April garden chores
Ensure you have completed your March chores, like feeding your garden for the last time with 3:1:5 and mulching your plants, especially in very cold regions.
Hugh Robb
Plant your winter and spring flowering seedlings. Sow seeds of Bokbaai vygies, Namaqualand daisies, calendula, cornflowers, Virginian stocks and nemesia directly into well-prepared beds this month.
Be careful that pansies and violas planted in full sun are not scorched if you have a really hot autumn day.April is generally the last month to sow vegetables like broccoli, Brussels sprouts, broad beans, beetroot, cabbage, oriental cabbages, kale, kohlrabi, cauliflower, carrots, green peas, lettuce, mustard, short-day onions, radish, spinach, Swiss chard, turnips, parsnips and parsley.
If you started sowing early and have young vegetable seedlings in trays, feed them regularly with a fertiliser which is high in nitrogen.
Ensure you have completed your March chores, like feeding your garden for the last time with 3:1:5 and mulching your plants, especially in very cold regions.
Don’t mow your lawn as often and set the blades higher. This longer, thicker growth will provide protection against the coming cold.Cover your tender plants at the first sign of frost.
Always water in the morning in winter, as this gives the soil time to drain and warm up during the day.April is a good month to plant hardy trees, shrubs and roses, as there are still enough warm days ahead to establish them before the cold sets in.
These plants will be well established by next summer and ready to grow.Divide your hardy perennial plants, replanting only young, healthy growth.
Dig lots of compost or kraal manure into the beds and sprinkle with organic 2:3:2.Tidy up your perennials.
