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Each month, receive tips on the top jobs needed in your garden as well as a wealth of information on a range of gardening topics. From sowing seeds to picking fruit, each month get access to information on the care and maintenance of your flowerbeds, vegetable plot and lawn. As with your own gardening diary, the journal is split into separate sections, each covering a different area of garden care.

Tuesday 2 April 2019

This Month in Your Garden - April

‘Sweet April showers Do spring May flowers.’ -  Thomas Tusser, A Hundred Good Points of Husbandry, 1557  


We’re seeing the results of strange weather patterns in February but one thing is certain, spring is with us and we can expect April showers. But sunny days too will see us out there mowing the lawn and sowing hardy annuals. If the temperature is up around 7°C/ 45°F you can sow directly into the ground or, to be safe from frosts, sow in the greenhouse if you have one, or a cold frame.

The Lawn Care Guide - April

Cut and come again


It’s only natural to want the lawn looking its splendid self after the winter and so there is a tendency among us all to cut too close, too early.  We should mow as the growth dictates, remembering the higher the cut the healthier the plant will be. So we should expect to lower the cutting height gradually down to 3cm (1.25”) cutting height by the end of the month.

Lawn Care: Questions & Answers

Q. We have prepared for a new lawn but we’ve not yet seeded because of the weather. Is it too late?

The Vegetable Plot - April

Variety is the spice of life


All things nice grow in your vegetable patch and more than fill your five a day. Succession sowing will see you stocked with veg right through to autumn and beyond. What a list it is! Carrots, turnips, beetroot, spinach, radishes, Brussels sprouts, peas, parsnips, broad beans, leeks, broccoli, summer cabbage, cauliflower and lettuce.

The Big Glut Recipe - April

Lamb Fillet with walnut pesto 


A tasty way with spring lamb serves four and takes little time to prepare and cook. The pesto keeps in the fridge a few days and goes nicely as well  with goat’s cheese and roast beetroot salad.

Ingredients
  • Handful of basil leaves
  • Handful of flat-leaf parsley
  • 50g (1 ¾oz) freshly grated Parmesan
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 100g (3 ½oz) walnuts