Spring is here and nature is finally awakening from hibernation. Now it's time to wake up the garden and get it ready for the new season. Read here what to do in the garden month of April.
plan garden
While April doesn't always know what it wants, this adage shouldn't apply to you, either. So think about it in good time what you want from your garden. So April is the right month for the garden, for example
- to make plant choices
- Planting and preparing beds
- arbor and terrace to get fit for the summer
- garden furniture to clean and maintain
Sow, plant and harvest vegetables
If temperatures allow, may in April the first sowing in the vegetable garden take place. Peas, carrots or spinach you can sow directly into the bed. Also early young plants of broccoli, Kohlrabi or lettuce and the popular new potatoes can now be planted outdoors.
cucumbers, tomatoes or zucchini are preferred in the house. You should only plant these frost-sensitive vegetables in mid-May after the ice saints. With our overview you keep the overview:
| Direct sowing in the bed | Plant out early young plants | prefer on the windowsill |
| lettuce | cauliflower | Cucumber |
| Peas | broccoli | pumpkin |
| chard | fennel | melon |
| carrots | potatoes | paprika |
| parsnips | Kohlrabi | tomatoes |
| radish | leek | zucchini |
| radish | Red cabbage | |
| spinach | celery |
What many people don't know: in the garden month of April, it's already harvest time. So you can already be the first rhubarb sticks, asparagus, leeks, spring onions or young spinach fresh from the field. In greenhouses or foil houses are also radish, kohlrabi, cauliflower and various salads ready to harvest.
You should also carry out these tasks in the vegetable garden in April:
- Prepare raised bed
- spread compost
- prick tomatoes
Sow and plant flowers
Even if there are still many at the moment early bloomers like daffodils, tulips or show hyacinths in the garden - so that you can enjoy a sea of flowers in the further course of the year, it is now time for new residents in the flower bed. These plants should be in the bed in April:
- chrysanthemum
- gladioli
- lilies
- snapdragons
- cornflower
- marigolds
- sunflowers
- tagetes
Support animals and insects
who his Make the garden bee and insect friendly want, put one wildflower meadow at. To do this, first remove all plants at the chosen location and loosen the soil. Then spread seeds, press lightly and water well. You can find suitable seeds in stores. When choosing, pay attention to regional plants with different flowering times. These provide the insects with the urgently needed food over a longer period of time.
You can still help animal garden dwellers with these tips:
- Set up a bird bath
- Postpone spring cleaning
Fertilize and prune fruit trees
Finally awake in April too fruit trees and berry bushes from hibernation. So that the new fruit season gets off to a good start and apples and pears already show their first blossoms at the end of the month, it is best to give the trees a helping hand as follows:
- administer fertilizer
- Compost for outdoor, liquid fertilizer for pot plants recommended
- last date for cuts of all kinds
In addition, strawberry lovers can already plant their first plants in the bed. You can choose from forest, monthly and so-called Frigo strawberries. The latter are pruned strawberry plants that have been stored frozen. They are very robust and produce their first yields as early as eight to ten weeks after planting.
maintain lawn
After a long period of rest, the lawn demands your full attention again in the garden month of April. The mild temperatures stimulate its growth, which is why Cut the lawn from now on again belongs to the regular duties of gardening.
If the Forsythia in bloom is also the right time to Fertilize the lawn for the first time. This is how you provide the grass with the much-needed nutrients after the winter. There are countless mineral or organic long-term fertilizers available for fertilization. We recommend the latter, as their natural effect enriches the soil with humus over the long term.
To ensure that the fertilizer can develop its full effect, you should also heed the following recommendations:
- choose a dry day
- mow a few days before
- Apply fertilizer by spreader or by hand
- Dose according to the manufacturer's package instructions
- then water thoroughly
About 14 days after fertilizing, the next care step for the lawn is on the program: the scarifying. With this measure you fight mosses and tanglesthat have formed in the lawn over the winter and ensure that the grass roots receive sufficient oxygen again. But there are also a few things to consider when scarifying so that it is successful:
- only work on dry grass
- Adjust the scarifier to the correct height
- Ride the lawn according to the system
- Push the handlebar down in curves
By the way: Discover immediately after scarifying bald patches in the lawn, you should use them directly with fresh lawn seed overseed This is the only way to get an evenly dense carpet in the new garden season.
cleaning the garden pond
When it gets milder in spring, the dormant phase ends fish and other pond inhabitants. If the temperatures are constantly above 10 degrees, you can start spring cleaning in the garden pond. After you have first removed leaves and dead plant parts with the net, use the mud vacuum cleaner to remove deposits on the ground. With these measures stop algae. Now you can devote yourself to the pond and its inhabitants:
- pond plants cut back
- measure pH regularly
- new plantings make
- secure pond