The Garden House Tasks for April
Posted:8 April 2025
It’s a busy, busy, busy month!
Please bear in mind these tasks are not a comprehensive look at all garden aspects, but relate directly to our monthly work in the Garden House garden, inspiring and teaching the volunteers, students and Friday group gardeners who get stuck in and support the development of this unique Brighton garden.
- Plant out sweet peas, two plants per station. At The Garden House we are using a vertical support grid made of string, or you can use hazel sticks or canes.
- Continue to plant out hardy annuals such as Cerinthe, Calendula, Nigella, Ammi etc
- It’s time for regular pricking out as plants start to develop their first set of leaves – make sure when pricking out the bottom seed leaves are resting on the compost – this prevents them from being leggy.
- Prune your evergreen shrubs now, and cut Salix and Cornus down low to give you colour in winter next year
- Remove faded flowers from Narcissus and Tulips – watch out for tulip fire – if you see this then make sure you throw the bulbs away and do not replant them in the garden.
- Tender plants can be moved outside, but be prepared to cover them as the evening and night time temperatures can suddenly drop.
- Pot on tomatoes plants to strengthen them before planting into their final position in May.
- Cut back lavender and curry plants to a low set of buds – this will stop the plants from becoming leggy. Make sure you don’t cut into the old wood.
- Continue to hoe off annual weeds such as Cardamine hirsuta (hairy bittercress) and Galium aparine (goosegrass), and then look out for bindweed, which will be out in full force soon – keep pulling it up to weaken it.
- Sow basil. Also try taking water cuttings – buy a large pot form the supermarket and take cuttings and root out in water – pinch out the growing tip to help it bush out – once roots appear, plant out into the greenhouse or indoors on the window sill. But note, basil hates cold and wet.
- Sow herbs, such as coriander dill and fennel. We buy our seeds from a local Asian supermarket and sow them in polystyrene boxes (the ones that contain herbs at the greengrocer). Scatter seeds on top and grow on to get a good harvest.
- Plant evergreen trees and shrubs – our local Brighton B&Q store has some great shrubs for sale at very reasonable prices.