Gardening jobs to do in April for newbies and us oldies

ChocolateMonkey

Prudent wrote: »

Sorry Chocolatemonkey another question
I have some gralic in the fridge that is sprouting. I was wondering from your comment if I can just plant it?

I planted some kitchen garlic cloves a while ago now, it must be over a month now that I done it. I planted them into those plastic cups you get from coffee vending machine in my mums greenhouse and then left them to grow.
I'm sure I read a while ago you had to plant garlic by a certain time but I cant seem to find the website or rememeber correctly where I read it.
Sorry I'm not much help i'm still learning really.

~Chameleon~

Garlic is better planted in autumn I think as it needs the cold spell over winter to get going, although I'm sure I've read somewhere that you can keep it in the fridge for a few weeks before planting out in spring to fool it into thinking it's time to grow

As far as using normal garlic, I've got both in the ground at the moment (forget which variety I bought to plant now) and the "proper" garlic is doing much better than the one out of the kitchen.

Plum_Pie

Simon_P wrote: »

You'll need more that fingers crossed if we get frost. :eek:

London is warmer than much of the country due to the large amount of housing and human bodies! My baby garden is sheltered to and practically has it's own micro-climate! It's far warmer than my parents place. (They live in a village on a hill.)

After busting my a*se last spring and summer to grow as many veg as possible, since October I have had greater work committments and did no gardening for about 6 months! :eek:

About 2 weeks ago I realised I should make an effort because otherwise, after the rogue forget-me-knots have been pulled out, there'll be nothing there! I am pleased that some of the flowers I planted last year have self-seeded (alyssum, mallow and money plant). I'm aiming to improve the decorative planting this year as well as growing more salad, herbs and hopefully enjoying some home-grown cherries and gooseberries. (Last year my carrots were a wash-out and the yield from my courgette plant was not equal to the amount of space it took up!)

I've planted some more flower seeds in trays, pots and the ground and my goals for the next few months are:

1. Improve herb bed. This will hide an ugly bit of wall.
2. Make a new narrow bed along the side fence and put in some shade-loving plants there.
3. Take cuttings from the clematis and plant out to help hide the back fence. (Need to do some research on the right way to do this!)

annie123

Cant believe I've had a day off work and the weather has been dry and brightish:j so spent a large chuck of it in the garden.:D

mowed the lawn again, starting to look much better than a month ago and re seeded a few spots where I have had pots sitting on it.

Having looked at the long term weather forecast I can't see any more frosts for London ( a few chilly nights still to come) so I took a risk and planted out my tomatos...kept a couple indoors just in case;)

My parsley also went out along with with a few annuals giving me space to pot on my peppers.

Got some nice geums from b and q this morning (offering 5 cottage garden plants good selection 5 for £5) didn't bother with the foxgloves..too many slugs!!.

Topped up bird and squirrel feeders and got the hoe out on the borders.

Didn't get round to finishing painting the fence panels.......................will do at some point when I run out of other things to do:rolleyes:

JWF

Spuds in, most of the toms now potted on, some salad spuds in the greenhouse in pots are now showing through so things are starting to grow nicely. Even the peppers in the greenhouse are showing their true leaves now and starting to grow nicely.

I have sown some more courgettes as the first lot grew really leggy and the stems went a bit twisted and weird, only managed to save one out of those.

I am having a nightmare with one of the vegetable patches though which is basically pure clay. I have dug it three or four times and put loads of compost on it, but it varies between slimy clay and rock hard lumps with very little time between the two states. I am thinking that I will dig a trench and fill it with compost or top soil (if I can get hold of some) so that at least I can get some use out of the patch this year, then maybe try laying down loads of manure in the autumn and hoping the worms will do the honours and save my back!!

Also making good progress with the steps up into the garden, the brickwork is coming along nicely (even if the wife thinks its taking ages!!)

Dustykitten

It was so lovely to be out in the sun today.

I have repaired the hurdle fencing with some hazel I managed to get from a local copice. It was surprisingly relaxing.

Started to aerate the lawn with one of those hollow twine things - very hard work indeed - I've done the shadest quarter of the lawn so far. I am to do some more and then when the forcast is right put some lawn sand down to kill the moss.

Still need to pot my toms on - mine are not big enough to risk outside yet.
Sweetcorn and runner bean germination has not been great so need to sow a few more of those too.

Trying to decide whether or not to remove a really old mahonia which has a lovely trunk but apart from that is ugly and replace with a golden mock orange. I am thinking of keeping the bottom of the trunk and making it into a little seat.

Merlot

Its lovely to read that you are all doing so much in your gardens, I would love to see all your lovely gardens, any chance of some photos on a new thread perhaps, it would give me and other novice gardeners some ideas! PLEASE.

I'll even post one of mine, I'm no gardener and I'm sure I have planted some wrong types of plants in the wrong place, sunny position, soil type etc etc, but i'm enjoying it and I'm pleased with it, I have spent hours this week in the garden only for my OH to say "so what exactly have you done?" when I walked around the garden with him (it took all of 2 mins, its tiny). I must admit though because it is a new build I live in, the garden does look a wee bit like I couldn't afford decent sized plants cause there all small, it needs time to establish, but I'm getting impatient.

Photos please of your gardens.

Merlot.x.

Jack's_mummy

Hi Merlot

there is this thread here from March

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=788877&highlight=photos

Plum_Pie

Merlot wrote: »

"so what exactly have you done?" (it took all of 2 mins, its tiny).

This sounds like my garden - when I moved in last year, it was a wreck... The amount of time I spent last summer, digging and adding compost, walking round nurseries wracking my brains etc etc...!

However it's so small that 'Showing someone round' would involve standing them in the middle and making them rotate 360 degrees while I recited plant names!

In a month or so I'm sure yours will be blooming wonderfully and next year, your work will really start to pay off when all those perennials/self seeders/ shrubs grow back. I've found it's really nice to make your mark on a new place.

Merlot

Thanks for the link to the photos of the gardens, I sooo envious of your gardens, they all look so tidy and look as though you know your stuff, I think I will wait to post a picture, my garden looks pathetic in comparison, I hope it comes on later in the year, maybe a little more hardwork is needed, I have this morning been reading a couple of gardening books, why do all there borders seem so crammed in with flowers, you can't see any of the soil, it is the thing to do - fill your borders full of flowers, or am I expecting as a newbie gardener too much and am I constantly going to feel disappointed that mine looks like a family garden and not something more like I see in the books?