Easter Saturday, and for most of us, the
Even so, there are lots of jobs to help fill the time between Easter-egg chomping and wine-o’clock, such as harvesting rhubarb, starting a herb pot or pruning silver shrubs..
Heavenly herbs
Using fresh herbs in cooking turns an ordinary dish into something special – creamy parsley sauce, zingy basil pesto, lamb with rosemary, chives over scrambled egg, mint with new potatoes……. they may be cliché-d combos but that’s because they’re DELICIOUS. And most herbs are very simple to grow. If you haven’t got a herb- patch yet, why not make this the spring that you start one?
Herbs absolutely don’t have to be in the ground, and in fact, you can make the picking easier if you grow them in pots and containers, hanging baskets, planters or balcony window-boxes. Another bonus – you can reach over as you’re having your morning coffee (or evening cocktail!) and rub the foliage to release the wonderful scent.
Some are annuals like basil or dill, lots of others are perennial like chives, fennel, sage, mint, lavender, thyme and marjoram. Almost all are sun-lovers and prefer a light well-drained soil, so adding some grit to your compost is v. good idea. A few like coriander, dill, sweet woodruff, lovage, parsley or mint are fine in some shade.
You may decide to buy supermarket herbs to get you started, but something to remember is that they have been bred to have fab-looking lush leaves, but their roots might be very weak – they could need a lot of TLC to coax them into becoming good
A few tips about individual herbs:
Mint is a very vigorous coloniser, so it’s a better idea to keep it containerised, and refresh it every 2/3 of years by re-planting the younger outside bits in fresh soil.
Parsley is sniffy about root disturbance so don’t break up the rootball if you’re moving small plants out of their pots, and sow seeds into modules, thinning seedlings to one per module, and then plant them out as one little block. (By the way, parsley seeds like warmth to germinate – our dad used to germinate them in a plastic box on top of the coal-fired Aga).
Dill, coriander and chervil can be sown outside from March onwards. They mature rapidly, so sow some more two weeks later and so on, to keep the harvest going.
Divide clumps of chives and oregano in spring to reinvigorate them, discarding the oldest central parts.
Grow basil with tomatoes – they like the same conditions, and the aromatic volatile oils in the basil mask the tomato smell and repel whitefly and aphids without the need for sprays. Pots of mint will have the same effect, especially if you rub your hands over them from time to time to release the scent.
Rosemary, sage and thyme can all be cut back in spring to stop them becoming leggy and untidy: Keep a youngish rosemary lightly pruned right from the start before it develops the straggly branches that can mar its appearance. An older one is still definitely worth pruning but do it in stages or it might keel over.
Just shorten all of last’s years shoots by about two-thirds and prune away any that are growing wildly in the wrong direction for aesthetic purposes. You will promote juicy fresh growth which is lovely for the kitchen, and pruning will encourage lots more pretty flowers, hugely appreciated by our precious pollinating insects.
Tempted by all this herb-talk? We have teamed up with YouGarden to bring you a great deal on a herb plant collection – click on the banner at the top of this page to find out more.
Time to plant evergreens
- This is the perfect time to move or plant new evergreen shrubs and trees. The soil is moist and warming up and the plants can establish roots before the stresses of heat in summer or cold in winter. The timing is especially helpful for evergreens that take quite a while to get their feet under the table. Pittosporums, choisyas, callistemons, pyracanthas, daphnes….. lots of marvellous shrubs that would prefer to settle into a new home in spring.
- Read the label of a new purchase carefully to make sure that you have picked the right spot for it (soil conditions, hardiness, aspect etc. etc.), dig a hole that is 50% wider than the pot your plant is in, and exactly the same depth as the pot.
2. Break up the soil at the sides and bottom of the hole a little to encourage roots to venture out into it, and mix some compost in with it, if you have some.
3. Drench the plant in the pot and the hole itself with water.
4. Put the plant in the centre of the hole and then backfill with soil or a mixture of soil and compost.
5. Firm it all down well and water again. You could then also add another layer of compost as a 2-3″ mulch but try not to let it touch the stem of the shrub, which might start it rotting.
6. Make sure that the plant is regularly checked and watered for the first year, until you know that it has taken happily, and ready to give you pleasure for years to come
Not sure which evergreens to buy? We have compiled a list of 10 of our favourites with links on where to buy them – find it at the bottom of the page.
