What to do in the garden in April

April showers may feature this month – but so does increasingly warm sunshine, making planting and pruning a pleasure. Here are a few of the jobs to be getting on with this month:

General tasks:

• Clean water features scrubbing off algae, fallen leaves and other debris then rinsing before refilling.
• Rake over patches of coarse grass in the lawn to raise them up before mowing so they’re cut right back and don’t take over.

Ornamental gardens

• Plant summer-flowering bulbs like lilies, ornamental alliums, gladioli and camassia. They’re as happy in containers as in the border - a fantastic way to brighten up your terrace.
• Tie in climbing and rambling roses while stems are still young and flexible, training them horizontally to encourage lots of flowers.
• Prune forsythia once it’s finished flowering, pruning out the oldest flowered stems back to outward-facing shoots.

Kitchen garden:

• Earth up potatoes by mounding soil over stems to protect them from late frosts and encourage more tubers to form.
• Sow calabrese in modules on a bright windowsill or in a cool greenhouse ready for planting next month.
• Pot on vegetables sown in modules last month, moving them into the next pot size up so roots continue growing.