Page 18 - Fourways Gardens April 2021

Gardening

April in the Garden

• Continue deadheading annuals and feed
fortnightly with organic liquid fertiliser
or vermiplus pellets.
• Fill sunny gaps in the garden with cool-
coloured annuals like white and lilac
petunias, alyssum and blue lobelia.
• Prepare beds/trenches for sweet peas
and add old manure, compost, vermiplus
and bone meal.
• Top up mulches to keep the soil cool and
preserve moisture. Organic mulches also
improve the structure of the soil. Use
rough compost, straw or bark chips.
• Deadhead and divide overcrowded
agapanthus after flowering.
• Break off the faded flowers from lily stem
tips - the more foliage left the better for
the following year’s bulbs.
• Cut back old flower stalks of perennials
like penstemon, Shasta daisies, Salvia,
Leucanthemum and Achillea; mulch
with old manure or compost to
encourage another flush of flowers, pull
out canna stalks. Keep Camellias and
Azaleas moist.
• Feed autumn- and winter-
flowering plants like Plectranthus,
Chrysanthemums, Poinsettias and
indigenous plants like Barleria,
Hypoestes (ribbon bush) and Leonotis
leonurus (wild dagga).
• Apply Epsom salts to acid-loving plants
that have yellowing leaves such as
gardenia and Mackaya bella. Follow up
with iron chelate.
• Take cuttings of plants that need
pruning, such as pelargoniums, IMAGE BY SUPPENkASPER FROM PIxABAY
heliotropes, lavender, daisy bushes and
hedging plants.

VEGGIES TO PLANT IN APRIL WHAT OTHER JOBS CAN I DO IN THE GARDEN?
Carrot seeds can be sown now, as well as beetroot, kale, leeks, • Protect new spring shoots from slugs.
broccoli, horseradish, chicory, and turnips. Spring onions are • Plant shallots, onion sets and early potatoes.
also great early vegetables, as well as spinach (make sure the soil • Plant summer-flowering bulbs.
is enriched with organic matter), peas, shallots, and parsnips. • Lift and divide overgrown clumps of perennials.
• Top dress containers with fresh compost.

To purchase natural gardening products, or for more information on how to be eco-friendly, give Turfnet a call: 073 935 9754.
Address: Plot 17, School Road, Diepsloot 2187.

Fourways Gardens • 16 • April 2021