Welcome to Gardening with Ben, the podcast where we dig into the soil of
our gardens and the depths of our green funds. I'm your host, Ben,
here to guide you through the joints of gardening, from sowing seeds to
reaping bountiful harvests. Each episode will explore tips, tricks, and tales from
the garden and allotment, sharing insights from ourself and stories from our own back
garden adventures. Whether you're a seasoned gardener or just getting your hands dirty for
the first time, there's something here for everyone, So grab your bow and
gardening gloves and let's get growing with Gardening with Ben. Hello, and welcome
back to a brand new episode of Gardening with Ben well In. Today's episode
is our monthly episode where we talk about all the different jobs that need doing
in the garden this time of month. And there's not many jobs that need
doing, to be honest, because we've done a lot of the jobs within
throughout the winter, getting it all prepared and already, and hopefully you've been
following along and ticking these jobs off as we go along. And again with
this episode, like I always say, get yourself a little notepad and then
make a note of the jobs which need doing, obviously the ones relevant to
you, and then you can tick them off as we go along and get
them all sorted. And I tend to tick them off, and then I
know I've done them, and then I can move on to any other jobs
which need doing around the garden that I find that I have to get done.
So what jobs need doing in April, Well, we're going to be
looking at what jobs need doing in the vegetable garden, what needs to be
done in the fruit garden, and what needs to be done in the flower
garden. And we'll start off with looking at what needs to be done in
the vegetable garden. And obviously this is most relevant to me because of my
allotment and growing the fruit and vege down there that I've got now something that
I don't actually grow myself, which I should actually have a growing down there,
because once you've got it planted, it's there forever, which is asparagus.
And hopefully these should be now growing and you should be able to start
harvesting these. Remember don't let the spears get too big, and just keep
snipping them off and hopefully you'll keep getting crops throughout the year. And as
you know, asparagus is expensive to buy, so if you've got some asparagus
plants in your garden, you are doing a good job and hopefully it be
able to have some of those with your meals peas. If you're grow in
an early cup of peas, make sure you start to add supports for them
to grow up as to send off little tendrils which hook themselves onto stuff and
support them. So make sure they're off the ground because if you leave them
to just grow along the ground, the mice and the rats will come and
eat them all. So make sure you've got some supports from to grow up,
either something like a wigwam or some chicken wine that will do perfectly.
So yeah, make sure that your peas are supported and they can grow up
it nice and easily. Next up is start to prepare all your seed beds,
and what I mean by that is that we're getting them all ready now
for planting stuff out towards May time. And this means by improving your soil
by adding compost and green manure to help the soil and give it the nutrients
and food which needs the plants to grow. So start adding that into the
compost into the soil so that you get better crops this year and it can
start to add nutrition into the soil before you start planting everything out. Fruit
trees, what do we need to do with the fruit trees this month?
So let's look at what needs doing in the fruit garden. So fruit trees,
make sure that these have been mulched. And when I say like mulch,
you can get the mulch from the wood chips or you can get mulching
bags from diy store. But yeah, if you can get the wood chip,
that will make it a lot cheaper because you can get a lot of
it for free if you know people that do wood chippings. So it starts
to melt around your fruit trees, but don't mult right up to the trunk
as this could cause rotting on the tree trunk itself. So give them a
good mulch and yeah, hopefully that will improve your crops this year. Raspberries,
what you need to do is add a slow release fertilizer to the plants.
Now, I've got a lot of raspberries on my allotment, so this
is always a good little tip for myself. As I get some chicken manewer,
and I just sprinkle it around the bottom and leave it to release throughout
the year, and yeah, hopefully it gives it a good old fashioned kickup
and gets it started and boosted. So what needs doing in flower gardens?
Like I said, there's not much stuff that needs doing this month, not
at all down in the allotment at garden. The jobs which need doing it
in the flower garden this month. Or heathers. You need to prune winter
heaves this month as they start to fade back. Now, my winter heather's
still in bloom. It's not dying back or fading back whatsoever. Someone leaving
it for the time being until it fades back. I definitely won't be touching
it while it's out in bloom. Pans is keep deadheading those old winter panthers
whileever you're deheading them, the more the flowers will grow. Don't let them
go to seed. Dehead them and take off the old panze. Prim Roses,
these can be divided this month as they stop flowering. The best thing
about prim roses is you just keep dividing them and dividing them and you'll get
more and more flowers from them, and it's cheaper than buying new ones,
just keep dividing them and you can have a whole flower bed of prim roses.
Roses. Roses will be waking up and growing again now, so make
sure you tie up any rambling roses and start trading them back around where they
need to grow. Sweet peas. Pinch out the tips of the sweet peas
so that they bush out when they grow. So if you're grow in sweet
peas, make sure you pinch off the tops and then they'll start to grow
bush here and you'll get more and more flowers on them. So, as
I said, there weren't many tips for this month for jobs in the garden,
so you probably could get a lot of that done it in the weekend,
to be honest, and then you can get onto other jobs like painting
your fences, painting your beds, doing any tiding up and sorry, more
and more seeds, which we're going to be talking about in the next episode,
so make sure you come back for the next episode where we're going to
be talking about what seeds can be planted in in not February, what seeds
can be planted in April. So if you're not following this podcast already,
do give it a follow, Do give it a like and you'll get noticed
next time. The next podcast is out, which will be tomorrow, so
thanks for listening. As always, remember keep smiling, keep shining, and
keep gardening with Bet everyone, And that wraps up another episode of Gardening with
Ben. Thank you for joining me in this journey. Remember, every seed
planted is a step towards a greener world, and every day is a chance
to grow something beautiful. Keep nurturing your gardens and your souls. Until next
time, I'm Gardening with Ben, reminding you to let your garden be your
sanctuary. Happy gardening, and see you in the next episode. Remember keep
smiling, keep shining, and keep gardening with Ben.