April showers may feature this month – but so does increasingly warm sunshine, making planting and pruning a pleasure. Here are a few of the jobs to be getting on with this month:
General tasks:
- Clean water features scrubbing off algae, fallen leaves and other debris then rinsing before refilling.
- Rake over patches of coarse grass in the lawn to raise them up before mowing so they’re cut right back and don’t take over.
- Sow new lawns or repair bare patches.
Ornamental gardens
- Plant summer-flowering bulbs like lilies, ornamental alliums, gladioli and camassia. They’re as happy in containers as in the border - a fantastic way to brighten up your terrace.
- Sow hardy annuals, herbs and wild flower seed outdoors.
- Tie in climbing and rambling roses while stems are still young and flexible, training them horizontally to encourage lots of flowers.
- Feed hungry shrubs and roses.
- Prune forsythia once it’s finished flowering, pruning out the oldest flowered stems back to outward-facing shoots.
- Keep weeds under control.
- Divide bamboos and waterlilies.
Kitchen garden:
- Earth up potatoes by mounding soil over stems to protect them from late frosts and encourage more tubers to form.
- Sow calabrese in modules on a bright windowsill or in a cool greenhouse ready for planting next month.
- Pot on vegetables sown in modules last month, moving them into the next pot size up so roots continue growing.
- Protect fruit blossom from late frosts.
- Prune fig trees.
- Start to feed citrus plants.