The start of the gardening season, adverts appear on the tv, tender summer bedding plants are offered for sale, trouble is nobody has told the weather and we could still get a frost or cold weather.

Buyers beware, the most important thing this month is the weather, will your purchase survive some cold weather, you will find yourself taking a keen interest in the weather forecast.

There are plenty of hardy plants on sale but often tender plants are sold with them and you need to be careful.

I think the weather dominates this month, April showers and frost, summer bedding will be on sale, often in flower to tempt you, the sun may be shining but it is too early to plant out, so you will need to protect them in a greenhouse, conservatory or even the house.
You will be in a hurry to start planting but frost is now your enemy, once you could rely on the local weather forecasts to warn you, but in recent years I have found them to be increasingly unreliable and quite often misleading, they seem to be obsessed with extreme weather and warnings.
Another problem, they now give the temperatures for towns, this can give you a false sense of security, as they are normally warmer than rural areas, so often you get no warning of early morning frosts.
You need to learn to read the weather yourself, look out for still conditions and clear skies at night if in doubt cover your plants with fleece.
It is time to think about your tender vegetable plants, you will find tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and chillies on sale, if you buy them now and keep them warm you will get an earlier crop.

To help you we have split this month’s best buys into tender or hardy

Tender Plants

These are okay to buy but you need to be prepared to help them if the weather turns cold. This might just be covered with fleece, but some will need to spend some time indoors keeping warm.

Summer bedding plants is often on sale in April but it is probably too early to plant out, be careful.

What to watch out for in April
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Hardy plants on sale during April
Safe to buy and plant out
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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.