As the weather warms and our gardens leap into life it is time to get sowing, pruning and preparing your garden for the exciting season ahead.
Vegetable growing really takes off this month. Chit and plant out second early potatoes in the first half of the month, maincrop potatoes in the second half. It’s also time to sow seed outdoors in well-prepared soil.
Trees, shrubs and flowers
- Ideal time to plant pot-grown fruit trees and bushes.
Fruit, Vergetables and Herbs
- Chit and plant out second early potatoes in the first half of the month, maincrop potatoes in the second half.
- Sow seed outdoors for beetroot, carrots, Swiss chard, summer cauliflower, kohl rabi, lettuce, leeks, radish, turnip, spring and pickling onions, peas, and perpetual spinach in well-prepared soil.
- Try sowing unusual vegetables such as salsify, Hamburg parsley, or scorzonera.
- Sow seed indoors of marrows, courgettes, pumpkins, and squash. Also sweet peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, aubergines, celery, celeriac, salads, and globe artichokes.
- In very mild areas sow dwarf French beans and sweet corn outside under cloches or fleece at the end of April. In cooler areas wait until May.
- Sow a seedbed of brassicas to provide transplants of sprouting broccoli, cauliflowers, and cabbages for planting out in June or July.
- Transplant broad beans grown in pots.
- Plant shallots, onion sets, and garlic.
- Plant Jerusalem artichoke tubers.
- Plant asparagus crowns.
- Pot up tomato seedlings when they develop true leaves above the more rounded seed leaves.
- Liquid feed fruit trees in pots with a balanced feed every fortnight.
- Where possible, protect plum and pear flowers from frost but allow insects access for pollination.
- Damp down or mist citrus plants regularly when flowering begins. Maintain a min temperature of 14°C (57°F).
- Deblossom strawberries planted after September in their first year to help the establishment.
- Pick forced strawberries under heated glass.
- Ventilate strawberries under cloches and mulch with straw or mats.
- Avoid using insecticides on crops in flowers.
- Support pea plants with sticks, twigs, green support mesh, or wire netting.
- Thin out rows of seedlings as soon as they are large enough to be handled.
- Protect early outdoor sowings with fleece and polythene.
- Continue to force witloof chicory and seakale.
- Dig up selected chicory roots, pot them up, and position them in a dark warm place (10-13°C; 50-55°F), with an upturned pot over them.
- Later in the month prepare runner bean supports for sowing (in May) or planting out (in June).
Greener Gardening
- Keep birdfeeders clean and topped up throughout spring, using seed and small peices of food so as not to choke fledgelings
- Sowing patches of Wildflowers
- Caring for Garden Brids
- Check Compost bins for wildlife
- Be aware of nesting birds
- Considering early pollinators
Top 10 jobs for this month
- Keep weeds under control
- Protect fruit blossom from late frosts
- Tie in climbing and rambling roses
- Sow hardy annuals, herbs and wild flower seed outdoors
- Start to feed citrus plants
- Increase the water given to houseplants
- Feed hungry shrubs and roses
- Sow new lawns or repair bare patches
- Prune fig trees
- Divide bamboos and waterlilies