April Gardening Jobs

Start coleus cuttings now to plant outdoors in the garden by early June. These colorful plants are enjoying a revival as fine accents to annual and perennial borders.

Rake or remove mulches from all flower beds.

Plant rosebushes. They often do best if planted before growth starts and buds swell. And if you want to increase their fragrance, surround them with parsley.

Scatter annual poppy seeds in your flower garden and let them grow where they will. They don't like to be transplanted.

Broadcast lime, wood ashes, or a mixture of the two over alkaline-loving perennials such as delphiniums and dianthus. Bring color outdoors to patios, porches, and even the garden with pansy plants, which don't mind cold nights. To encourage constant flowering, routinely remove spent blossoms and keep them from getting bone-dry.

Sow sweet peas as soon as the soil can be worked. Nick the seeds with a nail file and plant them five inches deep, but cover them with only about three inches of soil. Hoe more soil up around them as they grow.

Plant lilies-of-the-valley, violets, and garden lilies. Divide summer- and fall-blooming perennials, including delphiniums, irises, chrysanthemums, daisies, and phlox.

Although we think of this as a rainy month, it can fool us. Keep transplanted flowers well watered during dry spells.

When danger of frost has passed, uncover strawberry beds and keep them well watered.

Plant blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, and fruit trees.

Start seeds indoors for heat-loving crops such as eggplant, tomatoes, and squash.

To determine whether your garden soil is ready for seeds, grab a good handful of it. If you can form it into a ball, the soil is too wet. If it crumbles through your fingers and reminds you of chocolate cake, it's ready for planting.

If the soil is ready, give it a good stirring and let it sit for several days. Then top-dress it with compost or well-rotted manure and plant beets, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, radishes, parsnips, lettuce, spinach, Swiss chard, and turnips.

If you got your peas in last month, be sure to give them a good fence for support, made of chicken wire, twine, or stubby branches that are at least three feet tall. Otherwise, plant them this month as soon as you can.

Scatter spinach or lettuce seeds around emerging bulb foliage to make wise use of your garden space, and have a leafy green crop at the ready to cover the bare spots left by deadheaded spring flowers.

Prune forsythias as soon as the flowers fade. Cut the oldest stems to within a foot of the ground, but be sure to let the plant keep its arching form; don't turn it into a gumdrop or cannonball.

Feed your trees. As soon as the frost goes out of the ground, give them a well-balanced slow-release fertilizer. Scatter about six good handfuls per each 10x10-foot area. Store leftover fertilizer in a small plastic trash can or a covered plastic container, and label it.

Rake your lawn to remove all leaves, dead grass, and small twigs. Sow seed for a new lawn, or fill in bare patches by first covering the area with compost or other organic matter. Roll the lawn if the ground isn't soggy.

If you receive mail-order nursery plants before your soil is dry enough for planting, make a trench and heel them into the ground in a protected area.

Don't fertilize strawberries in the spring. This is when the leaves are developing, and you'll get lush growth and meager, soft berries. Wait until blossoms appear and use a light hand.

Don't set tomato plants out in the garden too soon. They hate cold soil and cold nights (under 55 degrees F).

Don't forget to vent your cold frame. April days may feel chilly, but the temperature under the glass can get over 100 degrees F on a sunny day. Salad greens are unhappy over 65 degrees F, and most other plants will perish over 85 degrees F.

From our Friends as The Old Farmers Almanac

7 Gardening Mistakes to Avoid

Mistake #1: Too many changes, too soon

The excitement of buying a new home, plus a stretch of warm spring weather, often creates a passion for yard work. But don’t just do something, stand there! What looks like a spring weed might be a fall-blooming vine; that bare spot in March might reveal tulips in April.

Try this instead: Live with your land for a year. Observe how many hours of sunlight each part of your garden gets. Test the pH of your soil to determine if acid-loving or alkaline-loving plants will be happy in that particular patch of heaven. Observe when your lawn greens up in spring and becomes dormant in late summer. The money and time you save by watching and waiting will be your own.

