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Top Tips for: April
April is a great month for
the gardener...
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The
soil is warming up nicely and in theory we have sunshine and
showers, perfect growing weather. The clocks have gone forward so
we have longer evenings to spend in our garden as well.
Unfortunately in Britain, we have weather not a climate and April
can go from being positively summer hot to snow.
Usually Easter falls in April and you may be surprised to know that
there is more chance of snow at Easter than Christmas. So the rules
for successful gardening in April is not to be in too much of a
rush to plant out tender young plants. It's important to keep the
horticultural fleece handy to protect against frost
and to keep an eye open for frost on the weather forecasts.
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Cloches really come into their own in
April, not only do they protect from frost but the micro climate
they create means your plants will leap ahead, even if the weather
is poor.
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One
good tip with a cloche is to place it on the ground a week or
better still two weeks before you plant out. This will cause the
soil temperature to rise by a couple of degrees and helps to avoid
shocks to your plants when they leave that cosy greenhouse or
coldframe.
If you bring
things on in a greenhouse or even a windowsill, don't make the
mistake of planting out directly, even into a cloche covered
patch.
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Plants need a
little time to get used to the big outdoors and we use a process
called 'hardening off' for this. As the name suggests, the plants
become hardened to the cooler temperatures.
It's really not complicated, you move them from a
windowsill or heated area of a greenhouse to a cooler part of
the greenhouse for a few days and then move them into a cold frame. Leave the coldframe shut for the first couple of
days, unless the weather is wonderful and sunny, which would
over-heat them. After this, open the vent in the day for a few days
and finally leave the vent open overnight. It will still give them
some protection but it's not as exposed as
outdoors.
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If a
cold snap develops whilst you are hardening off, you can insulate
your coldframe to keep them warm. In an emergency newspapers laid
several sheets thick and weighed down to stop them blowing away
will do the job but a length of folded fleece is easier and more effective.
By the end of a week or so, your plants will be ready to brave the
big bad world and better equipped to cope if it
snows.
Having
covered protecting your plants against the weather, do remember now
is the time when gardener's worst enemy is coming back to drive us
mad. These evil creatures can make a row of tender seedling
disappear overnight or reduce a plant to a skeleton in hours. I'm
talking about the slug, of course.
I'm sure slugs must serve some purpose in the greater scheme of
things, but to the gardener they are just the enemy.In the old days
we just scattered metaldehyde slug pellets around by the
bucket load and killed them that way but there have been concerns
about the potential effects on pets and wildlife with those. Now we
more environmentally friendly methods of dealing with slugs and the
good news is that these are actually more effective in many
cases.
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If you grow potatoes, you'll have had the
experience of digging up a wonderful crop only to find holes
occupied by horrible little slugs munching away. The best cure is
to use the Nemaslug slug killer from the start.
This biological control is comprised of thousands of tiny worms
that cause no problem at all to anything except our enemy. Because
they get under the surface, they get all the slugs unlike
pellets.
I still use pellets in a lot of situations but having
pets, I'm very cautious and only use the advanced ferramol based
pellets, They're more rain resistant as well so I think
they're better value for money. Incidentally, only ever scatter
slug pellets very thinly. Piles are ineffective and wasteful. If
they all disappear overnight, then scatter thinly again and smile.
It means the slugs have eaten the first lot and crawled away to
die
There are lots of safe and environmentally sound solutions to pests
and problems now, thank goodness. Some of my older gardening books
read like chemical warfare manuals.
Good
luck, and let's hope April is fine after all my dire
warnings.
Copyright © John Harrison 2008
Author of the Best Selling
"Vegetable
Growing - Month by Month Guide" and
Editor of the Allotment
Website: www.allotment.org.uk
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