Being out in the garden in April is absolutely joyous. The weather is often lovely, bright and clear. The lawn has been mowed so everything looks reasonably tidy. There’s some early colour and interest especially from bulbs. Other plants are begining to shoot up and you have that wonderful sense of promise – of what’s to come. But that doesn’t mean we can all sit back and relax. As always, there’s plenty to do. Here are some of my gardening jobs for April.
1.Plant Out Sweet Peas
If you sowed a batch of sweet peas over-winter to give yourself a head start, they will be ready in April to plant outside.
I planted some in October but as I have no greenhouse and my shed definitely gets frosty, I lacked somewhere to put them once they’d got going. Happily for me my lovely neighbour, Desi, offered to house mine in her greenhouse alongside her own.
To be honest, once they were safely with Desi I rather abandoned my sweet pea duties! Leaving Desi to water them, continue trimming them back to get them all lovely and bushy. She also moved them into fresh compost a month ago, as greedy old sweat peas need a lot of nutrition. Desi then, for the last few weeks has been putting them out in the day to acclimatise the plants to outside conditions in readiness for planting out.
With such expert care (Desi is a superb gardener) my sweet peas have flourished. When I collected them from Desi’s ‘boarding school’ they were in phenomenal shape.
So one of my gardening jobs for April is to plant them out in containers. I’ll use a wigwam of canes to give them something sturdy to grow up. I’ll water them in well and make sure I plant them in rich compost, possibly with some slow release fertiliser added for good measure.
April can still have a few frosts, so I’ll keep an eye on the forecasts, and put some bubblewrap (or horticultural fleece) around the plants if there’s a risk of an overnight frost.
2.Deadhead and Feed Camellias
If, like me, you have camellias, they will have been rewarding you with some gorgeous, exotic-looking blooms already this year. That’s because they are early flowerers – blooming late winter and early spring. Now is time to give them a bit of TLC. Caring for camellias in April involves a bit of deadheading and giving them a feed.
The deadheading won’t encourage them to bloom again – they’re not like roses. However, it will keep them looking much smarter, as the old blooms can end up looking mis-coloured (sort of rusty) and a bit soggy and sad. I simply pull the old blooms off by hand, gently.
Camellias like acidic soil. If your going to grow one in a pot you will need to plant it with ericaceous compost. So when it comes to feed, you need to get a feed for ericaceous plants too.
It may seem expensive buying a special type of feed for one plant, but to get round this I’ve not only got a few camellias but also a few other ericaceous or simply acid-loving plants in containers. These include a cute little Azalea, which my lovely friend Ginny gave me, and Acers (Japanese Maples) which I bought from the sale area of my local garden centre. Summer flowering heathers also like acidic condititions as do rhododendrons.
Anyway, back to feeding your camellias. You want to give them a dose of ericaceous feed now. All that lovely flowering will have taken up a lot of resources. They will need a further feed in early summer. But don’t feed after the end of July. If you do you could cause bud drop – a disaster for next year’s blooms!
3. Gardening Jobs for April – Dahlia Cuttings
This year, my gardening jobs for April include something I’ve not done before. I’m going to try to take dahlia cuttings. Confession time, I’m absolutely no dahlia expert. Indeed I grew my first one last year. It was called Mexican Star and was a lovely chocolatey red. I put it in a container in the red corner of my patio where I think it worked well. This, combined with a visit to my brother’s garden in West Wales, where he had an eye-watering collection of seemingly 100s of dahlias, made me think I need to get properly on the dahlia bandwagon.
My family and work colleagues must have picked up on this. As my son, Angus gave me two for Christmas, (Cornel Brons and Gallery Pablo) and work colleagues gave me two more for my recent birthday (Cafe au Lait and Who Dun it). These, combined with my over-wintered Mexican Star tubers from last year (I lifted the tubers and stored them in my shed) mean I now have a collection of five different varieties. I’m positively a Dahlia Baron!
Of course I want more! So a few weeks ago I planted up all my dahlia tubers indoors, with the tubers slightly protruding out of the soil, as I wanted to see if I could take cuttings from them. I kept the planted up tubers warm and watered (in my sitting room, poor Mr F-W). Within two weeks I was rewarded with wonderful shoots protruding from the tubers. Even the ones I’d over-wintered jumped back into action very happily. Hurrah!
So now, as one of my gardening jobs for April, I’m going to try to take cuttings from them. The idea is to cut off a healthy shoot, with a nice sharp knife, ideally with a tiny little bit (a sliver) of tuber attached. You then plant it in gritty compost, with a leaf node below the surface of the soil. I’ll put the cuttings around the edge of a pot. Apparently this is because when the new roots hit a barrier, like the side of the pot, it forces them to divide more, leading to a healthier root system. Who knew!
