April Gardening Tips – Your Monthly Checklist

April Gardening Tips – Your Monthly Checklist

Your monthly checklist for April gardening tips. Our expert knowledge and advice will help your garden flourish this month.

April Gardening Tips

Fruit & Vegetables

Continue to sow.

Sowing
  1. Sow outdoor tomato, chilli, and courgette varieties in pots to transplant in May or June.
  2. Sow small batches of rocket and other easy salad leaves for a quick and fresh harvest.
  3. Sow companion plants such as pot marigolds and borage in the veg plot for pest control and pollination.
  4. Sow herbs like parsley, coriander, dill and chamomile in a sunny bed or container for fresh flavours in your cooking.
  5. Sow fast-growing crops like radishes to maximize your garden’s productivity.
  6. Sow a variety of vegetables including broad beans, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, peas, cauliflower, broccoli, leeks, beetroot, radish, spring onion, lettuce, rocket, turnip, spinach, parsnips, carrot, and onion.

Keep planting Fruit & Veg.

Lettuce
  1. Plant second-early and maincrop potatoes for a bountiful harvest.
  2. Plant strawberry plants in soil enriched with well-rotted manure for a sweet harvest.
  3. Continue planting garlic, shallots and onions every few weeks to extend your harvest season.
  4. Keep planting bare-root asparagus crowns and Jerusalem artichoke tubers for an abundant crop.
  5. Divide hardy herbs like lemon balm and chives to replant in pots, borders or a herb bed.

Protect your Fruit & Vegetables.

Hozelock 3-in-1 Nozzle
  1. Use cardboard collars to deter cabbage root fly from laying eggs on brassica stems. Click here to learn how to make a cardboard collar.
  2. Pinch out broad bean tips covered in aphids or use a soap-based solution to control them.
  3. Protect emerging seedlings from slugs and snails and learn how to deter them for a healthy garden.
  4. Take care of your vegetables by watering and hoeing regularly, thinning out and transplanting seedlings, and providing support to peas and beans sown earlier. Use our NEW 3-in-1 Nozzle for easy watering results.
  5. Feed blackcurrants, blackberries, and hybrid berries to promote healthy growth and abundant fruit.
April Gardening Tips

Flowers

Sowing and planting.

Helps Water Absorption
  1. Sow sweet peas at the base of supports, and transplant those sown in autumn into their final positions.
  2. Sow sunflowers in a sunny, open site, and take measures to protect seedlings from snails and slugs.
  3. Plant hardy annuals sown indoors during autumn outside, and continue sowing hardy annuals outside.
  4. Continue planting and dividing summer flowering perennials.
  5. Grow exotic-looking summer flowers by planting pineapple lily (eucomis) bulbs in pots.
  6. Fill gaps in your borders with hardy annuals, wildflowers, and love-in-a-mist seeds for an attractive garden.
  7. For an instant splash of colour, plant polyanthus and primulas in pots and in the front of borders.

Protect and control.

Pests
  1. Protect delicate plants like lupins, delphiniums, and hostas from snails and slugs by taking measures to deter them.
  2. Control common rose diseases, such as rust, black spot, and mildew, by spraying the new leaves with a fungicide.
  3. Check roses for aphids regularly, and remove them before they can develop into a major infestation.
  4. Remove horticultural fleece from borderline-hardy plants.

Encourage new growth.

Gardener pruning citrus fruit in a greenhouse
  1. Keep your spring bulbs and bedding plants looking their best by deadheading regularly.
  2. Regenerate mature clumps of perennials by dividing and replanting them, like daylilies, asters, and hostas.
  3. Encourage new growth in your hydrangeas by pruning them, cutting back the old stems to a healthy shoot lower down.
  4. Enhance your garden pond’s beauty by adding aquatic plants, such as waterlilies and irises. Browse through our aquatics range.
  5. Leave the foliage of your spring bulbs for six weeks after flowering before cutting them down.
April Gardening Tips

Greenhouse

What to grow.

What to grow
  1. Sow sweet peas in deep pots and keep them warm in a greenhouse or on a sunny windowsill until after the last frost.
  2. Plant summer bedding in hanging baskets and pots, but keep them indoors until after the last frost.
  3. Grow herbs such as basil, chives, parsley, fennel, and coriander in pots or trays.
  4. Grow nutrient-rich microgreens, such as kale and mustard, in a few weeks by sowing quick-growing seeds.
  5. Sow runner beans, French beans, cucumbers, courgettes, pumpkins, and sweetcorn in pots.

Greenhouse maintenance.

Greenhouse maintenance
  1. Clean your greenhouse’s glazing to maximize sunlight exposure.
  2. Maintain good plant hygiene by removing faded blooms and dead leaves to prevent fungal diseases.
  3. Improve air circulation in your greenhouse by opening doors and vents on warm days or installing automatic vent openers.
  4. Install guttering and a water butt to collect rainwater for watering plants in your greenhouse. View our range of Garden Pumps to make use of the collected rainwater.

Greenhouse tips.

2810-tomato-2
  1. When seedlings produce their first true leaves, transfer them to individual pots or trays.
  2. Transplant greenhouse tomatoes into growing bags or large containers and tie their stems to supports.
  3. Thin out peaches and nectarines’ heavy fruit sets, leaving fruits about 10cm apart.
  4. Pinch out the shoot tips of fuchsias to encourage bushier plants.
April Gardening Tips

Garden Maintenance

General maintenance

100-100-218 - Weed (1)-0
  1. Keep pond water clear all summer by putting a bag of barley straw in it to discourage algae growth.
  2. Clean filters before putting pumps and fountains back into ponds.
  3. Remove old fern fronds to make way for new growth and keep your garden looking tidy.
  4. Keep weeds under control by regularly hoeing between rows of veg seedlings.
  5. Eliminate problem weeds like nettles and brambles to keep your garden looking its best.
  6. Keep aphids under control by wiping them off shoot tips and young leaves before they multiply.
  7. Keep borders clean and weed-free by doing a spring clean and regular maintenance.

Planting and lawn tips.

1756-Pond-Gloves
  1. Add new aquatic plants to ponds and divide established plants that have outgrown their baskets.
  2. Boost grass growth by removing moss and weeds from turf and using a nitrogen-rich lawn feed.
  3. Create a new lawn or repair damaged patches by laying turf or sowing grass seed.
  4. Protect young plants from late frosts by keeping cloches or large sheets of fleece handy.
  5. Cut away unwanted suckers growing around the base of trees and shrubs to prevent them from draining vital nutrients.

Tips in the garden.

2826-WaterButtPumpActionPump.jpg
  1. Ensure water butts are ready for April showers by checking that guttering on sheds and greenhouses is clear of debris.
  2. Continue to feed birds to help them raise their broods.
  3. Use a general-purpose fertilizer to feed roses, borders, hedges, trees, shrubs, and spring bulbs.
  4. Improve soil quality and moisture retention by mulching borders with compost from the compost bin. Use our NEW EasyMix 2-in-1 Composter for optimum, hassle-free results.

We hope you enjoyed reading about the top gardening jobs in April. If you’d like to get involved, drop us a comment below with your plans for this month!

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