Citylife in Lichfield April 2021

Your Garden in April
By Byron Lewis
Can you believe it's just over a year since Coronavirus took hold of
us, and garden centres (and everyone else) had to close? We adapted
pretty quickly here at the Garden Centre, offering home delivery to
allow our customers to carry on 'as normal' while they were locked
down. Hopefully, we won't have to repeat this again - it was a little bit
manic at times! The garden centre is now back open pretty much as
normal, with Covid-safe rules in place, of course.
The Coronavirus has also meant that, for various reasons, some plants
and products are already in short supply - there are few fruit trees,
ornamental trees and roses available at the moment as the demand last
year was so great. Many growers sold all the stock they had and were
unable to pot on plants in time for this year. In 2020, everyone
clamoured for compost like it was going out of fashion - this year already
it's the turn of chicken manure! Adding to this is Brexit, which is causing
some delays to plant imports with more paperwork and checking in
place. The best advice at the moment is: if you see it - buy it! You may
not find it later on in the year!
But gardening continues as normal and as we get into spring it's time
to get those grow-your-own patches full of seeds, seed potatoes and
seedlings. All are now available, so if you caught the gardening bug last
year and dabbled with growing your own food, you can carry on this
year too - your food will be fresher and taste better!
More tender veg, such as runner beans, are best left until the worst of
the frost and wind is over, and hold fire on putting tomato plants outside
until May (they are fine in greenhouses and conservatories though).
If your spring bulbs are almost over, remember not to chop off the
leaves - you can cut the flower stalks down, but allow leaves to die back
naturally, putting food back into the bulb for next spring. We recommend
adding a few handfuls of bonemeal around your bulb clumps too, to
enhance flowering in the future. Bedding plants will shortly be ready to
take their place but don't be tempted to plant too early - it only takes
a night with a sharp frost to kill them off!
Byron Lewis runs Lichfield Garden Centre at
Curborough Countryside Centre,
Lichfield. Telephone 01543 254306. Visit
www.lichfieldgardencentre.co.uk or find the garden
centre on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
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