SOL’S GARDEN JOBS FOR APRIL

Vegetable care

Prepare beds for upcoming plantings of brassicas, garlic, and legumes.

Sow broad beans and peas into limed beds. Cloche frost sensitive crops like late zucchini, late carrots and beetroot.

Harvest late pumpkins. Store in cool, rodent-proof place. Harvest seed for eating and saving.

Harvest kumara and cure on the soil in the sun for a couple of days. Store wrapped individually with newspaper in a warm dry place.

Spray brassicas weekly with Bt until white butterflies leave. Sow green crops in vacant beds, or sheet mulch for spring planting.

Make lots of compost for spring.

Hothouse: Keep liquid-feeding fruiting crops. Remove dying leaves/plants. Make a compost to heat hothouse. Clean to improve light. Plant greens for winter use, or green crops for digging in late winter.

For transplanting: All seeds 1, 4 and 28 April. Spring onions and leafy greens (spinach, spinach beet, silver beet, lettuce, endive, pak choi, Chinese cabbage, cabbages, cauliflower, and broccoli) and red onions (also 10-11 and 27 April). Herbs and flowers (also 8 and 25-26 April).

Sow direct: All seeds 1, 4 and 28 April. Salads, eg corn salad, spring onions (also 11 and 19 April). Radish and turnip (also 10-11 and 27 April). Peas and broad beans (best 2-3, 12 and 29-30 April). Herbs and flowers (also 8 and 25-26 April).

Plant: Best 13-24 April. Salad greens, spinach, cabbages, cauliflower, broccoli. Flowers, eg bulbs.

Herb Care

Trim back and take semi-woody cuttings. Plant herbs like parsley or transplant self-seeded perennials like chives. Harvest herbs for drying or seed for next year. Weed and mulch.

Fruit care

Harvest late apples and pears, figs, grapes, black passionfruit, citrus, feijoas, and olives.

Plan an orchard and/or replace poor performing fruits with resistant varieties.

Sow peach or nectarine stones in situ.

Prune berries and train new canes.

Complete sowing orchard under storey seed mixes. Plant spring bulbs and other beneficial perennials under trees. Protect young subtropicals with frost cloth.

Prepare and plant new strawberry beds using runners or buy new plants.

Feed codling moth-infested fruit to chooks or pigs. Fertilise orchard with minerals and woody compost. Spray all fruits with diluted seaweed. Spray citrus and other fruits susceptible to disease with copper oxychloride.

General Garden Care

Take soil test to correct deficiencies.

De-head perennial flowers.

Plant trees and shrubs.

Re-sow old lawns. Add lime.

Mulch ornamental beds with chippings or bark. Make leaf mould compost from deciduous leaves. Spray roses with copper to treat black spot.

Take tip cuttings while cutting back perennials. Use willow water or mashed tradescantia to aid rooting.