April
• Continue to care for indoor seedlings by providing sufficient light and water.
• Begin to transition your indoor seedlings to outdoor climate increasing number of
hours each day.
• Start caladium tubers in moist sand or sphagnum at 65 degrees.
• Cyclamen will go into their summer rest. Let them slowly dry off, set pots in a
cool cellar, and water only enough to help the bulbs from shriveling.
• Be careful not to let plants burn in south and east-facing windows.
• Continue garden cleanup if not already done in March (see March listing).
• Plant potatoes, peas, beets, turnips, radishes, carrots, spinach, and other leafy
greens. Thin seedlings of previously planted carrots, beets, and lettuce.
• Dig, divide, and replant perennials, such as helenium, fall asters, Shasta daisies,
chrysanthemums, and phlox.
• Plant pansies, forget-me-nots, foxglove, and other cool-weather flower
transplants.
• Sow seeds of sweet peas, bachelor’s buttons, and larkspur in flowerbeds.
• Visit your local garden center for best selection of plants. Prepare a list to buy
based on the location of planting (sunny, shady, part-shade, acid, dry, etc).
• Protect transplants in the garden from cold and wind using milk jugs or other
protective covering.
• Plant roses, trees, and shrubs.
• Starting a new lawn, fertilizing, or renovating a lawn with cool season grasses will
be most effective if done during the peak growth period – from 65 to 75 degrees F.
• Apply pre-emergence herbicides to prevent seeds from germinating (crabgrass and
other weeds). Read label for application timing. Two applications may be
required.
• Late-flowering shrubs such as hydrangea, butterfly bush, althaea, franklinia,
should be pruned in spring, if pruning is needed.
• Transplant strawberries so that the crowns are just even with the surface.
• Fertilize blueberries with ammonium sulfate as well as rhododendrons, azaleas,
and most other broadleaved evergreens.
• Asparagus grows best in a sandy loam. Set the plants 1 to 1½ to 2 feet apart in
rows 4 feet apart.
• Remove cabbage worms as they appear, or treat for heavy infestation. Floating
row cover is a good barrier if applied at time of planting.
• Apply lime around lilacs and clematis, cultivating it into the soil.
• Transplant cabbage, broccoli, lettuce, and cauliflower plants into the garden.
• Mulch flower and landscape beds. To prevent weeds seeds from sprouting, put
down wet newspaper overlapping edges underneath the mulch.
• Near end of month plant a few gladioluses and continue every couple of weeks
until early July to have continuous display.
