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April Gardening Tips

Plant

Plant summer vegetables - artichokes, beans, beets, carrots, corn, cucumber, eggplant, radishes, lettuce, melons, peppers, pumpkins, squash, sunflowers, swiss chard, tomatoes and turnips.
Plant summer and fall flowering perennials, agapanthus, Japanese anemone, day lilies, chrysanthemums, coreopsis, dusty miller, gaillardia, gazania, Gerbera daisy, lions tail, nicotiana, tulbaghia, verbena and yarrow.
Plant azaleas, dahlias, wisteria, and water lilies. It is a good time to pick sun azaleas as they are in bloom at local nurseries. April also clematis month; local garden centers will have many plants in bloom.

Feed & Fertilize

Feed warm-season grass lawns after they have become uniformly green. Mow weekly to recommended heights of one inch for common Bermuda, 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch for hybrid Bermuda, 3/4 inch to 1 1/4 inch for St. Augustine, 3/4 inch to one inch for zoysia. Fertilize with Best Turf Supreme.
Roses will be at their peak bloom; don't forget to use Organa's Foliar Treatment. Mulch beds with Gardner & Bloom Soil Building Compost mixed with Worm Gold Plus.
Feed citrus remembering that a mature tree can have roots three times the volume of their canopy. The fertilizer should be spread around the drip line of the tree. Whitney Farms, Dr. Earth or Organa are superior choices. Worm Gold Plus may actually provide the tree with some ability to resist pests.
To give a jumpstart to next years bulbs that have already bloomed, feed them with a balanced liquid fertilizer like Organic Advantage Plant Food.

Prune/Trim/Clean

Give fuchsias their second pinch once they begin to grow again, and then allow them to bloom.
Lightly thin fruit on deciduous fruit trees to larger fruit later on.
Prune any trees damaged during the winter.
As bulbs die back, leave the foliage on the plant until it has turned completely yellow. This allows the nutrients to restore themselves in the bulb crop. You may want to tie up the leaves to keep things looking neat.

Miscellaneous