Western Morning News (Saturday)
Make sure your garden is full of the joys of spring
Roll up your sleeves because, for gardeners, the busiest time of the year is about to begin... but it’s such great fun to get your hands dirty
HOPING to take it easy for a bit? Then I may have to disappoint you. The next few weeks are about the busiest in the year for gardeners, but the great thing is they are so productive.
You can get cracking with seed sowing on the vegetable plot, planting container-grown perennials and shrubs in beds and borders. And you can encourage the lawn to come back to life by raking out moss, mowing once a week and giving the grass a helping of combined weedkiller and fertiliser dressing to get it in good shape for summer.
A trip to the garden centre or local nursery will set you in good stead for the season ahead. The earth is warming up by April and is, as yet, not too dry. This means anything planted in beds and borders can establish its roots quite quickly. Encourage it to do so by working well-rotted garden compost or manure into the soil at planting time, making sure the plant does not go short of moisture in the early stages of establishment.
When you apply weedkiller and fertiliser dressing to the lawn, do buy or hire a wheeled distributor rather than doing the job by hand. This will make sure the stuff is applied evenly.
When it comes to the veg patch, don’t be tempted to sow everything at once on the first fine April day.
Salads especially benefit from successional sowing that will help yield a steady supply of lettuces, radishes and rocket without a glut. It’s best to sow 3ft or 4ft rows every 10 days or so.
But amid all this activity, take time to enjoy spring flowers and to watch the garden coming to life. If you don’t have decent garden furniture, now is the time to buy. Then find a spot where you can flop down and admire your handiwork.