April Gardening

April Gardening by Ewshot Gardener

After such a cold spell in February and the snow in March, it is reassuring to find that Spring flowers were not held back much and the slugs and snails were comatose for a bit longer!

April sees the best of tulips, wallflowers and polyanthus; elegant magnolias, lush camellias and cheerful rhododendrons put on their show to my delight.

Ornamental garden

• The main risk of frost is past, so you can direct sow sweet peas and plant out Dahlias, Cannas, Gladioli, lilies and Nerines.
• Prune Forsythia and Chaenomeles after flowering and, if you like the look of striking large leaves on your Cotinus (smoke bush), prune it hard back; you will not get any ‘smoke’ i.e. flowers though.
• Trim back frost-damaged evergreen foliage and renovate broadleaved evergreens like Pittosporum, Photinia, Hebe, Fatsia and Mahonia
• It is safe now to cut down the old stems of Gaura, Penstemon and Verbena bonariensis.
• Remove old foliage from Pulmonaria (lung wort) at flowering time to make room for the new, more decorative leaves that will develop.
• Direct sow sunflowers, poached egg plants, California poppies and pot marigolds.
• Apply weed & feed to lawns on a day when the leaves are dry but rain is expected

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March Gardening Tips

We have reached March and spring flowers are at their stunning best to cheer us through, perhaps, the busiest part of the gardening year.

Jobs to do

• All beds need a mulch both to retain moisture and to suppress those annoying annual weeds that need light to germinate.

• Remove the top 1 to 2 inches (2.5 to 5 cm) of old compost from permanent pot plants and top-dress with fresh. The old compost could be used as mulch.

In the ornamental garden

• Cut back Cornus, grown for their coloured stems, to 2-3 inches (5 to 7.5 cm) from the base because new growth has the best colour next winter.

• Prune bush and standard roses and feed

• Prune last season’s growth of Hydrangea panniculata to the lowest pair of strong buds – they flower on this year’s growth; but prune mop-head hydrangeas by removing dead heads back to the next pair of strong buds – they flower on last year’s growth; cut out a third of old growth at the base to encourage more stems to grow for next year’s flowers.

• Divide Hemerocallis, Astrantia, Hosta, Heuchera and Bergenia as new growth begins.

• Start mowing lawns, but keep the blades high to start with.

In the kitchen garden (more…)