Top 10 Gardening tips for April

Autumn is the perfect time for planting projects as the soil is warm and moist. Plants have enough time to settle their roots into the ground before winter and are ready to flourish come springtime. Finalise your garden plan, gather plants and equipment, prepare growing sites and get planting!

1. Remove spent summer crops and replenish the soil with compost or sheep pellets before planting.
2. Plant your patch with winter staples including beetroot, bok choi, broccoli, cabbage, carrot, cauliflower, celery, coriander, kale, leek, lettuce, mesclun, onion, parsnip, parsley, radish, rhubarb, rocket, silverbeet and spinach. Liquid feed with a seaweed tonic and lay slug and snail bait every few weeks.
3. Plant blueberry, feijoa, lemon, orange, mandarin and lime.
4. Remove runners from strawberry plants and pot up ready for planting out in the winter.
5. Prune nectarines, peaches and plums once they've finished fruiting. 
6. Spray fruit trees with copper when leaf fall commences to protect leaf scars from fungus infections. Protect maturing tamarillos from powdery mildew using a fungicide spray.
7. Mulch and feed fruit trees, garden beds and pots to keep the soil warmer over the winter months, add nutrients to the soil and reduce weeds. Mulching also keeps your garden looking tidy and cared for.
8. Prune back and feed summer flowering perennials and bulbs that have finished for the season. Save seeds of summer flowers for sowing in the spring. 
9. Plant bellis, lobelia, polyanthus, flowering kale, primula, violas, snapdragon, wildflowers, sweet William, cineraria, alyssum, calendula, daffidol, tulip, hyacinth, forget-me-not, pansy and viola, poppy, sweet pea, cyclamen, daisy, delphinium, dianthus. 
10. Plant trees and shrubs from late autumn as this allows firm establishment before the onset of winter.