Now that spring has sprung, you might be turning your attention to the garden. Once you’ve cleaned up the traces of winter, give some thought to what you can plant in your outdoor space that thrives during the spring season, from flowers to fruit and vegetables.
Before you can get sowing, however, you’ll need to make sure you’ve got all the right equipment to hand – then you’ll be ready to start transforming your garden. Read on for some top tips about the equipment you’ll need and what you can sow at this time of year.
How to prepare
Before you start digging up sections of your outdoor area, it’s a good idea to rake up the leaves and debris left behind by winter and perhaps put them on a compost heap if you have one. Establishing a compositing area is a good way of ensuring you have natural fertiliser to lay over the seeds you sow.
You’ll also need to make sure you have the right equipment to hand, such as gloves, a trowel, a watering can, a spade, soil and seeds. If you’re a keen gardener and have any horticultural fleece to hand, March is a good time to peg it on to the ground about a week before you start planting.
Flowers you can plant
Spring can be a difficult time for flower planting, as the unpredictable temperatures have an impact on growth. Among the flowers most commonly sown around this time are sweet peas, which can be planted throughout April to bloom in June and July, and pot marigolds, which will burst into flower about ten weeks after being planted.
Herbaceous perennials can also be planted during Spring, and include varieties like hellebores, geraniums, aquilegia and anemones, while summer flowering bulbs like dahlias and begonias are another option worth considering.
Vegetables you can plant
If the weather isn’t too bad, April is the ideal time for planting onions and shallots, while the month is also about the right time to establish a bed of asparagus if you’re starting from crowns. Broad beans, parsnips and radishes are all good to sow at this time of year, and you can plant early potatoes if you’ve had them chitting (preparing for planting) on special vegetable shelving in a shed for a while.
You can also plant beetroot, early peas, leeks, lettuce and early varieties of Brussels sprouts like Peer Gynt during this month.
Fruit you can plant
As well as getting your vegetable seeds into the ground, you can think about growing fruit in your garden during spring, too. April is a good time to finish planting cane fruits and bushes like raspberries, and it’s also the time to get bare root fruit trees established in the soil.
Spring is an ideal time for pruning, and it’s wise to prune pear and apple trees during this dormant stage, as well as gooseberry bushes and currants. A layer of compost around the base will help provide vital nutrients.
Aftercare
Once you’ve planted all your seeds and pruned the bushes or trees in your garden, it’s a good idea to store leftover seeds away in shed shelving for the following year. As the weather at the moment is rather unpredictable, you’ll need to keep a watchful eye on your plants to protect them from frost, potentially moving pots indoors if necessary and ensuring seeds are kept warm with compost and fleece.
Move all your equipment out of sight and keep it securely locked away to avoid attracting opportunist thieves, and make sure you keep compost at a just moist level to encourage germination.
