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There’s nothing like rain to revive your garden, and April’s record-breaking rainfall is likely to leave your plants a little confused. Add to that the fact that morning temperatures are dropping below 10ºC, and we gardeners have a challenge in May. Our plants are going to slow down their growth; the weeds are going to love it; and those snails and slugs will be having a party.
This is also the time of year when all manner of toxic potions get sprayed, painted and squirted around. It’s the ugly side of gardening – our ‘instant gratification’ world demands an easy fix for garden problems. So, we thoughtlessly throw fertiliser around, scatter snail pellets, and spray Roundup on everything that crawls. We love our gardens to death at the very season when we should be planning and pruning. Most of our plants, including our lawns, will be going into a dormant phase for winter soon, so please lock those nitrogen-rich fertilisers in the garden shed this month. If you use them, they’ll try and get your plants to grow lush leaves and foliage and that will stuff things up for spring. So, leave your plants alone for a while to grow strong roots and have a bit of a rest.
Instead, get your spring-flowering bulbs ready to plant. Rake up leaves and rubbish and throw it in the compost pile. Ignoring that little job will only encourage garden pests, and give you a really big headache. Be careful with snail pellets if you own dogs because there really is no such thing as ‘pet-safe’ pellets. They are all made from a cereal-base, and dogs think they are food – very dangerous.
Finally, one of the most important things you can do this month is make sure your soil is absorbing water. If it isn’t, put a good-quality soil wetting agent around the garden. We don’t want to waste our April showers.
Ruth Wykes
