Your garden is starting to come alive and the blossom and bursts of green are a welcome sight after the long cold winter. To get ahead this year, get into the garden over the next few weeks and complete a few important maintenance jobs. Not only will your plants thank you for it but you’ll be grateful in a few weeks when you can sit back and enjoy your efforts on a sunny day.
If your garden path is anything like mine right now, it needs a good power wash. I have a green tinge and plenty of debris on my path. There are sprays that can help but a good power sprayer or scrub with a brush will get most of it off.
Have a clean of your guttering and tidy up any leaves that might still be lurking around.
Cut back any dead foliage, but make sure you aren’t getting rid of any important new growth – if in doubt check your plant labels or ask our good friend Google. Once your daffs and tulips have finished, dead head them but don’t cut these back. The leaves need to stay on so that any goodness in them returns to the bulb. A boost with a handful of blood and bone mix would give them a jump start for next year’s flowers, which are already forming in the bulbs.
If your lawn isn’t too bad after the winter then perhaps you might just want to apply a high nitrogen fertiliser to make it more lush ahead of the summer.
For those lawns looking a little worse for wear – you’ll need to apply some lawn seed or if it needs something bigger then now is the time to lay a brand-new lawn. If you just have a few small patches to repair why not plant up a seed tray with grass seed and then cut out the shape you need to fill the gaps, once it has grown and formed a good root system.
The weather can be very changeable at this time of year and before you plant out your young plants, get yourself some fleecing to protect them from any late frosts.
Sunny weather might also shock some of your Spring flowers so keep everything well-watered on these days, especially your potted plants as they can dry out easily.
With April showers, it’s also a good time to start collecting rain water in your water butts. Direct any drain pipes into your water butts and keep them covered if you can.
If you start hoeing before weeds occur (e.g. turning over and breaking up the soil surface) you can avoid weeds. Some gentle work now will save effort later on but be careful not to kill any growth on your perennial plants that are starting to shoot again.
To get the most out of your machinery you need to keep it well maintained. Visiting your local garden machinery specialist will allow you to get it looked at and sharpened/ serviced ahead of the bigger gardening projects over the next few weeks.
Or if you are thinking of investing in a new piece of machinery, like a brand-new mower, then contact your local garden machinery dealer, who will be able to offer you the best advice.
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