We are all staying at home... it's the perfect time to turn our attention to the yard! Here are your April gardening tips from The English Lady!
This morning on the West side of the house, the Iris is showing foliage and buds on the Flowering Almond will soon bloom. In the herb garden on the south side I made a note on my pad that the two dwarf white butterfly bushes, the lavender and the ten- foot tall purple butterfly bush all need pruning this week. Prune the butterfly bushes to within one foot from the ground also the blue mist shrub. Prune lavender and all dead perennial stalks to six inches. I leave perennials up through winter which are seed heads for birds. Prune ornamental grasses to one foot.
DIVIDE PERENNIALS in late April, like daylilies, hostas and iris that have not been blooming well – usually after three to four years in the ground. Lift, pull or cut apart – discard all old and dead portions and replant no deeper that they were in the ground originally with composted manure around the plant.
Near the barn wall the buds on my Carlesii viburnum will open in another few weeks and their perfume will fill the air. The common name for this lovely shrub is Korean spicebush which gets to be five feet tall, with pink buds that open to white bloom and the perfume is wonderful. I suggest you plant it near a door or a patio so that it can be fully enjoyed.
I consider April a month of awakening activity, when gardeners experience new energy and enthusiasm, just itching to get their hands in the soil. Off my patio near the stream I am just beginning to see the faint flush of red on the maples.
WEEDS are beginning to appear. Get busy and pull them up by hand before they get ahead of you. They are easy to pull when young – try not to break them, as any bit of weed will multiply into hundreds of others.
Do not pull ‘good’ weeds and here is what I mean by some good weeds by some plants. Nettles are food for butterflies.Clover takes nitrogen from the air and fixes it in the soil.Oil from jewelweed soothes poison ivy rash. Comfrey which many believe is a weed but it is not, it is both ornamental and useful. Comfrey is 3ft tall with large leaves and small blue flowers. For centuries comfrey has been cultivated as a medicinal plant whose leaves soothes the rash from poison ivy when added to bath water or used as a tea. Young Dandelion foliage is full of vitamins and tasty in salads. Soon they will appear in my field on the west side of the house and my mouth is watering in anticipation. My grandmother and I made Dandelion wine together when I was a child. Lichen –which is pale green plant on tree trunks and is very beneficial to clean the air .When it rains – this sponge like plant absorbs water and when rain stops slowly release water into the environment and keeps humidity levels in the woods and forests balanced. Insects like spiders, mites, ticks and others live there in winter and birds find the insects – which provides 65% of their winter diet.
When problem weeds have been pulled, apply an organic corn gluten product by Bradfield Organics. This product is an organic fertilizer and weed pre-emergent. Use it on lawns and gardens. Used as a fertilizer - It is high in nitrogen which is released slowly over 3 to 4 months. On weeds it prevents the growth of a seed’s tiny feeder roots. Since most weeds germinate by seeds the corn gluten will kill the seeds before they sprout. However, do not use this product on newly seeded lawns, as it will prevent the new seeds from germinating.
However this Bradfield organics product is excellent on an established lawn as it will control crabgrass, creeping bent grass, smartweed, dandelions, purslane, lambs quarter and many others. This product is easy to apply by hand or spreader and it will not burn plants and will be effective for about five to six weeks. Also April is a good time to apply an organic grub control – less grubs mean less moles to create trouble in the garden.
ROSES I checked my David Austin roses today and tomorrow will prune any stems that were broken in the winter. At the end of April I will prune my roses. Prune Hybrid tea, grandiflora and floribunda roses vigorously. Prune roses by two to three feet depending on the type of rose and those that have been in the ground for more than a year.Make the pruning cut at an angle ¼” above an outward facing bud and remove any weak or crossing canes.
CLIMBING roses should be pruned as soon as flowering is over then cut main shoots back by 1/3 and remove any suckers at the base. I shall remove the old mulch from around the base and add composted manure and mulch at the end of May, about 5 inches from the base of the rose, which helps retain water, keeps roots cool, and keeps down weeds.
I have a preference for DAVID AUSTIN ROSES which I find to be trouble free, repeat bloomers, fragrant with petals in beautiful colors. Plant bare root roses at the end of April and container roses in mid May. Some suggestions of David Austin roses – Evelyn, Gertrude Jekyll, William Shakespeare, Heritage, Fair BiancaEvelyn is apricotGertrude Jekyll – pinkWilliam Shakespeare – dark pink – most wonderful fragranceHeritage – pale pinkFair Bianca – white When planting roses the planting depth should be only as deep as they come in their container Before adding the rose, fill the hole about half full of soil then add water and wait a few minutes to ensure the roses have good drainage. As I mentioned before, at the end of May or early June when buds appear add composted manure and the brown fine bark mulch. Also add Epsom salts, which is not a salt but hydrated magnesium sulphate necessary for healthy plant growth. SPRING EVERGREEN CARE - Be very careful when clearing winter debris from around rhododendrons, mountain laurel and azaleas, these evergreens are shallow rooted exposing roots to the air can damage them.
