1. Container turnaround
Out go the winter flowers and bulbs, in come summer flowers such as begonias, fuchsias and petunias. When winter bulbs are slow to die back, carefully decant them from a fancy pot to a more utilitarian one, freeing up your best pots for planting. Alternatively, plant spent bulbs straight in the garden.Potting compost is expensive, but you can re-use old material by mixing in 25 per cent of fine bark chips, plus a cup of fertiliser per bucketful. This is satisfactory for tubs and troughs, where most bought potting compost is used.
There will still be cold nights, so keep potted begonias, pelargoniums and petunias against the house wall and cover them with a double layer of fleece on chilly nights.
2. Frost defence
Young shoots can get nipped by later spring frosts – hydrangeas, penstemons and emerging potatoes are typical victims. Hold off pruning the hydrangeas and penstemons until the end of the month. Their spent flower shoots and older foliage will keep off much frost damage. Draw a smattering of soil over the emerging potato leaves – even this mere sprinkle prevents frost damage.
Heaters to keep off cold in greenhouses have become rather costly to fuel. Draping a double layer of horticultural fleece over plants at night will give useful protection.
Low tunnels and cloches covered in fleece, although effective, involve single-use plastic which is not very pleasant. Cold frames are more expensive but last for years, and bring seeds and seedling along faster than open ground.
Rows of young beetroot and turnip plants (Photo: RHS / Tim Sandall)3. Take layers
Layering is simply bending low-growing shoots to ground level and covering them with a mound of soil. This often happens naturally where gooseberries and other shrubby plants touch the ground. If done now, the layer has all summer to develop roots.
To make the process faster and more efficient, give the shoot in question a gentle twist to “wound” it or cut a “tongue” with a sharp knife at about the lowest point of the bent-down branch. Dig a little hole if possible where the layer meets the ground, as this keeps it moister than a mound of soil. Use a U-shaped piece of wire – from a coat hanger, say – or a brick to keep the shoot pressed down, then cover with plenty of soil.
Shrubs – especially climbers – lend themselves to layering. Layering works by the enhanced root-producing potential of wound-healing tissue, the effect on nutrient flow by bending and the dark, moist environment.
By autumn, the shoot should have developed roots and be ready for planting elsewhere. Even plants that root reluctantly by cuttings respond – camellia and wisteria, for example.
4. Fill the greenhouse
If you have a conservatory, greenhouse or even a polythene tunnel, now is the time to cram it with plants. Vegetables, herb and flower seeds will germinate quickly with the rising warmth, but remember to open vents on sunny days and apply shade netting or paint to prevent over-heating. Nights can remain chilly, however, so close vents and doors before sunset.
Tender seeds grow vigorously from mid-April, including basil, courgettes, French and runner beans, melons, pumpkins and squash. For flowers, cosmos, nasturtiums, sunflowers and zinnia are rewarding choices.
Seedlings from seeds sown since January will spoil unless set out into pots or cell trays so they have enough light to develop without getting “leggy” (elongated and weak). You can quickly have enough seedlings to fill your greenhouse and more, but hardy ones, lettuces or leeks will be perfectly happy on a sheltered patio, ideally covered in fleece or better, in a coldframe.
Cover outdoor cabbage-family transplants with fleece, as cabbage root fly will be flying in April.
Try growing vegetables like lettuce (Photo: RHS / Tim Sandall)5. Give your lawn some love
Even if you intend to leave your lawn unmown from May to benefit wildlife, mow it now to keep the sward dense and take some of the energy out of it to give other plants, such as wildflowers, a good chance to compete against vigorous grasses.
Feeding and mowing unfortunately bring a significant environmental cost to lawns. Electric mowers are best for most gardens, while lawns in good condition do well enough if left unfed, especially if they have some clover in them.
If you hanker after a perfect lawn, consider keeping this area relatively small and manage the rest of the lawn with a lighter touch. The more shaded parts of lawns seldom make really good turf and are ideal to leave for wildlife. Perfect lawns will need weed management, feeding and frequent mowing this month.
6. Cherish houseplants
Houseplants cannot enjoy their outdoor recuperation period for another six weeks, but they will be responding to the rising light and temperature levels, especially if given a little houseplant fertiliser each week. A little more watering will also be needed – though over-watering is a particularly common cause of houseplant losses.
Move plants back from sunnier windows to prevent scorching. Repotting those with roots filling their current container into bigger pots will help them to develop healthy new growth.
Consider taking cuttings of the larger plants. Good subjects include African violets, busy Lizzies, philodendrons, peperomias, spider plants and tradescantia. Cuttings taken now will make robust plants by autumn.
Houseplants root pretty well in a jar of water, although better plants can be expected if rooted in a coarse mix of houseplant potting compost and horticultural sand, ideally using a heated propagator, or otherwise in a pot covered with a clear plastic bag sealed with an elastic band.
