April Gardening Tips

Flowers

• Remember it still too early to plant non-hardy flowers
• Direct-sow hardy annuals, biennials and perennials
• Provide supports for peonies and other perennials that need stalking
• Prune roses, remove dead wood
• Control weeds by mulching, cultivating or pulling

Garden

• Plant cool crops, such as broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce, peas, potatoes, radishes, spinach
• Plant or transplant strawberries, raspberries or other small fruit
• Protect seedings from cutworms with collars
• Thin cool-season crops to proper spacing
• Start seeds indoors to transplant next month

Lawn

• Compost any non-diseased garden cuttings, add a little 5-10-5 organic fertilizer and keep the pile moist
• Control crabgrass before it germinates with a pre-emergent herbicide
• Get ready to mow

Trees & Shrubs

• Plant and/or transplant on windless cloudy days
• Have a certified arborist, prune spring-flowering trees/shrubs after they bloom
• Prune twigs affected by winter kill after new growth begins
• Fertilize trees if leaves are small, sparse and pale
• Begin looking for insects and bag-worms, remove and destroy them