April is a lovely month for gardening as the temperature is still tolerable and there is much preparation to be done for the blistering heat of summer which, unfortunately, seems to intensify each year now.

First and foremost, let’s take a look at some of the gorgeous flowers you can grow to make it an extra-special place to retreat to and lock the outside world firmly away for precious hours on end.

Formal planting styles such as those concentrating on growing everything in neat rows with exact distances between plants, have been proven not to be the be-all and end-all of garden relaxation. In fact, it is quite the contrary. So let’s forget about these and go for the ‘real thing.’

In this instance the ‘real thing’ is to emulate nature in all its seemingly haphazard ‘chaos’ in which plants are allowed — even encouraged — to grow as they wish.

Make the most of spring and start growing

Soil preparation is a must if ‘free-fall seeding’ is going to work. Select the area, preferably in full sun or very light shade such as beneath trees, weed thoroughly, break up soil surface — no need to dig deep — to a depth of just two or three inches, and rake to a fine tilth. Then broadcast your selected seed mixture, thinly so that each seed has soil, nutrients, water and space to grow, rake them in, water lightly, repeating light watering each evening.

Suggested seed mixes for a summer show

Depending on the size of the bed and the height of other flowers being sown, select sunflowers in tall, medium or dwarf species. They are found in reds, yellows, lemons, chocolate, orange, creams and many other colours and bi-colours, both single and double flowered, in between. Besides sunflower you can grow Tithonia — Mexican sunflowers — in blazing orange, tall Cosmos in shiny white, pale and deep pink, carmine, yellow and shades in between with some tall-growing Zinnias in the brightest shades imaginable and some pale ones thrown into the mix for contrast. These four flowers require the same growing conditions and look magnificent when all are flowering at the same time.

If you are looking for medium-tall plants you can go for medium-sized sunflowers no more than 24 inches in height; medium Cosmos, medium Zinnias, Rudbeckia, Coreopsis, Gaillardia, flax (alsi in Urdu), borage, feverfew and medium/tall Tagetes.

Among low-growing plants choose from Portulaca, Petunias, dwarf marigolds, dwarf Tagetes and dwarf Zinnias.

You may also like to sow eye-catching patches of Amaranthus, cockscomb, Celosia, Gompherena, Nicotiana and Matricaria to name but a few species of summer-flowering plants.

Flower of the month

Lonicera —honeysuckle —is a lovely perennial climber/rambler which is evergreen in most parts of the country, the exception being upland areas with cold winters where it has a deciduous habit. Best known for the glorious perfume of its cream and yellow, pink and cream, or cream and reddish clusters of flowers, it enjoys having its roots in the shade and head in the sun. Happy in most soil types, as long as drainage is good, it is at its gorgeous best in spring but will flower on and off in summer and autumn too. Very simple to care for, it can take time to get established but once it does, growth is rapid. It benefits from reasonably heavy pruning in December/January when any dead, diseased or overcrowded wood should be cut out. A light mulch of well-rotted organic manure/compost at six-monthly intervals is highly beneficial.

One hopes that in the vegetable garden you continue to harvest mouth-wateringly excellent, organically-grown food. To keep it ‘growing’, this month you can add some, or all, of the following: sweetpotatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, aubergines, lettuce, capsicum, radish, green onions, chillies, ladies fingers, lead beet/Swiss chard, summer/autumn cauliflower, fast-maturing loose-leaf summer cabbage and, as long as you can get them in over the next 10-14 days, a final sowing of pumpkins, tindas, lauki, zucchini/courgette and marrows.

In the herb garden you can sow basil, coriander, borage, chives, garlic chives, ginger, nasturtiums, Calendula, summer savoury and aniseed.

As for fruit: more sweet melons, watermelons and pineapples can go in now too.

Other tasks this month

Continue transplanting pot/tray-grown flower, vegetable and herb seedlings into prepared garden beds and/or into prepared pots and other assorted containers. Transplanting is best done in the relative cool of the evening so that you can water the transplants immediately after that and they will then have all night long to drink their fill before sunrise the next day.

Do not forget to water young trees, climbers/ramblers, shrubs as, with temperatures on the rise, watering is now essential.

Work out an evening-watering regime, keeping water conservation in mind and understand that not all plants need to be watered each and every single day.

Keep your eyes open for aphid, mealy bug, spider mite and other pest attacks as these become more common as temperatures rise. Take action — preferably organic action — at the very first sign of a pest attack. It is much easier to deal with pests before they run rampant and multiply to the point where they can, and do, completely destroy your plants.

Pay strict attention to garden hygiene, clearing up and removing plant and other debris on a regular basis. A ‘clean’ garden and footpaths provides less places for pests/disease to hide.

Enjoy your garden to the full!

Please continue sending your gardening queries to zahrahnasir@hotmail.com. Remember to include your location.

The writer does not respond directly by email. Emails with attachments will not be opened.

Published in Dawn, EOS, April 2nd, 2017