April Garden Calendar

Now is the Time to Plant Your Summer Vegetables

Spring is finally here!! And most of the summer vegetables are now available. Tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, eggplants, beans, peas, corn, and many other vegetables are available. We carry a wide selection of heirloom vegetables, especially heirloom tomatoes. More varieties become available each week. Watermelons, canteloupe, honeydew and many other melons become available in April. If you haven't prepared your vegetable beds yet, then now is the time to do so. Remember to add gypsum to give your vegies that extra boost of calcium that they need.

Also, if you are lacking garden space, you can plant your vegetables in Smart Pots (a fabric type pot). These pots are available in three different sizes and can be used year after year. When you are done, simply remove the old soil, wash out, let dry, and then fold up until next season.

Things To Do In The Yard

-- If you fed your roses in late February or early March, then April is the time to feed them once again. We recommend using the EB Stone Rose and Flower Food. This organic fertilizer also contains beneficial microbes including mycorrhizal fungi that will give your roses a boost. Roses also benefit from an ocassional feeding with Alfalfa Meal.

-- If you haven't already done so, then this is the month to start freshening up the garden. Prune back plants that were damaged in the winter frosts and cut back some of the grasses that went dormant to allow their new spring growth to emerge unimpeded by the old dead growth.

-- This is a good time to plant annuals and perennials for spring and summer color in your garden and in your containers. Begonias, marigolds, petunias, impatiens, alyssum, lobelia, and many other summer annuals are now available. Also, million bells, bacopa, verbenas, nemesias, african daisies, and many other Spring and Summer blooming plants are available to plant in the ground or in containers.

-- If you have apples and pears, now is the time to check the coddling moth traps that you hung up in late March in your apple and pear trees to inspect for moths. Spray with Bonide's Captain Jacks Deadbug to kill the moth. Hang new traps if your traps have been out for more than three weeks.

-- If you didn't fertilize your lawn in March, then April is the time to do so. We recommend Master Green Lawn Food or EB Stone's Nature's Green Lawn Food.

-- Keep an eye out for increased insect activity. As the weather warms up, insects become more active. Snails, slugs, earwigs, and sowbugs can do a lot of damage on young plants. Sluggo Plus is a great organic control for these critters. Also, aphids begin to show up by the hundreds on many plants. Ladybugs and praying mantids are available this time of year to help control aphids and other leaf eating insects.

What's Blooming Now

The flowering cherries, late blooming magnolias, dogwoods, lilacs, azaleas, rhododendrons, and wisteria all bloom this month. In addition, lavenders, gaillardias, salvias, lantanas, breath of heavens, indian hawthorn, daisies, and many more plants are blooming now. If you are looking for some Spring inspiration or just want to see what's blooming, then come by and walk through the nursery.