April: garden and home jobs for this month

April is the month where the garden and the to-do list both speed up at once, but the weather hasn't caught up with the calendar. Night frosts are still common across most of the UK well into the month, particularly inland and in the north, so the jobs that matter most now are the ones that get you ready rather than the ones that expose tender plants too soon.

Frost is still a risk, even on a warm afternoon

A mild, sunny April day can be followed by a sharp overnight frost, especially where skies clear after sunset. This matters because it's the most common way seedlings and young plants are lost each spring: gardeners see warmth and assume the risk has passed. If you're hardening off anything raised indoors, do it gradually over a week or two rather than moving pots straight outside, and keep some fleece or an old sheet to hand for cold nights.

Garden jobs that genuinely need doing in April

• Mowing regularly, as grass growth picks up noticeably from early April in most of England and slightly later further north
• Deadheading spring bulbs once flowers fade, leaving the foliage to die back naturally so the bulb can store energy for next year
• Checking soil pH before feeding beds heavily, since a lot of feed is wasted on soil that's too acid or alkaline for what's growing in it
• Watching for slug and snail damage on new growth, which is often worse in a wet April than in summer

Home maintenance after a winter of weather

Winter is hard on the outside of a house, and April is usually the first properly dry stretch to check what it's done. Look at the fascia and soffit boards for cracking or gaps where birds may have got in, and check pointing on exposed brickwork, particularly on the side of the house that takes the worst of the weather. A cracked mortar joint left through another summer of rain lets in damp that's far more expensive to put right than the pointing itself.

If you're not sure whether a job is urgent

Some jobs genuinely can't wait, and some can sit until May without any harm at all. The March and May guides are worth reading alongside this one if you're catching up on jobs you missed, or planning ahead before the weather turns again. For anything structural on the house itself, the home maintenance guidance covers what's worth doing yourself and what needs a qualified tradesperson.