Garden calendar April 2019
Planting
- It's the middle of autumn and the best time to plant out trees and shrubs while the soil is still warm and rain is supplying moisture. Enrich soil when planting and improve nutrient and water holding by adding quality organic compost such as Baileys Soil Improver Plus. This will help your new editions establish well before the cooler months.
- Prepare planting soil for deciduous fruit trees and roses for winter planting. Use Baileys Soil Improver Plus in readiness.
- Tulip planting time is now till the end of May.
- Sow poppy, Forget Me Not, calendula, lobelia and delphinium seeds. Sow everlasting seed by the handful after first rains for a blast of spring colour.
- Plant or pot up pansies, violas, polyanthus, cineraria for cool season colour. Use Baileys Premium Potting Mix.
- It is time to pot up cyclamen from last season. Use a top quality free draining potting mix like Baileys Premium Potting Mix and be careful to position the corm so that it is half in the soil and half out.
- In the vegetable garden it’s planting time as the early rains promise to take care of watering. Plant all members of the onion tribe including shallots, leeks, chives, onions, spring onions and garlic. The cabbage family is huge particularly when you add in the Oriental types. All can be planted now so don't forget pak choi, mibuna, mizuna, Wong Bok, broccoli, cabbage , Brussels sprouts, cauliflower and so on. Also lettuce, silver beet, Swiss chard, English spinach, peas, broad beans turnip, Swede, carrots, Florence fennel, endive, kohlrabi, beetroot and potatoes.
- Prepare and enrich existing soil for cool season plantings with Baileys Soil Improver Plus.
- Use individual cloves of garlic for planting. These bulbs can be planted about 5cm deep pointy end up. These like well-drained soil and a sunny spot. They take 5 months or more to mature.
- Autumn is a terrific time to plant all but tropicals. It’s particularly good to get citrus trees started while soil is warm and rain is imminent. The choice of different varieties is very good at this time of the year.
- Rhubarb crowns can be lifted, divided and replanted into rich soil for another year of growth and productivity.
SUGGESTED PRODUCTS
Feeding
- The early starters in the camellia family are the sasanqua types. These begin their show in April and progressively open through May and finish up in June. Give them a feed if you haven't already done so.
- Feed lawns to keep them green through winter and before falling temperatures stop growth. Use Baileys Brilliance at this time of year.
SUGGESTED PRODUCTS
Pruning and Maintenance
- Time to prune. Cut back flower heads of agapanthus and oleanders now they have finished flowering. Also deadhead dahlias to keep the flowers coming along.
- Get lethal with the secateurs on your roses if you haven’t pruned them already in March. Take off about a third of the stem growth and follow up with an application of Baileys Energy Garden to give them a good feed.
SUGGESTED PRODUCTS
Lawn Care
- Many lawns are looking jaded after a long hot summer. Apply Baileys Lawn Reviver as a top dressing to restore soil carbon to the soil, this will result in your lawn getting a massive boost. The exciting thing is you can see the difference within days.
- Dethatching your lawn can be done now if needed. The test is to walk over the lawn to see how spongy it has become. Thatch is a build-up of dead stems and grass leaves above the soil surface.
- This is a good time to plant a new lawn. Prepare the area with a layer of Baileys Soil Improver Plus. If your soil is sand the compost does not need to be worked in. If it's clay, however, then you need to dig the neat compost into the soil to a depth of 10cm.
