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Gardening Tips for April

Gardening tips for April

As the weather begins to get warmer and the trees & hedges burst into blossom, April is always a busy month in the garden calendar. It’s an exciting time with seed sowing under way, new pot and border schemes to plant and longer days in which to enjoy it. 

Gardening Tips for April

Terrace Garden

  • April is a great time to refresh your tubs and baskets, pulling up any winter bedding plants that have come to an end, replacing with a cheerful display of colourful spring flowering bedding plants such as Pansies & Violas. 
  • Alpine troughs are easy to look after & make a lovely feature on the patio, where you can admire these hardy plants with their colourful foliage and flowers. In spring, there is a whole host of alpine plants to choose from in a myriad of colours, together with a range of suitable troughs to suit your garden style. Top-dress your chosen planter with alpine grit to show your plants to best effect, keep their foliage clean and ensure water doesn’t collect around the base of the plant. 

  • One of the great value ways to fill your tubs and baskets with colour this summer is to grow your ownbedding plants from young plants, available now in store now.  This range finishes in early April so don’t leave it too long.  Plant these easy to grow plants immediately into small pots and grow on in a warm frost-free greenhouse or conservatory ready to plant out when all risk of frost is passed. 
  • Towards the end of April plant up hanging baskets with summer flowering tub and basket plants, growing on under protection ready to put out when all risk of frost has passed. During April our stores are stocked with a wide range of quality plants for you to choose from that will put on a fabulous flower display all summer long. 
Gardening Tips for April

Beds and Borders

  • April is a great time to refresh your tubs and baskets, pulling up any winter bedding plants that have come to an end, replacing with a cheerful display of colourful spring flowering bedding plants such as Pansies & Violas. 

  • Apply a slow-release general purpose fertiliser, lightly forked into your borders as per the instructions on the packet - great for feeding all your hungry shrubs, herbaceous plants and roses. Remember to include your trees and hedges too. 
  • Complete any pruning of summer flowering shrubs, such as Buddleia, Lavatera and roses at the start of the month. Early flowering shrubs such as Forsythia can be pruned if needed once its finished flowering. 
  • Continue to plant new pot grownhedges, trees and shrubs to add structural elements to your garden and wildlife habitat. See our great range available now in store now. 
Gardening Tips for April

Cottage Garden

  • April is a great month for planting new cottage garden plants, growing quickly in the warming soils. Put plant supports around herbaceous plants before they grow too big, doing so early the plants will grow to hide them and any plant damage is avoided. 
  • Tie in stems of climbing roses and ramblers, positioning stems near to horizontal to encourage lots of flowers along their length. Apply rose food around the plants and mulch well for the season ahead. 
  • Planting summer flowering bulbs, such as Dahlias, Lilies and Gladioli now will ensure lots of flower blooms early and throughout the summer. 
  • If you started sowings of hardy annuals, such as Nasturtiums, Pot Marigolds and Cornflowers under cover earlier in the season, these can be planted out now. Otherwise, there is still time to sow drifts of seed between existing border plants for a more natural look. Easy to grow Wildflower seeds and plants as well as Flowers for Pollinators mixes are also available for a meadow feel and support wildlife. 
  • Pots or strips of sweet pea either from your own sowing or bought in store can be planted out now. Position strong plants around the base of wigwam supports made from bamboo canes or hazel sticks. Tie into position as the growths get long enough. 
Gardening Tips for April

Fruit Garden

  • Plant soft fruit now, such as Rhubarb, Raspberries, Blackcurrants and Blueberries.
  • Protect the blossom of Apricots, Peaches and Nectarines from any late frosts with protection fleece. 
  • Plant out strawberry plants into ground enriched with farmyard manure. Cover with cloches to encourage an early crop. 
Gardening Tips for April

Vegetable Garden

  • Plant your ‘chitted’ potatoes once their shoots are 3cm long. Use Dobbies peat free compost in pots and potato bags or in the ground feeding with potato fertiliser. 
  • Also, prepare vegetable beds for spring sowings by removing weeds and forking in plenty of farmyard manure. To help the soil to warm up quicker, consider covering prepared beds with cloches until you are ready to plant. This will also help to keep the soil drier, for easier seed sowing. 
  • Many vegetable varieties can be direct sown now, from carrots to parsnips, spinach to peas. Visit your local Dobbies to choose from our wide range available in-store. Or if you prefer, we have a wide range of young vegetable plants available for quicker results. If the weather turns chilly protect your plants with a layer of frost protection fleece. 
  • Protect young seedlings from slugs with barrier granules as an effective organic control. Other vegetables such as cucumbers and courgettes can be sown under glass now ready for planting in May. 

Gardening Tips for April

Greenhouse

  • Continue to prick out and pot on seedlings before they get too large. Ideally this should be done when the first pair of true leaves appear. 
  • Pot up and grow on young plants of your chosen summer bedding or cottage garden plants with Dobbies Potting-On compost, they will be ready to plant out when all risk of frost has passed. Growing from the young plug plant stage is an economical way to raise good numbers of plants and is ideal for those who didn’t get around to sowing seed in good time earlier in the season. 
  • Pot up Begonias and Dahlias to get them growing ready to plant out after frosts have finished. Sow tender annuals in a heated propagator, visit your local store to see our range of options. Consider installing a water butt to harvest the rainwater from your roofs, a great investment for the season ahead, and much preferred by your indoor and outdoor plants to tap water. 

Gardening Tips for April

Lawncare

  • Now is the perfect time to get the lawnmower out and cut your grass for the first time this year. Cut grass with the lawn mower blades set high for the first few times, then use a good lawn feed to help your lawn look its best. Tidy lawn edges using a half-moon edging iron. 
  • Scarify lawns with a spring-tine rake to remove moss, dead grass and debris from the winter, starving the lawn of light and air. Sow new lawns or repair bare patches from mid-April if weather allows, on ground that has been pre-prepared, levelled and firmed. Alternatively, for quicker results lay new turf leaving it undisturbed for a few weeks to allow time for new roots to establish.