What to do in the garden over Easter Weekend

The best gardening weekend of the year is here! This weekend is the long Easter bank holiday, a time of the year when gardeners traditionally pull out all the stops to perform miracles in the garden. We have four luxurious days to get outside and enjoy sowing, planting and generally sprucing up the garden ready for the warmer days ahead. But with all this time to enjoy your plot, you might be asking yourself 'Where do I start?', well luckily we've got a few handy jobs to get you going, whether you're in it for the long-haul this weekend, or you're after some quick jobs to get done here and there.

Quick Jobs for the garden over Easter

Top Dress & Tidy

The difference you can make by topping all of your pots with an inch or so of dark, rich compost is truly staggering! It’s a simple and easy task that will take you 5 minutes, but your plants will love you for it.

Pick Off Dead Leaves

Pick off dead leaves to reveal the beauty of the plant within. You can then group all of your best-looking spots in corners and enjoy them again.

Slug Control

As Gardeners, we all want our garden to be a cosy home for nature and wildlife, but there are two types of creepy crawlies that we definitely don’t want near our plants! In order to keep your prized plants from looking like Swiss cheese, take action against slugs and snails now. Although you’re unlikely to be using it at this time of the year, if you have an open fire, a nifty trick is to sprinkle wood ash around the plants base. The powdery cinders are a struggle for slugs to cross and the ash also adds minerals to your soil.

Makeup Hanging Baskets

You can finally look forward to planning the aesthetics of your garden for the summer time, and start to picture beautiful splashes of colour everywhere. Exciting right?! Start your long term investment by making up some hanging baskets, but make sure to keep them in a frost-free greenhouse for now, until warmer months.

Sow Tomatoes

2016 is said to be the year of the tomatoes so expect to see lots of new varieties for sale. You're not too late to sow from seed, and for those of us who like to go the distance when working, tomatoes also make the perfect energy snack whilst gardening. You can check out a great range of tomato seeds and plants in our products section.

Gardening Over the Easter Weekend

Give Your Lawn a Haircut

Whether you’re aiming for a bowling green or just a bit of grass for the kids to play on, mow your lawn now and you’ll reap the benefits in the summer. Lawns start growing with liveliness at this time of year, but they often look patchy after winter. You can start with cutting the grass, then use a half-moon tool to edge the lawn. Your garden will look a lot smarter, and the neighbours will definitely notice! If you're in need of a new one, you can check out the selection of lawnmowers we've compiled for you.

Plant Garlic

Plant garlic now and by mid-July, you’ll be adding a zingy kick to your barbeque marinade. Choose a sunny, well-drained spot and plant cloves root down (pointy end up) roughly 6 inches apart.

Tidy trees and shrubs

Once mature trees and shrubs start stealing light from plants below, it’s time to reshape them. Spend a few minutes removing lower branches to inject some light into the little guys below them. Be careful, Japanese acers prefer not to be pruned at this time of the year as they tend to bleed sap, leave these until the winter.

Your Easter Gardening Campaign

Get Some Structure

Archways, obelisks and pergolas, create frames around paths and views in your garden, create landmarks, and make a garden feel like an enclosed, magical kingdom. Plant them up with climbing roses and clematis to make them look even more regal or use Honey Suckle and Jasmine for that beautiful scent.

One last little tip:

Relax! Remember to take some time to just sit back and enjoy the bank holiday for what it is; it’s your time off to spend with friends and family having fun and enjoying some well-deserved R & R. You don’t have to get everything out the way in one weekend!

Feeling ill-equipped for the weekend ahead? Look for your local garden centre with the Garden Centre Guide and get prepared.