Its April! Spring should be springing this month so here are your jobs to do:
- Your lawn can have its first cut/s of the year. Make sure your mower is on a high setting for the first few cuts as the grass is recovering from the winter and just putting growth on. This video gives you lots of tips and also made me laugh!
- Now’s the time to tidy up the edges. Use something with a straight edge or a hosepipe to mark where you want the edges to be and then use a half moon spade (my favourite tool) or a knife to get a nice clean edge defining lawn and borders … this is the most satisfying job of the year. Alan Titchmarsh shows you how here.
- Deadhead your Hydrangeas now if you haven’t already. Take them down to the next pair of healthy buds unless you have to reduce the size. If you have any of the frothy white varieties such as Annabelle or Limelight which have huge flowerheads, take them down further as they need strong stem growth to support the weight of the flowers.
- Now’s the time to start off annual seeds indoors or in the greenhouse. Sunflowers, Sweetpeas and any veg like tomatoes, sweetcorn or leeks can be sown now. A great activity to do with the children during the Easter holidays. More advice here.
- Now is also a good time to feed any shrubs or roses you have in the garden so help them put on growth, flower or fruit this year. Fertiliser is a concentrated solution or pellet of nutrients. I tend to use organic fertilisers like Blood, Fish and Bones or Chicken Manure a lot in my garden as I am on free-draining, nutieint low sand. Feed them now for a good show this year. Shrubs in containers need feeding all year round. Shrubs in the ground should fare ok on their own and feeding now is a welcome boost. More advice from the RHS here.
Let me know how you get on, and if you have any questions email me renee@thegirlwhogardens.co.uk.
Or book a Garden Hoedown for an hour of one to one garden therapy and you’ll come away with a personalised action plan to get the most out of your garden!