What to do in Spring in the Garden

It’s part of a good healthy garden to get soil health correct which means it needs nutrients, organic matter, and of course earthworms and beneficial microorganisms.

If you have a number of shrubs and plants it is particularly crucial to keep the soil topped up.

From January to April, it’s a good time to start to think of feeding your garden.

In late winter top fruit like apples could benefit from ‘Super Phosphate’ and then a general fertilizer in April. The one I use is an excellent all-round product and the only one I recommend so I have provided a link here to Vitax Q4 .

Apple tree pruning

When pruning trees such as Apple trees;-

Work at ground level.

If you can’t then use a good tripod ladder ie

use ones by the makers of my ladder who are Henchman. I have the Henchman tripod ladder as it’s light and fits in my car and feels very safe. Henchman tripod ladder

use good sharp secateurs as its too easy to strain your hands and,

Felco secateurs are one of the very best as the product range includes secateurs for all hand sizes and even for left-hand use. You may need a saw and loppers and plenty of waste sacks such as builder bags. Make sure someone is with you or in yelling distance.

So with a good Henchman tripod ladder and Felco secateurs, you are ready to start.

Start by staring at the tree and walk around it to find out where you can improve.

The point is to keep the tree producing fruit that you can reach but make the tree still look attractive.

You may find that this can’t be done in one pruning session. This is because if you take a lot of branches off the tree will be stressed and grow a lot of small branches with ugly new shoots called water shoots.

The branches have Growth tissue and non-growth tissue. You want to cut at growth tissue which is at the joins with twigs or branches and where there are rounded bumps like pinkish warts which will be growth buds.

Look at removing only about 20% this year and you can prune in two sessions in February and in the Summer. and divide the work.

Aim to cut away twigs and branches heading into the centre,

Remove DDX branches (Diseased, dead branches and crossing branches)

The point of this is to allow you to reach the fruit, allow air to get into the centre to avoid damage from fungus, and make the tree look attractive and uniformly Pruned. There are Utube videos, RHS Books, and many guides to help you so have a moderate go to start to learn.

GOOD LUCK AND ENJOY YOUR TREE