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April Checklist for Your Garden |
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Saturday, 19 April 2008 |
Some days it's snowing, and other days it's 60 degrees outside. This is very hard on gardening lovers. The following is a guide or listing of things that can be done safely in April in USDA Zone 5.
If you haven't yet done so, get outside and fill your planters and standing pots with new fresh potting soil. Plant your cold hardy pansies and violas. You can even purchase your cabbage plants and get them into the soil now. This gives you a little head start.
Remember to be very patient with plants and shrubs, which have not opened bud, or shown signs of life. My Baptisma plants are very slow, and each year I fear I have lost them, and they show up sometime in May. The same goes for the butterfly bushes. Let Mother Nature take her time with her plants.
Check all your trees and be sure that the ties are not too tight. If tight, they can and will harm your young trees. During the winter we put 5' tall cages around our fruit trees in our small orchard. Take the cages off before the trees bud out or you can damage the buds.
Dig and divide chrysanthemums as early as you can. Remember also that some of them are slow in returning, so keep watching for them. I do not cut my mum's back in the fall, but instead, as a personal preference wait till spring, so I can enjoy the foliage all winter. On butterfly bushes I wait until I see the new growth and cut back to it. I want my bushes to be on the large size, to be showier where placed.
It is time to feed your roses, and I would recommend a slow release or an organic fertilizer. Some of the branches turn black during the winter and die. Cut off all dead branches, and any branches that are rubbing against each other, so you will have better bloom.
This year, there is a project being started/sponsored by the San Francisco University, Biology Dept. They are doing a test on sunflowers, and checking how many bees and what type go to each sunflower planted. You may find info at http://www.greatsunflower.org/en/growing-sunflowers . The object is getting as many people as possible growing sunflowers, and letting them know what bee the flower attracted. We do have a problem with a shortage of bees in the United States and this is an experiment to try to find solutions. Remember also that bees are attracted to most flowers that are lavender, blue, purple, yellow, and white. So start planning your new garden with that in mind.
Don't forget to mark down the Erie County Master Gardener Plant Sale on your calendar. The sale is May 10, from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. at the Erie County Fairgrounds. Happy Gardening.
If you have questions, please contact Ohio State University Extension at 627-7728.
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