Garden To-Do / April
April is autumn at its best, settled, mild and kind to plants and gardeners alike. The planting season carries on at full pace, and this is also the month to think ahead to spring, because spring starts now with a packet of bulbs.
Mild and often beautifully still, with daytime highs around 21 to 22°C and cooler nights dipping to around 14°C. Growth is slowing, but the soil still holds plenty of summer warmth.
April generally gives us some of the gentlest wind of the year as the summer easterlies fade. Enjoy it, and use the calm spell to plant, the wind will be back with the winter fronts.
Reasonable autumn rain continues, usually in a few decent spells through the month. Established beds need much less supplementary water now; focus your watering on anything newly planted.
Carry on planting trees and large shrubs while conditions are this good. Rake fallen leaves into the compost or straight onto beds as mulch rather than sending them away, they are free soil food.
Keep planting hardy and indigenous shrubs. Cut back perennials as they finish, and lift and divide crowded clumps so they re-establish before winter. Water in everything well and mulch.
Plant winter and spring annuals out en masse this month, pansies, violas, primulas, poppies, stocks and snapdragons all go in now. Sow sweet peas against a sunny fence or trellis for a scented spring. And this is bulb month: plant spring-flowering bulbs like freesias, daffodils, sparaxis and babianas in the cooling soil.
Plant garlic and onion seedlings, and sow peas, broad beans, spinach, kale, lettuce, radishes, carrots and beetroot. April into May is also strawberry-planting time, set new plants into rich, composted soil in full sun.
Raise the mower blade for the cooler months and mow less often. Ease watering back as growth slows, top up mulch everywhere, and feed your new winter seedlings lightly to get them away well.
Indigenous plant of the month
April belongs to the wild dagga. Just as most of the garden is winding down, this big, fast-growing indigenous shrub fires up, carrying tier upon tier of velvety, bright orange tubular flowers arranged in neat whorls up each tall stem. It is one of the great autumn sights of an Eastern Cape garden, and the sunbirds agree, they will visit all day while it is in flower.
Give it full sun and room to express itself, it can reach 2 to 3 m, and it earns a place at the back of a border, along a boundary, or in a wilder corner where its slightly untidy exuberance looks right at home. It is water-wise, wind-tolerant and not fussy about soil. Cut it back hard at the end of winter and it will rebuild into a fresh, dense shrub for the next autumn show. There is also a soft apricot and a white form if bright orange is not your colour.
See you at the nursery,
Clint
The Farmyard Nursery
Need a hand getting started? WhatsApp us or visit the nursery, and we will point you to the right plants for the season.
