{"id":24414,"date":"2013-04-01T17:58:56","date_gmt":"2013-04-01T16:58:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.phoenixfm.com\/?p=24414"},"modified":"2013-04-01T18:03:49","modified_gmt":"2013-04-01T17:03:49","slug":"what-to-do-in-the-garden-first-week-of-april-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.phoenixfm.com\/?p=24414","title":{"rendered":"What to do in the Garden &#8211; First week of April"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.phoenixfm.com\/2013\/04\/01\/what-to-do-in-the-garden-first-week-of-april-3\/20130330_091408\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-24415\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-24415\" src=\"https:\/\/www.phoenixfm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/20130330_091408-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.phoenixfm.com\/2013\/04\/01\/what-to-do-in-the-garden-first-week-of-april-3\/20130330_091408\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-24415\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-24415\" src=\"https:\/\/www.phoenixfm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/20130330_091408-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a>The Flower Garden<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Fill gaps in flower beds with primulas and polyanthus<\/li>\n<li>Prune forsythia and flowering currants as soon as flowers have faded<\/li>\n<li>Leave daffodil foliage intact for at least six weeks after flowering to regenerate bulbs, so they&#8217;ll bloom again next year<\/li>\n<li>Plant out groups of gladioli in borders<\/li>\n<li>Sow sweet peas directly outside at the base of obelisks or supports<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>The Fruit and Vegetable Garden<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Sow seeds of dwarf and climbing beans in deep pots or cardboard toilet roll tubes filled with compost<\/li>\n<li>Plant new asparagus beds<\/li>\n<li>Continue planting potatoes, shallots and onion sets<\/li>\n<li>Feed spring cabbage with a high-nitrogen fertiliser<\/li>\n<li>Remove forcing jars from rhubarb plants and let them grow uncovered<\/li>\n<li>Sow seeds of the following crops outside or under cloches: carrots, beetroot, broad beans, salad onions, cauliflower, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, spinach, leeks, lettuce, rocket, coriander, mixed salad or stir fry leaves, radish, turnip, peas and mangetout, lettuce and Swiss chard<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>In The Greenhouse<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Protect pots of seedlings from the cold by making mini-cloches from empty plastic bottles<\/li>\n<li>Prick out seedlings once they have developed their first true leaves<\/li>\n<li>Open doors and greenhouse vents on warm days to improve ventilation<\/li>\n<li>Sow herbs into pots or trays, including basil, chives, parsley, fennel and coriander<\/li>\n<li>Plant up pots with the summer-flowering bulbs tiger flower (Tigridia), gloriosa and eucomis<\/li>\n<li>Start feeding houseplants weekly with a liquid feed<\/li>\n<li>Pinch out shoot tips on fuchsias to encourage bushier plants<\/li>\n<li>Pot up canna tubers in multi-purpose compost in a warm greenhouse<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Generally<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Spread a compost mulch around border plants to suppress weeds*<\/li>\n<li>Put pond pumps and fountains back into pools, thoroughly cleaning filters first<\/li>\n<li>Lay turf or sow new lawns from seed*<\/li>\n<li>Clean out bird baths and top up with fresh water<\/li>\n<li>Check tree ties are not too tight or cutting into bark, and loosen if necessary<\/li>\n<li>Cut back any overgrown ivy<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>*Do remember that all these jobs depend on the weather and I would perhaps delay the sowing of lawns untill it is a bit warmer! Also don&#8217;t mulch on frozen ground!<\/p>\n<p>Don&#8217;t for get to tune in every week to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.phoenixfm.com\">www.phoenixfm.com<\/a> on a Sunday 10am till noon for all your gardening questions answered!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Flower Garden Fill gaps in flower beds with primulas and polyanthus Prune forsythia and flowering currants as soon as <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.phoenixfm.com\/?p=24414\"><b>read more<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":24415,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sunday-best"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.phoenixfm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.phoenixfm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.phoenixfm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.phoenixfm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.phoenixfm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24414"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/staging.phoenixfm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24414\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24418,"href":"https:\/\/staging.phoenixfm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24414\/revisions\/24418"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.phoenixfm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.phoenixfm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.phoenixfm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.phoenixfm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}