April is one of my favourite months to be in the garden as almost everywhere you look there's something ready to burst into life. There's quite a lot to get stuck into this month, so let's get straight to it!
Sow annuals for summer colour
Now is the perfect time to start sowing annuals from seed.
If you’ve not got much experience growing flowers from seed, then annuals are a great place to start as they are easy to grow and very quick to flower.
Firstly, the fun part: choosing what to grow!
From Cornflowers to Cosmos, Nasturtiums to Marigolds, there’s so many amazing annuals you can grow from seed to fill your garden with colour this summer.
I’ve gone for some of these fun, miniature sunflowers.
I recommend using a specific seed-sowing compost for annuals as it’s very fine which makes it easy for the new shoots to push up through the soil.
To get started, take your propagator tray and fill it up, making sure to give it a good tap to settle the compost.
Then use a dibber (or pencil, screwdriver etc) to make a hole in each cell about 1.5cm deep, before popping one seed in each hole.
Finally, give it a good soak in a tray of water – it’s best to avoid watering from the top as you risk washing the seeds away – then pop on your lid and place it somewhere warm and sunny like a windowsill.
Plant perennials for lasting borders
Have you got a bed or border that’s looking a bit bare?
Now’s a great time to fill it out with some new perennials that will not only look great this summer but they’ll keep on getting bigger and better each year!
I’ve got a border in my new garden that needed something doing to it, so this felt like the perfect place for some perennials.
I went for some Eryngium with these gorgeous blue flowers, as well as some stunning orange perennial poppies from my local British Garden Centre.
I picked up three of each plant as I’ve always found plants look best grouped together in odd numbers!
Before planting, it’s a good idea to give the bed a good weed to make sure there’s nothing else lurking under the surface.
Then all you need to do is dig a hole roughly the same size as the plant pot, gently tease out the roots, then back fill with compost and give a good firm down.
Finally, make sure you give each plant a really good water in and make sure you keep an eye on them over the following weeks to ensure they never dry out.
Feed plants for a spring boost
Plants use up a LOT of energy in April putting out all their new leaves and buds, so it’s really important to stay on top of feeding.
Pretty much every plant benefits from feeding, including established trees and shrubs.
Granular feed is a great choice if you’ve got a big area to feed is it’s so quick and easy to scatter around the base of your plants.
There's so many different types of feed available, so my number one rule is to make sure you read the instructions on the pack before you start feeding!
Thanks for reading.
