In the Calendar this Month
April: When April with his showers...
Its official... Spring is here. Time to get serious. All the tasks we put off in March because we were busy wrapping up our indoor winter projects or just felt it was too cold to go out yet, or just because, are now ready to be conquered. It's time to shake off the winter blues and start our spring cleaning outdoors. Get out your rakes and shovels and let's get to work.
Clean Up Crew
Get everyone outside with a contractor bag in one hand and a rake in the other. For those that have them, this is what your kids are for! Or so my neighbors keep telling me. I can't seem to get my 7 year old to focus for more than 2 minutes on raking the yard. Rake out your gardens but be careful of the young spouts and bulbs popping up from the soil.
It's important to get your soil tested if you haven't yet and add the necessary soil amendments/ organic fertilizer after receiving the test results.
Now is a great time to dig, divide and transplant perennials, like asters, that bloom in summer or fall that have overgrown their place in the garden. It's a great idea to trade with neighbors. I gladly allowed my neighbor to come over and dig into my wildly overgrown black-eyed susan in exchange for some of her balloon flowers that took over her side border garden.
Indoor Sowing
Start seeds of warm-season vegetables like peppers, eggplant, and tomatoes the first week in April. These will be ready for transplant into the garden in late May. Start seeds of herbs, such as dill, parsley and basil, inside through the end of the month, as well as flowers like zinnias and marigolds.
Rejuvenate the Soil
Prepare your garden soil once it has dried out and crumbles easily in your hand. Turn in the green manure crops like winter rye that have wintered over to help nourish and replenish your soil in preparation for this years crops.
Direct Seeding
Direct seed into the garden cool season vegetables and flowers including carrots, beets, peas, parsnips, foxgloves, and hollyhocks. Set out hardy seedlings such as onions, cabbage, leafy greens, pansies and snapdragons. Harden them off for a day or two by leaving them out in a protected area.
The Lawn
The conventional knowledge has been to add pre-emergent when the Forsythia bloom. If followed this advice for years but found many times that it was already too late. If the Forsythia are blooming then other things could be growing as well - especially stubborn weeds. I recommend putting down corn gluten, an organic pre-emergent, just before the Forsythia bloom in your area. I usually do it the second week of April.
If you did not get your mower service in March, get your mower blades sharpened. Hopefully you made the initial cut down to about 2 inches in March to get rid of the dead damaged heads before your grass started growing to much otherwise it will be difficult to do and not cut more than 1/3 of the length at one time. Now is the time to raise the mower height for subsequent cuts (3-3.5 inches). This will help the grass grow long deep root systems and help to shade out weeds.
Check out the full calendar, available here, for tips and tasks to perform in the garden every weekend of every month in the year.