Gardening shorts
- Oh, we LOVE rhubarb- there’s no flavour quite like it for cutting through the sweetness of a pie or crumble. Don’t use a knife to cut the stems because the cut end on the plant can rot; just take a firm hold of each stem base and pull it up and out, but never take more than half the stems in one go which will weaken the plant too much. My husband makes a delectable bruschetta with rhubarb – if you’re interested, I’ve popped in the recipe at the bottom.
- Keep hoeing between rows of veg seedlings or among the border plants to catch the weeds amongst them while they are still small and before they flower and set seed.
- Prune the shrubs you have that bear silver or grey foliage, such as Helichrysum, Ozothamnus, Santolina or Brachyglottis. Most of them come from the Med originally and can get a bit straggly. They can also be a rather short-lived but if you cut off some of the growth now that was made last summer, they will stay compact and looking tickety-boo for longer. Leave this job for a few weeks if you live in a cold region – a late frost could damage the new shoots that develop.
- Finish tying in climbing and rambling roses. Remember not to put wire around the stems – attach them with soft twine which can then go round any supporting wires.
- All sorts of veg can be sown directly into the soil outside in most of the UK – beetroot, peas, radishes, chard, summer cauliflowers, leeks, carrots……..YUM!
Evergreeens provide structure and keep your
Click on the top of the page or here for that great herb offer (AND we think you’ll get 15% off if you enter the code EASTER15 at the checkout, worth a try)
Some good deals on this Easter weekend – find them all here
We’ve also got some lovely herb-growing accessories in our shop- how about some really handy herb scissors or beautiful herb labels (for tarragon, thyme, parsley, rosemary, mint and basil), just click the images.
This hardy semi-evergreen perennial is a real asset to the spring
Here’s my husband’s recipe for
Rhubarb Bruschetta:
Chop a few sticks of rhubarb into 3cm lengths and soften them in a saucepan over a medium heat with a tbsp. of sugar and one of water (although Calvados is a very acceptable alternative ). You need them to be just disintegrating without going too sloshy. Next take sections of baguette – anything between 10 and 15cms and halve them longways, brush both sides with olive oil and turn them light golden brown under a grill. Place them soft side up on baking parchment on an oven tray and smear the molten rhubarb across the top. Pile on any other fresh fruit you have to hand, cover with a sprinkling of sugar and put it all back under the grill until the sugar starts to caramelise.
Don’t worry if it all topples over while cooking as it is easy to scrape all the sticky fruit and juices back over when it is on the plate. A dollop of ice cream, a splash of crème fraiche and some fresh mint leaves. Et …voila!
Laura and I travelled up to Scotland in April a couple of years ago to help Caroline with a few timely spring tasks in her Highland garden….
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4 replies on “Easter in the garden – gardening tips for April”
Lovely to see gardens bursting with new life. For the first time we have camellia and magnolia in full flower at the same time, those and the spring bulbs just make everything seem better. Just discovered that magnolia petals are edible, so far I haven’t got round to trying them.
The reason for this comment was just to say that if people are pruning rosemary or sage, clippings can easily become cuttings. I often include rosemary in a vase of flowers and find that roots have grown in a few days. Potted on those cuttings can be given away or sold at the summer garden sales so many communities organise. Just a thought.
Couldn’t agree more, Diana! Rosemary in particular is very ready to root from cuttings, and I had pleasing success from my efforts last year at rooting them in water. I’ve never actually done it with sage – mine is actually looking rather grumpy after the very wet winter we’ve had, but hopefully it will bounce back when the sun starts to warm and dry the soil. You have also reminded me to keep going with the production of seedlings ready to sell at our charity garden openings this summer! Thank you very much for writing in. All the best and Happy Easter, from Elaine
RHUBARB AND ORANGE JELLY
A family favorite with rhubarb.
Take three medium sticks of rhubarb. Cut into 1 cm chunks and put into a pan along with two or three dessert spoonsful of sugar; add a cupful of water and gently simmer.
Once the rhubarb is soft, drop in cubes of Hartley’s orange jelly to melt. Then add cold water to make up to a pint/1/2 litre and allow to set.
Serve with whipped cream, Greek style yoghurt or ice cream.
Bill this sounds really delicious. Definitely going to try it. You’re clearly one of these ‘grow it and cook it’ gardeners – it must be why you always look so fit and healthy!