When you have finished planting you should move on to getting the rest of the April jobs done. You should earth up any potato plants that may be ready to be harvested. Do this by drawing the soil up in mounds so that the delicate tubers are not exposed to sunlight. You can also create a support structure for peas made from hazel or birch wood. This will keep the sprawling peas off the ground, but make sure you do it before they become established. Beans will also need support from wooden canes, usually in the form of a wigwam shape. You should use strong canes to make sure that it is not damaged by strong winds. Again, do this before they are well established.

All cloches that are covering rhubarb plants should be removed once you have harvested the last of the stems. Any remaining brassica stumps should be pulled up at the end of harvesting as otherwise, it will spread disease to other plants. Take offsets of artichokes by separating them at side shoots or suckers, making sure that they have a short length of root. Grow them on by re-planting, trimming the leaves and watering them. Herbs should also be divided and re-planted and any long stems of thyme should be trailed into another pot so that new roots can grow. The new plant can then be separated from the parent plant.

Strawberry plants should have cloches over them at night and then removed during the day to stimulate flower growth and fruit production. A fertilizer made of sulphate of potash or a liquid feed of tomato fertilizer will also help these plants grow. Blackcurrants and blackberries should be fed with a high-nitrogen feed, along with a large amount of blood, fish and bone. Weeds that are growing around raspberry and blackberry canes should be immediately removed so as to not to produce competition between the two plants. Once the buds have opened on cherry, plum, apricot, peach and nectarine trees, you should prune them. If done before this time, you may wound trees and cause disease.

Just like last month, you should check for signs of pests and diseases and treat them quickly and effectively. Vegetables will be open to attack from slugs, snails, flea beetles and pigeons. Get rid of any slugs, snails and flea beetles that you find and put up nets to protect from the pigeons. Protect brassicas from cabbage root fly eggs by fitting brassica collars. To protect fruit, you should check for aphids and destroy any that you find. Spray apples and pears to protect against scab and pear midge before or after they blossom, not whilst the flowers are still there. Check fruit trees and bushes for blackfly and spray if necessary. Protect gooseberries from bullfinches by netting over them and spray with a special fungicide if you have suffered from American gooseberry mildew in the past. Constantly check redcurrant, whitecurrant and gooseberry bushes for sawfly larvae and finally remember to check for tell-tale signs of big bud mite.

Written by Matthew Thorns