Tips and to-do’s for healthy, beautiful gardens.
April: Preparing for the Growing Season
Building a Strong & Healthy Foundation: Apply thin layers of compost to perennial beds to improve nutrient uptake. Amend raised beds & traditional sized vegetable gardens to loosen clay soils and improve the moisture holding capacity of sandy soil. Topsoil should be used in the first year of a raised bed to provide adequate soil structure for root development.
Soil Amendment: Apply Slow Release Organic Fertilizer Pro-Gro (5-3-4 = N-P-K) or higher analysis Non-Organic Fertilizer ( 10-10-10, 10-0-10) to lawns & gardens. Other options exist but test soil to determine macronutrient levels and pH and then apply the appropriate fertilizer. Lime can be applied to soil to increase pH and Sulfur applied to lower pH.
Fertilize acid loving plants like rhododendrons, azaleas, evergreens, blueberries and raspberries with Pro-Holly or Holly-Tone.
Vaccinating Your Plants: Prepare your shrubs & trees for disease and pests.Spray Horticultural Oil on fruit trees before they bud out & blossom. Oil smothers eggs that caterpillars lay in the crotches of the trees.
Spray spring-flowering shrubs like forsythia and lilacs with Copper Fungicide before they bloom and/leaf out, to prevent blight.
Spray Bobbex on tulips and other newly emerging perennials to deter deer from nibbling.
Apply Organic Milky Spore to lawns to combat Japanese Beetles. This should be done at least three times-spring, fall and then the following spring.
Pruning: In late March-early April prune dead canes out of raspberry/blackberry patches. Also prune grape vines before they start leafing out.
Prune roses before they leaf out.
Clean Up: Remove garden debris and pull early sprouting weeds. Remove plant and shrub protectors.
Sowing Seeds: Get a jump start on your vegetable garden by sowing peppers, eggplant, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and tomatoes in seed starting soil in small plug trays in early April.
In Late April sow lettuce, kale, spinach and peas directly in the ground. The frost should be out of the ground and dry, with hints of green in lawns.
Grass Seed: The ground is warm enough and ready once you see grass greening. Amend poor soils with compost and/or fertilizer before seeding lawns. Plan around a rain event. Late April can be surprisingly dry. Without adequate moisture grass seed can take longer than a week/weeks to germinate.
Lettuce seedlings
Perennial Gardens: With lawns greening up and perennials poking up out of the ground, take the time to divide and transplant perennials before they become too large to manage. To prevent transplant shock choose a day to transplant when the nighttime temperature is above freezing. Water daily.
Take daily walks around beds to examine where there are gaps in the garden and take notes/photos to use as templates for garden design.
Dividing a sedum plant.
To Plant or not to Plant? If the grass is growing then the ground is ready for perennials and shrubs. The key to success: amend the hole with compost and water daily.
Annuals: Still too early, except for pansies.
Herbs: Cold-hardy varieties like mint, oregano, thyme and parsley can be hardened off ( acclimated to cool outdoor temps) and potted up in a regular potting soil. Herbs do not require a lot of fertilizer so incorporate a low analysis organic fertilizer in the soil before adding the plants. Cut tips every few days to keep herbs from getting woody and to encourage new growth. Potted herbs on your porch/patio provides easy access to fresh herbs when creating your next meal.
Wait until late May for heat-loving basil and cilantro.
Vegetables: Lettuce, kale, spinach and peas can be directly sown in the ground in late April. Add compost if soil has too much sand/clay.
Use potted herbs in summer cuisine and as centerpieces for casual al fresco dining.
May - Act II: “ Ready, Set, Dig!”
Fertilizing: It is not too late to fertilize perennials or shrubs. Plan on spreading fertilizer before a rain event. In early May fertilize asparagus unless it is already poking up. If strawberry leaves are poking through straw then rake straw into aisles and fertilize strawberry plants.
For the first sowing of greens, wait until at least 4” tall before fertilizing with Pro-Gro at the base of the plants.
Dividing & Planting:
Strawberry beds: Prepare new hills with compost. Cut runners and transplant young plants onto hills by laying out roots over the hills and then covering the root with soil. Place straw lightly over new roots, not the leaves, and water daily.
Perennials: Dig holes twice the width of pots and the same depth of pots. Add compost. Tamp ground around plant and water daily.
Annuals: Start hardening off in the third week of May and prepare to plant or pot up in the last week of May closer to the first of June to avoid frost. When planting annuals directly in the ground amend holes with compost and slow release granular fertilizer. When planting annuals in pots add slow release fertilizer and soil moist (optional) to the soil. Annuals are heavy feeders so in addition to granular fertilizer plan on watering containers once a week with a water soluble fertilizer. Make sure containers have drain holes in the bottom, otherwise the soil can become saturated and roots could rot.
When designing your planters make sure you plant groupings of plants that grow at similar rates. Design Reminder: Thriller ( tall plant), Filler ( medium height, bushy/mounding) and Spiller ( trailing). Don't be afraid to mix foliage & texture w/blooms.
Just planted “thrillers, chillers and spillers” in a tall container. (Photo: Mill Gardens)
Thrillers, chillers and spillers In a window box. (Photo: Mill Gardens)
Seeding: Continue with a regular schedule of sowing vegetable seeds through May. Mid-May sow more lettuce and other greens, as well as carrots, beets and dill. Do another round of cool crops in late May.
Last week of May sow heat-loving veggies like cukes, summer & winter squash, pumpkins, beans plus annuals like sunflowers, cosmos and zinnias.
Companion Planting: Remember that without bees most vegetable plants do not fruit. Bees and other pollinators will not visit gardens of green leaves only; they require blooms and lots of them for food. Make sure you have a wide variety of annuals (best choice for planting around vegetable plants) as well as heavy pollen producers in your perennial gardens. Pollinators are drawn to flowers and between feedings they will investigate vegetable blossoms and pollinate.
Also plant annuals to draw beneficial insects that feed on undesirable insects that destroy plants. Scented annuals like alyssum are magnets for beneficial insects.
Top annual pollinators: Salvia, Lantana; Snapdragon and Hyssop plus Angelonia, Torenia and Fuchsia.
Monarch butterflies love annual Salvia ' Playin' the Blues'. This is a super hardy, vigorous, pollinator plant that will fill your garden with color all season long. (Photo: Mill Gardens)
June - Act III: Garden Housekeeping
This is the time to nurture your gardens and start reaping your rewards.
Sowing Seeds: Continue to sow lettuce, kale,spinach, beets and carrots every other week through the month. Alternate every other week with sowings of beans ( string beans, beans for drying and soybeans) through the month.
Fertilizing: Apply slow release fertilizer like Pro-Gro or Espoma Garden tone to existing vegetable plants. Broadcast at the base of the plant. Apply every two weeks.
Shrubs: Apply Espoma Rose-Tone/Pro-Gro around roses once a month through summer. For all other shrubs apply Pro-Gro at the end of the month. For evergreens that appear yellow/lighter green in appearance apply Iron-tone.
