April Gardening Tips
This is one of the busiest months in the garden and it can feel that everything is too much to cope with, but try to enjoy the colour and birdsong while you are working!
Plant out Sweet Peas and other young plants for the cutting garden plants that were sown earlier in spring.
Prune back early flowering shrubs like Forythia, Chaenomeles and winter flowering Jasmine by a third. Prune shrubby herbs such as sage and thyme to ensure they stay compact.
Plant evergreen hedges such as Photinia, Laurel, Escallonia, Elaeagnus. Add some Rose, Tree and Shrub compost to the hole along with some Bonemeal or Growmore. Its dry ensure you water the plants in well.
Plant an alpine trough. Use a planting mix of equal parts John Innes No. 2 compost and coarse grit and topdress with a 2cm (3/4″) layer of decorative grit or small stones.
Plant out potatoes Space the rows 75cm apart to allow for maximum yield. If any potatoes were planted in March, they need to be earthed up.
Late in the month begin sowing under glass crops such as runner beans, pumpkins and squashes to plant out after the last frost in May.
Top dress soft fruits with Manure, Strawberries would benefit from a feed of Sulphate of Potash to encourage more flowers.
Grass will really start to grow this month and therefore will need a lot of care. This includes regular mowing and feeding. April is also a good time to tackle moss in the lawn. Westland Aftercut all in one is a great product to kill off the moss.
Create a new lawn by sowing seed now. Ensure that all weeds are removed from the soil where you are going to sow. Choose from our range of Gro Sure seeds for wide range of situations.
Offer birds live or soaked mealworms instead of dried ones now the nesting season has arrived and avoid whole nuts and chunky feeds, which can choke fledglings.