On the nursery in April

The weather tends to dominate, we love to see the sun, it quickly warms up the greenhouse and you can actually see the plants grow. Unfortunately, sunny days often have chilly nights and the boiler may be needed.
You also need to keep your coat handy, you can be sweating in a warm greenhouse one minute but when you venture outside it can be quite chilly.

New arrivals

We keep potting our summer stock, it has to be grown in batches to avoid it all flowering at the same time.

Pest & disease

Pests are increasing in numbers, we monitor them with sticky traps. When the numbers start to increase we start to introduce biological control.

Before the aphids start to wake up we introduce some predators

Here we can see them working, some turn the mummified aphids silvery but this one called praon sets up shop under the aphid.

Careful watering

April brings sunshine and showers, we can get dull weather then sudden bursts of sunshine, if you turn your back the plants can suddenly dry out, you need to be vigilant, especially small plants and seedlings. The weather is so up and down, you need to adapt your watering when the sun shines water often when its cold and damp be extra careful and only water if it is essential.

When seed sowing try to use plug trays it will help to prevent diseases from spreading and make potting easier.

Ready to sell

April can be a funny month it can be warm and sunny and customers get excited asking for summer bedding plants but we know the weather can change to cold and frosty very quickly
When is it safe to plant out, it depends where you live but generally, I think you can trust the swallows and you can think about planting 3 weeks after they appear, Our swallows tend to arrive back about the 20th of April so planting about the middle of May is normally okay for us
There is still a chance of frost so keep some fleece handy and use it to protect any early bedding.

There are some things you can buy and plant out straight away.

Bellis are colourful and tough

Forget me not perfect spring colours

Violas make cheap and cheerful planters.

We grow a range of patio vegetables they make brilliant gardening projects for kids.