How on earth is it April Fool’s Day already? A quarter of the year has flown by already. The clocks have jumped forward, the spring has sprung and let’s face it: the garden’s starting to look a little unruly.

Here at 99roots, I’m afraid that there’s not much that we can do to stop you from believing that spaghetti grows on trees or to prevent your siblings  from putting salt instead of sugar in your tea (sorry about that incident, little sis. I was young, you were foolish). However, we can stop you from being a fool in the garden this April with our handy list of the basics that you need to address:

1. Tidy up – ok, you should probably have done this in March. But it was raining. And dark. It’s still raining, but the clocks have changed so that’s one less excuse. Get your waterproofs on and remove old leaves and foliage from last year’s herbaceous perennials and annuals.
2. Mow the lawn – it’s time to give your grass some TLC. Get the lawnmower out and spread some grass fertilizer. If you’re feeling ambitious then it’s also a good idea to remove moss and aerate the grass.
3. Tidy the hedge – it’s still nesting season, and therefore probably unwise (or even illegal) to actually cut the hedge, but there’s nothing to stop you from trimming some of the most unruly and unsightly branches.
4. Planting - plant seeds and bulbs that you want to flower in the summer. Ideally you should keep them indoors for a few more weeks to avoid damaging frosts.
5. Dividing perennials - perennials are the plants that come up every year, as opposed to annuals that only live through one season. Perennials need to be divided every few years if they grow too large. Here is a long list of perennials in our database.
6. Pruning – Pruning is a really important task in April, for example for forsythia (after flowering. Don’t know where to start? Here are our handy how-to guides to pruning.
7. Fertilising – it’s a great time of year to use fertiliser to encourage spring plant growth. General-purpose fertiliser is suitable for most flower beds, although certain plants need more specific care, like an acidic fertiliser for rhododendrons. Read more about fertilisers.

Image Source: Koze (some rights reserved)