General Interest

Back to the Garden.

It's a really colourful month too ~ spring flowering versions of azaleas, rhododendrons & magnolias all start to come out. Time to feed the plants too. You should fertilise most annual, perennial and flowering shrubs and trees with a good plant food which will release nitrogen, potash, iron and other micro-nutrients slowly over the next few months to help the plants growth and overall development. Evergreens and deciduous shrubs and trees can be fed now as well with tree and shrub food, again it'll slowly release the above nutrients to help the plants development. If you have planted anything new this season use a starter plant food (preferably at the time of planting) so root growth is encouraged.

Freshly mulch flower beds: you may want to add a weed preventer too; an organic alternative is corn gluten meal. Time to  prune back roses if you havent already done so though by now new growth should have begun. Add early flowering plants like pansies and primula to promote mid spring colour. A slow-release flowering plant food can be added as well.

With prices rising and credit crunching, many like to grow -and crunch on - their own vegetables nowadays, so time to plant things like asparagus, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbages, cauliflower, celery, kale, lettuces, onions, parsnips, peas, potatoes, spinach and chard. If you can it's good to try and mix organic matter into the garden, like cow manure, peat moss, and some lime and vegetable food. Best wait till the soil is dry though to start to work on it-the soil should preferably crumble as you work with it. At present soils are generally pretty dry for most areas, in fact too dry if anything in the east in places, after five months of drier than average weather (as of early April 2009). This may provide some problems later in the summer; time will tell.

For some though the real challenge is getting a winter ravaged lawn back into shape. You might even decide to reseed the lawn with a good quality grass seed that is suited for the conditions of your lawn & fertilize it with custom lawn foods containing slow-release nitrogen, sulfate of potash and iron. You may need to lime the lawn to increase the soil pH; they like a pH range of between 6.2 - 6.8 but wait six weeks between applications if you need to do it twice. However, if you are not re-seeding, you can also prevent perennial weeds in the lawn by applying specialist products as early as you can. Whilst these kind of products prevent weeds from germinating, they don't affect those already growing in the lawn however.

Whatever you need to do, have a great time and make sure you enjoy the fruits of your labours as well by relaxing in the garden too, on the warm Spring afternoons that most April's usually provide!