What to do in the garden in April: planting, sowing, pruning, harvesting

The ornamental garden in April

Your garden, which gradually comes out of its winter rest, probably delights you with the long-awaited blossoming of the first bulbs, the first perennials, such as silver baskets, and the first flowering shrubs, such as forsythias. The next ones won’t be long in coming and, in the meantime, there are many tasks to accomplish.

The lawn

Between rain and sun, you probably feel like your lawn is growing in the blink of an eye. But it is far from being just an impression and it is time to restart your mower so as not to let yourself be overwhelmed. Indeed, during this period, it is preferable to mower fairly frequently to prevent the grass from becoming too tall and too greasy, which makes mowing more difficult. Beyond mowing, you may need to devote yourself to other tasks depending on the condition of your lawn:

• If areas of grass have not survived bad weather, now is the time to use reseeding seeds.
• Depending on your terrain, foam may have developed. To eliminate it, you can use an anti-foam product.
• You can also scarify your lawn in order to aerate the soil.
• Finally, you can choose to strengthen your lawn using fertilizer.

Planting and seedlings

Between planting, sowing, cuttings and repotting, there are many activities whether you have a garden, a balcony or a terrace, because you can also get started in preparing your planters. Here is a summary of what you can do in April:

• If you live in an area with a mild climate, you can sow annual flowers in place, such as zinnias, snapdragons, cosmos, nasturtiums, etc. In other regions, it is preferable to prepare your seedlings under cover.
• You can plant perennials that bloom in spring, such as lupins, perennial geraniums, euphorbias, etc. For summer flowering perennials, it is still a little early for some regions, it is better to wait.
• You can also plant your summer bulbs, like gladioli, lilies, cannas, daylilies, etc., as well as your dahlias.
• Now is also a good time to plant shrubs, rose bushes, conifers and climbing plants purchased in containers.
• You can take cuttings from your hydrangeas.
• If necessary, repot your oleanders.

The sizes

Here are the shrubs and plants that you can prune in your garden in April:

• If you have not yet devoted yourself to it, this is the last moment to prune your rose bushes, but keep your hand light: cut only the thin branches and dead branches, for the others, just cut ¼ of the height.
• Once flowering has passed, you can proceed to prune spring-flowering shrubs, such as forsythias, flowering gooseberries, witch hazel, etc.
• You can also prune your citrus trees by aerating the center.
• The winter tranquility is over: you can start pruning your hedges for the first time, which are probably growing faster than you would like now that the ground is warming up.

Land development

Do you want to create new beds? Now is the time to prepare them. Likewise, you can prepare the flowerbeds which will welcome new flowers. To perfect the aesthetics of your garden, clean the borders or redo them if necessary. And above all, don’t forget to clean your pond, if necessary.

The vegetable garden in April

Here too, the month of April marks the big start of activities which will be even more numerous if you did not remain inactive in March and have anticipated some seedlingsbecause you will have to thin them out and probably transplant them.

Seedlings

Of course, you can buy plants ready to plant in the nursery, but the seedling solution will allow you to plant more, to have more diversity without breaking the bank. The disadvantage of this solution is that in the case of certain vegetables it is necessary to have space to accommodate the seedlings, especially in regions with colder climates. You will be able to transplant the young plants into the ground as soon as the risk of frost has passed and you will benefit from earlier harvests. Here is what you can sow in April and where:

• Under shelter : You can sow tomatoes, eggplants, chili peppers, melons, squash, zucchini, cucumbers, etc.
• In the open ground : You can sow cabbages, whether Chinese, cabus, rave or Brussels, spring lettuce, chard, fennel, carrots, parsnips, radishes, spinach, leeks, turnips, salsify, tuberous parsley, onions, etc. Don’t forget to sow marigolds, marigolds, etc. which will allow you to attract beneficials to the vegetable garden and fight against certain undesirables.
• If you sowed carrots last month, It’s time to clear them up. To do this, leave a plant approximately every 5 centimeters.

Prepare the ground

There is no point in thinking about planting if you have not prepared the soil of your vegetable garden according to the planned crops. This means you should already know what you are going to plant and in what space. So some areas will need to be enriched with compost or manure, and others will not. In all cases :

• Aerate the soil with a spade fork, avoiding turning it over so as not to disturb the living micro-organisms.
• Eliminate weeds.
• Rake the surface to break up clods of earth and remove any stones from the area.

The plantations

Beyond transplant young plants asparagus, leek, Jerusalem artichoke, shallot, onion, etc. from your seedlings, you can also plant artichokes, early potatoes, etc. Aromatics can also be planted in the ground. You can also take advantage of the month of April to divide your chives.

The orchard in April

In the orchard too, some work awaits you:

• You can plant strawberries.
• Now is the ideal time to plant small-fruited shrubs, such as raspberries, gooseberries, etc.
• You can sow borage which promotes pollination for abundant harvests.
• You can bring compost at the foot of fruit trees.