April Gardening Tips
The garden centre is a great place to be this April. The colourful plant section is inspiring, and we love helping customers choose plants for their gardens.
April is a great time to start planting your potatoes, vegetables, strawberries and sweet peas. Some can go straight into their final position, while others will need to grow in a greenhouse or cold frame first. If you are unsure speak to a member of our plant team who are experts in their field.
Also, If you are lucky enough to have a greenhouse you can start to plant your hanging baskets and get them really well established in the comfort of the glasshouse. They will soon fill the space given and will be a wealth of colour when they are finally put out in May. There are so many new and interesting plants that can now be bought to furnish them and these will go right through until late autumn if carefully watered and fed through the summer months.
With Easter coming up we have a wonderful selection of Easter Planters, all filled with colour for your doorstep to welcome in the new season (and the Easter Bunny of course!). Plus we have a brilliant range of indoor Easter Gifts in our Gift Department too!
Do you like to cook and eat in your outdoor living space? It is a great time to be thinking ahead to the months to come by planting pots of vegetables and herbs around the patio. These can be used to flavour your fish and meat dishes whilst you relax in the heat of your chrome-topped outdoor heat source. Imagine picking your own thyme and parsley from the pots within yards of the barbecue or even sitting down in the heat of the summer and eating a pot-grown peach warmed by the sun.
Jobs to do in April
Plant out sweet peas now for a great show
Cut lawns on a regular basis
Feed roses and shrubs with the appropriate feeds
Spray roses against blackspot and mildew
Sow salad crops such as lettuce and Swiss chard
Plant your tomatoes and cucumbers in grow bags
Pot up your begonia tubers into their final pots and protect them from frosts
Finally, take every opportunity to sit out in the spring sunshine
Plant of the Month
Scabious (Pincushion Flower)
A gentle, quaint flowerhead stands tall above understated leaves. It makes a perfect cut flower, but would you want to pick it?! A fantastic pollinator attracting bees and butterflies to your garden from Spring and all summer long!
They need to be regularly deadheaded, watered in dry spells, and are a reliable performer in the bed or border. Perfect for coastal gardens to cottage gardens, they will tolerate most soils and look beautiful in pots too.
A versatile plant and pollinator-friendly too... it ticks all our boxes!
