The madness of March has passed, and here we had head into April but hopefully with less of the showers.
April is a super busy time in our gardens and on our allotment plots, from seed sowing, planting out, potting up, planting summer bulbs, making structures, planting polytunnels/greenhouses and of course picking the first few early harvests.
Now don’t worry, if you haven’t sown any seeds yet you can still catch up, as you can sow nearly all your seeds in April. Some of them directly outside in the ground, or inside greenhouses/polytunnels and some may still need to be sown inside on sunny windowsill until the risk of frost has passed in your area.
Vegetable seeds to sow in April.
- Sow Inside
- Squash
- Pumpkins
- Courgettes
- Cucumbers
- Beans
- Sweetcorn
- Herbs
- Tomatoes
- Sow outside
- Beetroot
- Lettuce
- Carrots
- Peas
- Radish
- Rocket
- Spinach
- Chard
Flower seeds to sow in April.
- Sunflowers
- Zinnia
- Calendula
- Cornflowers
- Cosmos
- Nasturtium
- Statice
- Strawflower
- Marigold
- Stocks
April is a busy month with lots of jobs to be doing in the garden, but also, it’s a great month to catch up with some of the autumn/winter jobs you may not have finished yet. Finally, we have longer light hours in the evenings for us to catch up with those jobs after work. Here are a few jobs that you can be getting on with in April.
Lawn Care
Want a perfect lawn for summer, well now is the perfect time to get those important jobs done to ensure a luscious lawn.
- Step1 cut your lawn, not too short but give it the first cut of the season.
- Step2 scarify your lawn using a rake. This will help remove all the moss.
- Step 3 aerate your lawn; this can be down with a proper tool or a garden fork.
- Step 4 seed the bare and sparce patches on your lawn
- Step 5 lightly cover your lawn with our Peat Free lawn Feed & Top dressing cover the areas that are seeded with a slightly heavier covering to help stop birds eating the seed.
- Step 6 water your lawn.
In a few weeks’ time you will see the results of your hard work.
Potting up Dahlias
Want a spectacular show of flowers in your garden borders or on your allotment plots then dahlias are the right choice for the WOW factor. If you haven’t already you can now order dahlia tubers online.
When your dahlia tubers arrive, they will benefit from potting up before planting out. Not only will this give the tubers a chance to start growing before the risk of frost has passed but growing them before planting them outside will give them better chance against the slugs and snails. Slugs and snails love fresh new green shoots so planting them out when more established helps prevent the pests.
Please see the video on how to plant up your dahlia tubers.
Plant up dahlia tubers into pots using our Multipurpose compost with added john Innes.
As an extra safety net against those pesky slugs, when dahlias are planted in their final positions add a ring of our Magic Mulch around the plants, not only will this help with water retention, feed the plants and supress any weeds growing but the mulch will dry in the sun and create a barrier that slugs and snails do not like to go across.
How to boost grow your own harvests.
We have an amazing range of products that will help you boost your growing game in your vegetable patches. From enriching your soil beforehand, boosting the soil through the gardening seasons and feeing your wonderful plants we have you covered.
Chicken Manure
Our peat free, organic Chicken Manure is the perfect addition to any compost mix for blending pre planting or dug directly into flower beds for a high nitrogen boost. This product is produced in Somerset by happy hens who have lived a free-range life.
An average dose for top-dressing soil is 150g per sq m (4½oz per sq yd) for most crops. For greedy vegetable crops use 200g per sq m (6oz per sq yd) but split this into two doses with a four-week gap between applications.
Blend with compost when making up a batch for pots and planting out. A handful or 100g per 40L bag of compost will add significant nutrient value. Not suitable for use in soil directly around Ericaceous plants.
Farmyard Manure
Produced on a neighbouring farm to RocketGro’s Somerset farm, this Manure is the good stuff, as it should be. Well-rotted and genuine Manure. Excellent for use around Roses and vegetable Beds. An ideal topical soil improver the traditional way. You can dig it in or let it rot down into the soil over time. The farm we take this from has excellent animal welfare standards, so we know the animals are well looked after and cared for.
Spread a thick later 3-4cm deep over the soil surface. Using a fork work into the top 15-20cm of the soil surface. When dug into clay (heavy) soils it will create a much more open structure and improve drainage. For sandy soils it will improve soil structure. If you are taking a no dig approach that will work too. Apply a thick layer 3-4cm deep over the soil surface. Spread evenly around the existing plants. Keep away from Ericaceous Plants.
Plant fuel- Liquid Feed
Our Natural Organic liquid plant food concentrate is a chemical free liquid feed with high levels of essential N:P:K 4-2-6 and bio ready nutrients/microbes that will enrich your soil and get straight to the plant roots to boost their vitality and growth. Plant Fuel is the perfect feed for the growing season to give your plants a noticeable growth and harvest boost. Add plant fuel to your watering routine at least once a week. Don’t worry a little goes a long way our2.5 litre bottle makes 125 Watering Cans.
Our next blog will be focussing on jobs to do in May, our new Bark Chunks, Top Soil, Fruit & veg compost and deep fill Tomato Planters.