If the winter has eroded soil around any roots, cover the evergreen roots and if they have heaved from the ground, resettle them and add A layer of mulch, composted manure and peat moss, which will nourish the plant, help retain moisture and keep the roots cool in summer.
April is the month to plant and transplant Evergreens and as with any plant do not plant them any deeper than they are in their container or burlap and for transplants no deeper than they were in their original hole. Give the roots of the evergreens a work -out before planting to release them and open them up so the roots will reach into the surrounding soil for nutrients and water.
GLADIOLI - At the end of the month plant Gladioli corms at two-week intervals. Following this method, you will get a succession of bloom.Plant the Gladioli corms eight inches below the soil surface with composted manure spread around the area where the corms have been planted. The extra planting depth for the gladioli helps prevent the heavy blooms of the gladioli from toppling over.
RED LILY BEETLE will soon be rearing its ugly head soon; the solution to this problem is organic Neem oil. Spray as a preventive as soon as the daylily foliage is about six inches tall.
Soil solarization – is an effective way to control many soil- borne problems, especially TOMATO BLIGHT that results in fruit rot. This blight has been epidemic in New England for the last few years.
This month cover the soil where you will be planting your tomatoes with 4 mil thick clear plastic. Dig a trench several inches deep around the bed, and spread the thin, clear plastic film over the bed. Press the plastic into close contact with the soil and seal the edges by filling the trench with soil that was removed. Leave the plastic in place for two months, during this time the warmer temperature generated by the sun on the plastic will kill pests, nematodes, weed seeds and many disease organisms like the tomato blight in the top six to nine inches of the soil.
This process has proved invaluable for gardeners and farmers for years and the beneficial effects last through several seasons.
Discard all poisonous garden chemicals, pesticides and herbicides that you may have used in the past. They have the same effect as second hand smoke on you, your children and pets. Roundup is the most dangerous of these products and the World Health Organization has proved that the glyphosate in Roundup causes cancer. Manure all the borders with composted manure, which can be purchased in bags from the garden center, or aged manure from the bottom of the pile at a farm.
In the vegetable garden, mulch with composted manure. Composted manure does not ‘cap’, which means that it does not form a crust like other mulches, consequently air and water can get through to the roots of the plants where it is needed.
The soil is the most important component of the growing business to replenish and rebuild its structure add composted manure and compost if you have a compost pile. GROW YOUR SOIL AND IT WILL GROW YOUR PLANTS. The ratio is one part compost to three parts manure. Apply composted manure, at least 3 to 4 inches on the soil in May, July and October to continue to ensure a rich growing environment.
Good soil structure helps with drainage issues, retains moisture, keeps down weeds and prevents compaction, particularly important with clay soil. Compost and composted manure encourage the millions of soil animals beneath the surface to produce nutrients for the plants. In a light sandy soil, humus in the form of compost and manure binds the sand particles together and in heavy soil such as clay the more compost and manure helps to break up the clumps.
My farmhouse on the shore eighteen years ago, the soil in my garden was, sandy - good for drainage but without nutrients. I began adding four to five inches of manure to all planted borders in May, July and October – year after year when I put a spade in the ground to check the color of the soil in spring its ‘black gold’. My radio listeners always said ‘Maureen you are right – manure is the answer to our gardens.
When working with composted manure in the garden, gloves should be worn as bacteria is present in this animal bi-product.
When Daffodil foliage is about six inches tall add composted manure around the plants and again when the foliage has gone yellow.
The Daffodils are coming into bloom and when the bloom has past do not cut the leaves of any of your spring flowering bulbs, the leaves send down energy into the bulbs to store for next season’s nutrition. April is the time to tackle a new lawn or patch seed, use only good quality seed and organic fertilizers .
The soil is still damp and wet and we can still get a late frost, I can hear you groan, me too! Keep an eye on the weather forecast.
IN CONCLUSION - Do not panic if you are not able to get the April tasks done until May, your garden will wait for you.
Enjoy the pleasure of being outdoors now, inhaling the warm fragrance of awakening soil and experience the connection with growing things. Do not overdo it; warm up the body before any garden labor and stay well hydrated with lots of water.
We are inexorably entwined with the earth and know that even the smallest gesture of a garden has positive rewards and the effects not only on you but our planet. I’ll see you in your garden in May.