Month by month
Garden jobs for April: sowing, staking and frost watch
April is the month when everything happens at once. Trees burst into leaf, borders fill out week by week and the vegetable plot finally gets going. The weather is famously changeable: warm sunshine, sharp showers and, crucially, frost on clear nights. In much of southern England the risk of frost fades by late April or early May, but in the Midlands, the north, Scotland and inland Ireland, frosts can strike well into May. Keep an eye on the forecast, hold back on planting out tender plants, and enjoy the most hopeful month of the year.
Flowers and borders
Put supports in for tall and floppy perennials now, while they are still small. Twiggy pea sticks, metal hoops or a grid of canes and twine all work. Peonies, delphiniums, lupins and Michaelmas daisies benefit most. Trying to prop up a flattened plant in June never looks as good.
Sow hardy annuals directly where they are to flower: pot marigolds, nasturtiums (late in the month), love-in-a-mist and cornflowers. Rake the soil fine, sow in short drills or patterns so you can tell seedlings from weeds, and thin them later.
Deadhead daffodils and tulips as the flowers fade, but leave the leaves to die back naturally for at least six weeks so the bulbs can build up next year’s flowers. Plant summer bulbs such as lilies and agapanthus in pots or warm, sunny borders.
Prune early-flowering shrubs such as forsythia straight after flowering, cutting the flowered stems back to strong young shoots. Watch for slugs and snails on emerging hostas and delphiniums; go out with a torch on damp evenings and pick them off, or use barriers and beer traps.
Vegetables
This is peak sowing time. Outdoors, sow beetroot, carrots, chard, lettuce, peas, radishes, spinach, turnips and spring onions. Little and often is the rule for salads: sow a short row every two weeks for a steady supply. Plant second early potatoes, and earth up first earlies by drawing soil over the shoots as they appear, both to protect them from frost and to increase the crop.
Under cover, sow runner and French beans, sweetcorn, courgettes, squashes and cucumbers in pots late in the month; they must not go outside until the frost risk has passed. Harden off brassicas and onions raised indoors by standing them outside during the day for a week or two before planting out.
Fruit
Fruit trees are in blossom, so protect them from frost with fleece on cold nights if you can. Hand-weed around strawberries and tuck straw under the plants later in the month to keep fruit clean. Cut back newly planted raspberries. Keep fruit trees in containers well watered, and feed them with a balanced fertiliser. Look out for early aphids on the tips of shoots and squash them by hand.
Lawns
The lawn is growing strongly now, so mow weekly, lowering the blades gradually. April is a good month for a spring feed with a balanced lawn fertiliser, applied when rain is forecast. Re-seed bare patches: loosen the soil, sprinkle seed, rake it in lightly and keep it moist until it establishes. Hand-weed dandelions and plantains with a daisy grubber, or simply leave some clover and daisies for the bees.
Wildlife
Birds are nesting, so avoid trimming hedges and dense shrubs until late summer, or check very carefully first. Queen bumblebees are hunting for nest sites and nectar; early-flowering pulmonaria, aquilegia, flowering currants and fruit blossom help them. Leave tadpoles to develop undisturbed. A pond, however small, is one of the best things you can add for wildlife.
Indoors and under cover
The greenhouse can reach high temperatures on sunny days, so open vents and doors and use shading on south-facing glass. Pot on tomato and pepper plants as they outgrow their pots. Sow half-hardy annuals such as cosmos, zinnias and tagetes, and start sunflowers in individual pots. Take basal cuttings from dahlias and delphiniums when the shoots are 8–10cm long. Plant sweet peas out against wigwams or netting, ideally after hardening off.
Plants looking good this month
April is thick with colour:
- Tulips take over from daffodils in borders and pots.
- Camellias and early rhododendrons flower in acid soils.
- Amelanchier froths with white blossom against bronze young leaves.
- Clematis alpina and macropetala types open nodding bells.
- English bluebells start colouring woodland edges late in the month.
- Brunnera produces sprays of forget-me-not blue flowers.
- Skimmia opens scented clusters of white flowers.
Look back at March jobs or plan ahead for May jobs.
From the plant finder
In flower in April
Good time to plant
Due for pruning
Grow your own in April
Sow now
Plant out
Ready to harvest
Problems to watch for in April
Spotted something else? Diagnose it by symptom.
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