The April Garden
Be inspired by colours this month...
Many gardens are now filled with bright colours as April showers combined with warmer soil, give the ideal growing conditions for plants. Now is a good time to prune early-flowering shrubs, but if you are looking to increase the size of the plant, it is worth leaving two or three shoots unpruned allowing them to grow on.
And of course, plant new perennials this month! Getting them in early will let them have time to establish while the weather is mild and wet, and give them a much better chance of performing well in the season.
Plant perennials
Forsythia is a shrub with a terrific show of flowers and colour. Pruning as soon as flowering has finished will encourage more growth next spring. Cut back the flowered shoots to two or three buds from their base.
Have you just moved house, or in the process of a garden makeover, planting a hedge may be on your list of jobs to do? April is the ideal time to plant evergreen hedges. There is much less chance of them being damaged by cold winter winds. The speed of the wind going accross the surface of the leaf can take water from it quicker than the plant can replace it from the soil. This is especially true in the summer when the ground is dry, the result of which is the plant may suffer from withering.
If you are struggling with weeds in and around your plants, use deep organic mulch like bark or wood chips to smother weeds around plants.
Plant hedging
Use bark to smother weeds around plants
