April is that magical month synonymous with nature’s reawakening. For many gardeners, it heralds the real start of the gardening season. In the warmer south, you’ve been enjoying fine weather for a while. Here’s our checklist to get you going:
Indoors
Houseplant care
- Start fertilizing houseplants as new growth appears.
- Begin watering cacti and succulents that are actively growing.
- Move houseplants outdoors when night temperatures begin staying above 55 F.
Garden planning
- Start the seeds of warm-season plants such as tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, marigolds and zinnias for planting outdoors in mid-May.
Outdoors
For the birds
- Get birdhouses ready for returning birds to make nests by cleaning and repairing them.
- Stock feeders for hungry migrating birds.
- Watch for hummingbirds as they travel north. Put out a feeder for them.
General garden maintenance
- Have your soil tested to determine if it needs amendments.
- Spread winter compost on your garden and start a new spring pile.
- Clean water features and garden ornaments.
- Start feeding pond fish when the water temperature rises above 50 F.
- Clean and sanitize containers.
- Provide support such as trellises and stakes for top-heavy plants.
- Lay drip-irrigation hoses in the garden while vegetation is small.
- Transplants started indoors can be gradually exposed to outdoor conditions for several hours a day if the weather is fine.
- In the south as the weather warms up, drooping leaves indicate you may have to water more frequently.
Lawn care
- Top-dress lawns and overseed bare spots.
- Lightly fertilize cool-season lawn grasses such as fescue and bluegrass.
Beds and borders
- Cut back dead foliage on perennials and ornamental grasses.
- Gradually remove winter mulch from perennials when they start to grow.
- Divide or transplant hardy perennials.
- Fertilize spring-blooming bulbs such as daffodils and hyacinths after they have bloomed.
- Allow the foliage of spring-flowering bulbs to die before cutting them back. The leaves take up nutrients that feed the bulbs for next year’s flowers.
- Remove winter covering from roses. Prune and fertilize, if needed.
- Add mulch to plants, trees and shrubs to keep the weeds at bay and help retain moisture.
Trees and shrubs
- Continue pruning trees and shrubs to remove dead and injured branches.
- Prune trees and non-flowering shrubs that are still dormant.
- Prune spring-flowering shrubs such as forsythia and lilacs after they have bloomed.
- Plant bare-root, balled-and-burlapped and container-grown trees and shrubs.
- After rhododendrons bloom, remove the spent flower clusters.
Vegetables and fruits
- Sow seeds and plant cool-season vegetables and fruits you’ve purchased in container and peat pots directly into the garden as soon as soil can be worked. This includes peas, lettuce, spinach, carrots, beets, turnips, parsnips and Swiss chard.
- Plant seedlings of cool-season crops, including broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, kohlrabi and onions.
- Plant asparagus and rhubarb.
- In the south, where vegetable gardens are more advanced, be sure to fertilize.
Controlling insects
- Snails and slugs love newly planted seedlings. Control them with commercial slug bait or attract them with a shallow bowl of beer; they’ll crawl into it and drown.
- As the temperature rises in the south, check for insects such as aphids. Insecticidal soap is effective in controlling them.
