildflowers outdoors.
• Plant Begonias for a great splash of colour in the summer.
• Plant up an alpine trough.
• Plant summer flowering bulbs if you haven’t already done so.
• Prune your penstemons – cut back all the old shoots to the base, provided there is new growth at the bottom of the plant. If there are no new shoots at the base, cut just above the lowest set of leaves.
• Feed actively growing plants and crops to promote strong flowers and growth. Use either a general purpose fertiliser, seaweed containing products (which will help plants cope with stressful conditions like drought, cold or transplant shock more easily) or organic fertiliser.

Lawns

• Sow new lawns or repair bare patches on well prepared soil.
• New turf can be laid in your lawn.
• Apply a high nitrogen fertiliser.
• Apply specialist lawn weed killers where moss and weeds are a problem.
• Mow your lawn regularly and lower the cut towards the end of the month.
• Re-cut lawn edges.

Fruit and Vegetables

• Protect fruit flowers from frost with fleece on frosty nights but take off in the day so pollinating insects can get to the flowers.
• Put brassica collars round brassica plants to prevent cabbage root fly from laying their eggs.
• Thin out previously direct sown crops by pulling out the weak little ones, leaving bigger stronger seedlings to grow.
• Harvest asparagus spears when they are no more than 18 cm tall.
• Sow salad crops such as leaves, spring onions and radishes. Sow in succession (about every two weeks) to avoid gluts and shortages. Cut and come again varieties are an excellent use of space
• Sow vegetable seeds into well prepared soil (e.g. cabbage, carrots, cauliflower and beetroot).
• Plant out any hardy vegetable plants raised in pots or modules. Help plants overcome transplant shock and get off to an earlier start by using Mycorrhiza and/or Seaweed products. Both will greatly enhance absorption and good quality seaweed products will add vital minerals to the soil which are essential to both plant and human health.
• Plant herbs in pots or a window box so they are easy to access from the kitchen. Mint is best in a pot to prevent it becoming too invasive.

General Maintenance

• Keep on top of weeds by hoeing or other methods of weed control.
• Hang up sticky traps in greenhouses to control / catch whitefly.
• Re-pot any pot bound houseplants or replace the top few cm with new compost to refresh them.
• Increase the water given to houseplants.
• Invest in a water butt.
• Specimens grown in containers will benefit from a good feed.