Remember to care for your lawn (Photo: RHS / Tim Sandall)7. Catch weeds young
Weed seedlings are very vulnerable, and raking, cultivating or hoeing while they remain small is more effective than trying to deal with them later. Ideally work as shallowly as possible to avoid bringing up more weed seeds into the light. Weed seeds remain dormant when buried, but if exposed to light or even fluctuating temperatures as found near the soil surface, they can germinate.
Perennial weeds – docks, for example – have a less tenacious grip on the soil in April and are more readily uprooted with the aid of a fork now.
Some weeds – dandelions and nettles, for example – are notably beneficial to insects, including pollinators and beneficial predatory ones respectively, so retain some where possible.
8. Sow annuals
Hardy annuals sown now can fill in gaps in borders, or, sown where they can be, cut later for flowers in the house. Useful very tolerant ones include ammi, calendula, cerinthe, clarkia, dill, eschscholzia, godetia, lavetera, nigella and sunflowers.
Now that the soil is warming up, some adventurous choices become possible, such as Layia, sweet sultan and tagetes, with cosmos and zinnia in May.
Native cornfield annual mixes – corncockle, cornflower, corn marigold and common poppies – are an especially wildlife-friendly annual flower option.
Why not sew some beetroot seeds? (Photo: RHS / Tim Sandall)9. Sow your veg and herbs
April is the great sowing and planting month in the vegetable garden, as soon as the soil has dried out enough.
Sow beetroot, chard, carrots, salad onions and parsnips where they are to grow. To save time, sow five seeds where you want each plant to remain after thinning.
Some plants – lettuces, for example – are easily transplanted when small, so sow these as thinly as you dare, with a more generous sowing at the end of the row. The row end will need more thinning, but the thinnings can be used to fill in any gaps. Sow leeks quite thickly, because these will be transplanted to their final positions.
Cabbage family plants can also be transplanted except calabrese, which tends to make unsatisfactory heads if transplanted as bare-root plants – it is better to raise these in cell trays.
Peas and broad beans crop comparatively poorly after April, but sown now produce good crops.
Coriander, dill, fennel, hyssop, marjoram, parsley and thyme can all be sown now – a metre of row is sufficient for most households. More will have to be sown from time to time until August for a continuous supply. The same goes for salads, lettuce, radish, rocket, spring onions and spinach, so plan to have some space available for later sowings.
10. Alpine troughs and pans
Alpine plants in garden centres are almost irresistible jewels. Rockeries were formerly fashionable but nowadays alpines are more often grown in troughs or pans (shallow wide pots) that have plenty of drainage holes. Place troughs in a sunny site, fill with a gritty potting compost – typically 30 per cent grit and the remainder peat-free potting compos or, better, peat-free John Innes No2 compost.
Troughs and pans must not get dry, so make sure the potting media does not come up to the lip; leave 40mm or so to aid watering after the decorative gravel or grit mulch is applied. The mulch stops the plants from soil splashing.
A collection of alpines looks best if a miniature landscape can be arranged with some dramatic (in their own small way) rocks, a woody plant – the hummocky dwarf spruce Picea abies “Little Gem”, perhaps or a low shrub such as Lithodora diffusa “Heavenly Blue” – a trailing plant or two over the edge (Phlox douglasii, for example) and some of the many available gems including Lewisia, saxifrages, sedums and thymes.
Summer is tie for some colour (Photo: RHS / Tim Sandall)Plus, six things to avoid
1. Planting tender plants too early
Where occasional ground frosts can still be expected until June, leave buying tender plants until May and be ready to cover with hessian or newspaper when frost is forecast. You often get bigger plants in May for the same price as April. However, some might sell out early, so if you have your eye on anything particular, buy them but be ready to protect.
2. Clearing spent veg too quickly
While leeks and brassicas that have flowered must be gone by the time new plants are set out to reduce cross-infection, leave them where you can, because their flowers are excellent for pollinators and other beneficial insects.
3. Smearing soil
Where the soil remains wet, don’t rush any planting preparation, especially rotovating, as this will smear and damage soil structure, hindering plant growth. Leave for a week or two; even clay soils dry out with some wind and sun.
Deadheading Narcissus after flowering (Photo: RHS / Tim Sandall)4. Mowing off bulbs
Leaving manky daffodils and other unsightly bulb foliage after flowering is important for bulbs. It photosynthesises and builds them up for flowering next year, so aim to leave it uncut for six weeks. Even tying it up is best avoided. Deadhead bulbs if you can, though (above).
5. Overdoing the fertiliser
Fertiliser has become expensive and too much can harm plants, as well as cause environmental damage. Follow manufacturers’ instructions, bearing in mind that rates can be reduced or even omitted where compost or manure has been dug in or applied as mulch.
6. Planting or sowing too closely
Crowded plants get stretched and fall over, producing stems and leaves at the expense of flowers and other useful bits. Give them enough space as soon as seedlings can be handled and thinned. Typically allow at least half their eventual height between them when planting.
The RHS is a charity inspiring everyone to grow via its research, advisory, outreach, shows and gardens. For more information, visit: rhs.org.uk
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