I’ll keep the cuttings well-watered, in my lovely warm sitting room (poor poor Mr F-W!) until they take root. Apparently this takes a couple of weeks! Wish me luck!
4. Transplant and Feed Spent Spring Bulbs
If you’ve spring bulbs in containers, some might have now have faded. For instance with my glorious display of white flowering bulbs the Narcissua Thalia (daffodils) are still looking wonderful as are the white Muscari White Magic. And the white tulips (Swan Wings and White Lizard) are only just kicking off.
However, the two pots full of Crocus Jeanne d’Arc are long gone.
I’m not leaving these in the containers, as that would keep the lovely metal planters tied up for most of the year with nothing happening in them! So as one of my gardening jobs for April, I’m planting out into the garden any of the spent spring bulbs I plan to keep.
To this end, yesterday, I planted out all of the Crocus Jeanne d’Arc under my cherry tree. I very carefully took them from the container, keeping all their roots and leaves intact and planted them nice and deep. I’ll give them a feed with tomorite liquid feed later today, so that the leaves can feed the bulbs and hopefully (fingers crossed) this most beautiful of crocuses will create a pretty, natural looking, icy white display, alongside the snowdrops, under my tree early next spring.
I also moved a pot of daffodils which had finished blooming. I took off the heads (so that the plant could concentrate its efforts on feeding the bulb) and put them in a border. Again, I’ll give these a feed.
I’ll do the same with all my spring flowering bulbs. As they fade in April, I’ll deadhead them, relocate them carefully in the garden, and give their leaves a liquid feed.
Other Gardening Jobs for April
5. Sow Annuals Direct
There are obviously lots of other gardening jobs for April which you could be getting on with. For instance as the soil starts warming up it’s a good time to sow annuals such as Nigella, Sunflowers, Poppies and Calendula straight into the ground. Some actually prefer being sown directly into soil.
However, you can’t just chuck them in and hope for the best. Well you can, but you’ll possibly regret it. Instead, make sure you rake the area well, remove any stones or lumps of soil. The tiny seeds once germinated only have enough energy stored in them to break through the soil’s surface and produce leaves. Once they have leaves they can of course start producing food for themselves. But if you give them barriers to get past – such as lumps and stones – they may never reach the soil surface and get to this point! Poor little seeds.
6. Lawn Care
April is also a good time for a bit of lawn care. Namely to feed your lawn and tease out any dandelions which you can now see sprouting into it. When it comes to feeding the lawn, most feeds need to be watered in. So do this just before rain is forecast. And be careful not to get the stuff on your shoes – it can really discolour carpets as I have found to my cost!
Digging out dandelions takes a bit of effort, and if I’m honest I don’t bother much. The bees so love the flowers. And I prefer to spend my gardening time on other jobs. That’s why my ‘lawn’ is largely full of things other than grass. It looks good from a distance, when mown, but look closely and you will see it’s shocking!
If you’re more disciplined than me, and want a great looking lawn, you will want to remove any dandelions. To do this dig deep. You want to get out all of the tap root. And dispose of the dandelions in your garden waste bin, I wouldn’t put them on your compost heap.
7. Planting Gladioli
I also have some gorgeous gladioli to plant and April will be a good time to start. I’ve bought two varieties, (a hot pink called Vulcano and a creamy white variety Fiona). My plan is so grow them in impactful groups in the sunny parts of my semi-shaded bed. I will plant them in biggish pots. I’ll start them off in a really sunny spot. The growing tips of the plants will only emerge after any danger of frosts is past. So probably around the end of May.
Once they’ve got going I’ll then plunge the containers into the border. My thinking is that this way it will be easy for me to identify the best, sunnier spots in the semi shaded bed, as by then trees which give the bed its shade will be in full leaf. Having the gladioli in plunged pots also means they will be easy to lift in the autumn. (The corms need to be lifted and stored over-winter.)
I’m going to plant my gladioli in waves, starting now, and continuing through May so that I have a succession of flowering.
Well that’s the theory. I have no idea if my plans will work, but for me that’s half the fun of gardening. Giving something a go, and seeing how it works!
The Gardening Jobs for April Don’t End Here…Next Week I’m Planting Up Some Containers
So these are my main gardening jobs for April. However, I should add that I’ll be also planting up some containers. Not least those vacated by my faded spring bulbs.
Jack in my office gave his Mum, Sharon, a gorgeous container for her birthday – lucky lady! So for Sharon – or any of you with containers which need planting – there will be a few suggestions from me, next week!
Meantime – happy gardening. x