Planning

When buying bedding annuals this spring choose properly grown plants with good color. Buy plants that are not too large for their pots with many unopened buds. Plants that bloom in the packs are often root bound. Plants not yet in bloom will actually bloom sooner, become better established and grow faster.

Plan to attract hummingbirds to your garden by planting red or orange flowers. Monarda (beebalm) and Zauschneria (California fuchsia) are good perennials to provide nectar to these small birds.

Planting

Begin to plant seedlings of warm-season vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants. You can also start your pumpkin and winter squash seeds now.

Sow beets, beans, cucumbers, carrots, lettuce, sweet corn and radishes.

Plant herbs such as thyme, sage, parsley, chives, and basil.

Sod or sow new lawns, and overseed damaged older lawns.

Start planting warm season annuals such as impatiens, marigolds, petunias, sunflowers, zinnia, lobelia, allysum.

Finish planting summer-flowering bulbs such as tuberose, gladiolus, dahlia, and callas.

Plant chervil, coriander, dill, rosemary, and summer savory outside after the last spring frost date for your area. 50% probability of frost free after March 10 2012.

Plant dahlia tubers as soon as the danger of frost is passed. Stake at the time of planting to avoid injury of the tubers.

Plant clematis in locations that receive at lease six hours of sunshine a day. Use organic mulch or ground-covers to shade roots and keep them cool. Plant in rich, well-drained loam.

Hhydrangeas will transplant well into the garden after their flowers fade. When the weather warms, plant in well-drained soil in full sun to part shade. Don’t be surprised if the next year’s flowers are a different color than the first year. Blue or pink hydrangea color is dependent on the pH of the soil. Alkaline soil produces pink flowers; acidic soil produces blue flowers. White hydrangeas are not affected by soil pH.

Many gardeners plant annual and perennial flowers to attract hummingbirds. Woody plants can also be added to the garden to provide nectar for these tiny birds. Some common trees visited by hummingbirds are buckeye, horse chestnut, catalpa, apple, crabapple, hawthorn, silk tree, redbud and tulip poplar. Shrubs include azalea, beauty bush, coralberry, honeysuckle, lilac, and red weigela.

Maintenance

Frost tender plants such as citrus, fuchsia, geranium, hibiscus, mandevilla, and bougainvillea can go outdoors when all chance of frost is gone

Start feeding potted plants every two to three weeks with half-strength fertilizer

If plants like citrus, camellias, gardenias, and grapes are chlorotic (yellowing leaves), spray leaves with a foliar fertilizer containing chelated iron.

Mulch soil to save water, smother weeds, keep soil cooler. Spread 1-3 inches of compost, wood shavings or other organic material under shrubs, trees, annuals and vegetables.

Thin vegetables that were sown too thickly, like basil, carrots, green onions or lettuce.

Prune spring-flowering shrubs and trees after bloom is over.

Fertilize everything right now, but do not fees spring-flowering shrubs like azaleas, camellias and rhododendrons until after then have finished flowering; then use an acid based fertilizer. They should also be pruned after blooming.

Now is the time to divide mint, chive, tarragon and creeping thyme

Control lawn weeds now through late May before they get large.

The lawn mower blade should always be sharp so as not to tear the grass. If you sharpen the blade at home, be sure to balance it too.

To determine if soil is ready to work, squeeze a handful into a tight ball, then break the ball apart with your fingers. If the ball of soil readily crumbles in your fingers, the soil is ready to be worked. However, if the soil stays balled it is still too wet to work. Try again in another week.

April is a good time to clean up plants and flower beds. Pick out dead leaves and twogs and prune dean limbs.

Cut flower stalks back to the ground on daffodils, hyacinths, tulips and other spring flowering bulbs as the flowers fade. Do not cut the foliage until it dies naturally. The leaves are necessary  to produce strong bulbs capable of reflowering.

Once new leaf growth begins on trees and shrubs, cut back to green wood any twigs affected by winter kill.
 

Weed and Pest Control

Keep an eye out for aphids and get them before they take over your plants. Use a strong stream of water or safe soap products.

Keep after slugs and snails!

Michal

Are raised beds worth the effort and expense? The simple answer is yes, and here are a few reasons to make room in your landscape:
• Raised beds give the gardener an opportunity to control key factors such as soil make up, drainage and sun exposure.
• No foot traffic through your raised beds means less compacted soil.
• Plants thrive when their roots can travel freely.
• A bed that is raised even a foot can avoid many of our region’s pesky weeds. When the bed is fallow, a barrier of newspaper or plastic can add extra weed prevention.
• A raised bed constructed at seat level can reduce the amount of stretching needed to tend it.
• Heat gain that a raised bed receives provides a longer growing season; visqueen or glass extends the season.

Raised beds come in many forms, with a wide range of cost and materials:
• Mounding of garden soil can outperform a traditional ground level planting area.
• A rockery or a stacked stone wall can be inexpensive and attractive if built well, but maintenance can be an issue. Rough rocks are not usually comfortable seats.
• Segmented rock walls can be a more expensive, with a range of sizes and colors, and involve straightforward installation. Capped walls can be very comfortable seats.
• Cedar raised beds are very common. Cedar is naturally decay and insect resistant and readily available.
• Pressure treated lumber can be used for raised bed walls. Even though treated wood will have a long life, its use around raised vegetable beds is controversial due to the possibility of chemical leeching into the soil and vegetables. (My raised beds are pressure treated 2 x 8’s that were once deck joists. When constructing my beds, I lined the inside of the walls with a resilient plastic liner, protecting my food (and me) from any unwanted leeched chemicals.)
• Poured concrete raised beds are an expensive but very long lasting option.
• Other materials that have been used to form raised beds include concrete board (Hardie Plank), plastic/composite lumber (Trex, TimberTech, Monarch), and formed steel. Winter is the season that few think about landscaping and gardening but it is a great time to prepare for spring. A raised bed that is installed early has time for composting and other important soil building amendments. Put the effort in now, avoid the rush of building, planning and planting all at once. Leave a little time to contemplate and reflect, how does one prepare parsnips? Bok choi?

Zach