April Gardening

• Thin the fruit on your peaches (4-6" apart) to encourage larger fruit. Thin apples and pears to one per cluster.
• Plant the following veggies now: Lima Beans, Snap Beans, Beets, Black Eyed Peas, Sweet Corn, Cantaloupe, Chard, Cucumber, Eggplant, Okra, Pepper Plants, Radishes, New Zealand Spinach, Summer Squash, Tomato Plants, Watermelon. Select the best varieties for our area!
• Spray your roses with neem oil to prevent black spot and powdery mildew.
• Blast the aphids away with a heavy water spray! Keep the slugs clear with a jar lid of beer! (bury it to ground level and the slugs and snails will just jump in - too easy!)
• Release beneficial insects - like ladybugs, green lacewings and other garden helpers! Earthworms, too!
• Before you plant your seed, try soaking them in a solution of Maxicrop Seaweed - they will sprout much faster!
• Check your sprinkler system now before it gets hot!
• Remove the excess mulch from your tropicals (gingers, jasmines, Rangoon creeper etc.) and feed them with Bioform!
• Remove old blackberry canes and pinch back new canes to encourage branching. Water and fertilize throughout the summer.
• Seed Bermuda grass and water several times each day very lightly to keep the seed moist until established.
• Prune spring-flowering shrubs after blooming like flowering quince, azaleas, Indian Hawthorne, etc. Go ahead and fertilize them at the same time.
• Plant your caladiums bulbs toward the end of the month.
• Continue to plant your beds with annuals, copper plants, daylilies, perennials, and heat tolerant tropicals like mandevilla, bougainvillea, hibiscus and crossandra to get them established before summer heat arrives.
• Divide and transplant late summer and fall-flowering bulbs.
• Fertilize tomatoes and pepper plants now with tomatoes and pepper food. Feed crape myrtles beneath the branch spread with a slow release, organic fertilizer. Fertilize house plants.
• Mulch trees, shrubs, veggie and flower beds with 2-4 inches of mulch. Spread coffee grounds around azaleas and other acid loving plants.
• Caterpillars seem to be everywhere, dangling from trees on silken strands and chewing on rose buds and garden veggies. If there are only a few, chill, but if you have too many, it may warrant spraying. Products containing B.t. are among the least toxic options. Don't forget that some caterpillars are actually butterfly larvae so try not to spray them!