April Gardening Guide

I’m going to be honest with you right now… I’ve had to fight the urge SO HARD this month for the guide to not simply be ‘stay inside and hope for better weather in May’. I’ve officially entered the grumpy stage of this bout of British weather. Aside from staring longingly out the window, snack in hand and audiobook playing in the background, I have managed to have a couple of days out in the last few weeks.

I finally managed to attend one of the local meet ups with the Society of Garden Designers, which was at Cliff Bank Nursery in Leeds. They’re a new nursery, run by Ben and Laura, started in the last couple of years. They have such a great ethos behind their growing based in plant health, ‘right plant, right place’ and selecting the best plant options rather than just the well known names. Ben’s long term aim is to grow everything solely from seed or propagation on site and is already doing this for the most part. I could’ve listened to him all day as he’s got such a wealth of plant based knowledge and I’d definitely recommend you visit when they open later this month.

I’ve also had a trip out for some planter sourcing – that’s right, I don’t just source plants for projects, I also find the planters. Getting the right look and feel for planters and pots is often an overlooked element in a garden yet makes so much difference. Do you want groupings of pots? Should you have larger planters? What materials go well with the surroundings/architecture? There are a lot of questions to ask yourself before you spend money on a pot that you happen across in a garden centre. I love going to antiques fairs to find planters for projects as they immediately have so much character. I’m a huge galvanised pot fan and they simply don’t make them like they used to. So off I went on a Friday morning, with an exceptionally early start, the sun shining (hallelujah), grabbing a coffee on the way and going on a treasure hunt – pure joy in my eyes.

Geum ‘Mai Tai’

Now I will give you some options of what you *could* be doing in the garden this month, but they will definitely be coming with the caveat that they’re not mandatory. If you would rather spend the rest of April taking longing glances out of your window, jumper on, coffee in one hand and a book in the other then you do you (as I will probably be doing the exact same thing!). However if we do manage to have a nice day or two, here are some options of what you can be getting on with in the garden…

Don’t be too quick with the bedding

You’ll be seeing lots of bedding plants appearing in garden centres in the coming weeks which may tempt you into buying them with the promise of summer colour. Just be a little wary as they will be frost tender so you’ll want to wait until your last frost date has passed until getting them outside. You can buy them now if you spot some plants you particularly like, just as long as you have somewhere protected you can pop them overnight for a while.

Sow unusual tomatoes

April is a good month for sowing tomato seeds. I personally only grow tomatoes from seed if they’re a particularly unusual variety I’d like. If you haven’t got your heart set on something particular, I sometimes think it’s easier to hold off and either buy a couple of plants or other gardeners often have spare that they’re happy to give away when they realised they’ve sown way too many!

Put up supports

Get your plant supports in place for climbing beans or peas. Also, if you have perennials that tend to flop a little bit, it’s a good idea to get those supports in place before your plants start putting on too much growth as you may end up disturbing them if you wait too long.

Prune figs

I adore the foliage on fig trees to add a feature foliage to a border or planter and now is the time to prune them. Remove any weak, damaged or crossing branches first and then cut any long, bare branches back to around 5cm. Depending on the size of your tree, take a step back and consider the shape of your tree overall and trim further if you need to. You should see some pea sized fruits on there which will gradually mature and ripen later in the year. Having an ornamental plant or tree in the garden providing you fresh fruit that will likely taste better than anything you’ve ever bought is such a huge bonus.

It’s worth doing the garden work now in prep for the good days that are coming…before you know it you’ll be sitting in your garden with friends and family enjoying drinks with the sun on your face!