Mistake #2: Too much togetherness

Trees and shrubs that look properly spaced when you plant them will crowd each other and compete for water, sun, and nutrients in a few years. If you’re lucky, you can transplant some bushes; if you’re not, you’ll have to throw away starved shrubs.

Try this instead: Before digging, read spacing instructions. Give trees plenty of space—you can always fill in later. Stagger bushes and plants and create two rows, which will create more breathing room. The results will look absurdly sparse at first. But live with it. In a few years, your shrubs will fill empty spaces without suffocating each other. (Landscape Vision software shows you how your trees will look fully grown!)

Mistake #3: Planting without a plan

Planting new garden beds without a long-term landscape plan is like pouring a house foundation without blueprints. Your haste results in a waste of time, money, and muscles.

Try this instead: Draw a simple sketch of your yard—what’s there now and what you might add later, such as patios, outbuildings, and pools. Bone up on the trees and shrubs that grow best in your soil and climate. Go online and click around landscaping sites that help you pick plants and design beds, (Purchase Landscape Vision Design Software and in just 5 easy steps plan your landscape), (Landscape Vision offers an Award Winning Plant Data Base, learn all you need with us)

Visit your local nursery or home improvement center where design staff can answer questions and make suggestions. Or hire a professional landscape designer to create a starter plan for as little as $250 to $500. (Save the $250-$500 and purchase Landscape Vision, bring your design to a pro for advise) Find a professional at the Association of Professional Landscape Designers or the American Society of Landscape Architects.

Mistake #4: Neglecting the root of it all

Even the hardiest plants need a little help putting down roots in new locations. Sprinkling the foliage doesn’t nourish the roots, the plant’s nerve center. You must deliver water to the root ball below the ground, or your plants will be stunted and short-lived.

Try this instead: Place the hose at the base of new bushes, trees, and plants and let the water trickle out for 20 to 30 minutes, twice a week (more during hot spells), for 4 to 12 weeks. Or snake a soaker hose ($20 for 50 feet) through your beds, which will deliver slow and steady water to roots.

Mistake #5: Forgetting the sun

Too many gardeners pick plants based only on looks, not the growing conditions plants require and the conditions that exist. Rookies will plant sun-loving perennials under an old oak tree or sun-shy hostas in the open. They look great for about a week, and then die.

(Landscape Vision software allows you to sort plants based on light type, thus avoiding costly mistakes.)

Try this instead: Observing the spot where you’re going to put the plant and estimating the amount of sun it gets over the course of a day during the growing season.

Mistake #6: Over-watering

An automatic irrigation system is a luxury that keeps your landscape hydrated throughout the growing season with almost no effort. Unfortunately, auto-watering can bring disease, root rot, and a premature death to plants; it also wastes water.

Many gardeners set watering timers for 15 to 20 minutes each morning, which wets the surface but doesn’t soak deeply to nourish roots of large trees and shrubs.

Try this instead: Water for 40 to 60 minutes only two to three times a week. Check with the company that maintains your irrigation system for local recommendations. A deeper soak also helps lawns develop deeper root systems.

Mistake #7: Budget blunders

Your landscaping can fall victim to construction bulldozers that park on lawns and dig too closely to trees and shrubs. New construction also demands rethinking your landscape plan to accommodate additions.

Unfortunately, many home owners don’t include landscaping in their construction budget. They end up with a beautiful new family room, screened porch, or solarium, and a few lonely azaleas planted around the foundation as an afterthought.

Try this instead: Allocate 10% to 20% of your construction budget to the landscape—both hardscaping and plants. If your construction spreadsheet can’t stand another line item, make a plan to landscape—in stages, if necessary—as soon as possible after construction is completed.

Oliver Marks is a former carpenter and newspaper reporter who has been writing about home improvements for 16 years.

Read more: http://www.houselogic.com/articles/7-gardening-mistakes-to-avoid/#ixzz1IChaYB8m