Here are a few ideas of what you could be doing in the garden this month
YouGarden’s Top Tip
Prep Your Lawn
Prepare the ground for starting new lawns from seed. Start by raking the soil level and remove stones. Broadcast seed and rake gently into the surface. Water and cover with netting to protect from birds.
Beds and borders
- If you have a bare patch that you need to fill fast, try sowing seeds of hardy annuals. Cerinthe, scrambled eggplant, quaking grass, Californian poppy and love-in-a-mist can all be sown directly into well-prepared soil – in a few weeks time you’ll have a splash of colour that will last until Autumn.
- Keep an eye out for red lily beetles. These pests may look pretty, but they will chomp their way through flowers, leaves and buds of lilies and fritillaries. The adults are shiny scarlet, while their larvae are covered in a black, jelly-like substance. Check plants regularly and if you find any, squash them underfoot.
- Rejuvenate congested clumps of herbaceous perennials. Prise from the ground with a fork and split into several smaller pieces – you may be able to do this by hand, but use a spade if the roots are tough. Replant and water well.
- Mulch beds and borders with garden compost, leafmould, composted bark or other materials to lock in moisture and prevent weeds from growing.
Plants in pots
- Keep pansies, violas, daisies and other spring bedding plants going for longer by pinching off flowers as they fade.
- Protect plants from root munching vine weevil grubs by drenching compost with Nemasys Vine Weevil Killer, a biological control containing nematodes (microscopic worms).
- Pinch out the growing tips of bedding plants with your thumb and forefinger to encourage bushier plants.
Plants undercover
- Remove sheets of bubble wrap or any other material used to insulate the inside of greenhouses. Hard frosts are now unlikely, so allow the maximum amount of light to penetrate the structure, this will ensure the strong and even growth of plants.
- Many window sills and greenhouse benches will be heaving with containers full of developing seedlings. To prevent seedlings from becoming weak and leggy, give them their own pot when the first set of real leaves appears above the rounded seed leaves.
- Stop watering indoor cyclamen when the flowers and leaves start to wither. Keep the tubers dry until mid-summer, when they should be re-potted.
Trees and shrubs
- Check tree ties and loosen if necessary to prevent them from biting into the bark as the stem expands outwards.
- Give shrubs a quick boost by scattering a general fertiliser over the soil – Growmore granules or chicken manure pellets are both ideal.
- Frost damage on tender shrubs looks unsightly, so prune back any damaged shoots to healthy growth. If your garden is exposed, or live in a colder area, wait until next month when all danger of frost has passed.
- Regularly water newly planted trees and shrubs, especially during periods of hot, dry weather.
- Keep forsythia shrubs within bounds and ensure a great display next year, by pruning shrubs when the flowers start to fade. Cut back a third of old stems to just above the ground.
- Get roses off to a flying start by sprinkling a general-purpose or specialist rose fertiliser around plants, followed by mulching with well-rotted farmyard manure – spread a 5cm layer over the soil, ensuring there’s a gap between the material and stems of the plant.
In the kitchen garden
- Sow chilli peppers are undercover in 7.5cm pots filled with seed compost. Beetroot, cabbage, carrots, cauliflowers and sprouting broccoli can be sown outside. Ensure that the soil has been dug over to leave a fine finish that resembles bread crumbs, and is free of weeds and large stones.
- Dispatch black fly and other sap-sucking bugs in the vegetable garden with a pest control spray.
