Your garden this month

Well, although the summer months are drawing ever nearer, it certainly doesn’t feel like it just yet! However, the much cooler and damper weather we’ve had during April must surely bode well for a better summer this year (fingers crossed).  April was stereotypically sunshine and showers (or downpours) which, although not perfect, does at least allow you to get out into the garden, albeit intermittently.

Although temperatures are considerably down on the previous few years, it’s clear for all to see that spring is well and truly underway. Simply driving around, you can see hedgerows rapidly coming to life and the multitude of colours presented by a vast array of different trees bursting into flower and leaf. As well as this, swallows are finally back again, racing to build their nests along with all our other feathered friends. So, although the weather isn’t perfect, it really is a cracking time of year and a time of year when we really need to get cracking in the garden!

May is a busy month as we make our final preparations for the year and also anticipate the move from spring bedding to summer bedding. As the risk of frost slowly diminishes, the selection of bedding plants increases dramatically and we finally escape the monotony of violas and pansies. As well as summer bedding any tender perennials such as Dahlia and Canna lilies should be safe to pop in soon. These can be a great way of brightening up borders, planted between shrubs and perennials to give masses of late summer blooms, or even planted in pots to give dramatic displays.

In the greenhouse, it is about time to be hardening off any seedlings planted earlier in the year. This literally means toughening them up before they face the much harsher garden environment. Start by standing plants outside during the warmest part of the day and slowly progress to leaving them overnight when all risk of frost has passed.

On top of all this, any last seed potatoes need to be planted fairly soon to ensure a long growing period and I’m sure you’re all aware that it’s lawn mowing season again! A high nitrogen fertiliser should help dull lawns green up before the summer.

Click here for a list of jobs to do this month