April Gardening Chores (301)

My garden is starting to get serious about growing this month so it’s time to try to keep up:

1. Clean out composters and add to flower beds and fruit trees. Mix with existing soil for now; you will mulch this later. Leave a good bucket of finished compost as starter for the next compost batch.

2. Prune lilacs immediately after they bloom. If you wait until later in the season, you will be cutting off next year’s blooms.

3. Continue to sow lettuce, spinach and radish seeds every 10 days or so for fresh spring salads in your round foot garden. I would call it my pot garden but that leads you to believe I am growing something completely different.

4. If you like to grow peas, this is the last month to plant sugar snap peas and snow peas. They prefer cooler weather conditions.

5. As daffodils and tulips continue to grow and bloom, sprinkle compost around them to keep the bulbs well fed. As the flowers fade, remove them by snipping off the flower heads. Leave the greenery until it turns yellow; the green leaves help the bulbs store energy for next season’s blooms.

6. If you have a garden area, this is a good time to add cardboard to kill off any growth prior to summer planting. Don’t till it, the prevailing thought now is that tilling damages the soil ecosystem. Kill the plants you don’t want, make holes to plant the ones you do, or make trenches to plant seeds and cover.

7. Start your summer plants inside; tomatoes, peppers, watermelons, squash, pumpkins, cucumbers, zucchini.

8. Don’t forget companion plants to reduce crop damage; basil is a good bug deterrent for a lot of plants.

9. Plant for pollinators zinnias, native plants such as New England Asters, sunflowers, yarrow and purple coneflowers.

10. Enjoy the beauty of Missouri’s native tree, dogwoods. They usually bloom this month.

Charlotte Ekker Wiggins is a beekeeper, gardener and sometimes cook. Published by El Dorado Springs Sun once in print and online with author’s permission. Copyright 2017, all rights reserved. This column may not be reprinted, republished or otherwise distributed without author’s permission. Contact Charlotte at gardeningcharlotte at gmail dot com.

 PRETTY AND TASTY – Missouri’s native redbud tree typically blooms during April and turns Missouri hillsides a hazy pink. The redbud flowers are edible.

APRIL SHOWERS BRING … – Daffodils bloom through April showers and bring a touch of spring to Missouri gardens. (Photos by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins).