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Gardening Jobs for April

Start coleus cuttings now to plant outdoors in the garden by early June. These colorful plants are enjoying a revival as fine accents to annual and perennial borders.

Rake or remove mulches from all flower beds.

Plant rosebushes. They often do best if planted before growth starts and buds swell. And if you want to increase their fragrance, surround them with parsley.

Scatter annual poppy seeds in your flower garden and let them grow where they will. They don't like to be transplanted.

Broadcast lime, wood ashes, or a mixture of the two over alkaline-loving perennials such as delphiniums and dianthus. Bring color outdoors to patios, porches, and even the garden with pansy plants, which don't mind cold nights. To encourage constant flowering, routinely remove spent blossoms and keep them from getting bone-dry.

Sow sweet peas as soon as the soil can be worked. Nick the seeds with a nail file and plant them five inches deep, but cover them with only about three inches of soil. Hoe more soil up around them as they grow.

Plant lilies-of-the-valley, violets, and garden lilies. Divide summer- and fall-blooming perennials, including delphiniums, irises, chrysanthemums, daisies, and phlox.

Although we think of this as a rainy month, it can fool us. Keep transplanted flowers well watered during dry spells.

When danger of frost has passed, uncover strawberry beds and keep them well watered.

Plant blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, and fruit trees.

Start seeds indoors for heat-loving crops such as eggplant, tomatoes, and squash.

To determine whether your garden soil is ready for seeds, grab a good handful of it. If you can form it into a ball, the soil is too wet. If it crumbles through your fingers and reminds you of chocolate cake, it's ready for planting.

If the soil is ready, give it a good stirring and let it sit for several days. Then top-dress it with compost or well-rotted manure and plant beets, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, radishes, parsnips, lettuce, spinach, Swiss chard, and turnips.

If you got your peas in last month, be sure to give them a good fence for support, made of chicken wire, twine, or stubby branches that are at least three feet tall. Otherwise, plant them this month as soon as you can.

Scatter spinach or lettuce seeds around emerging bulb foliage to make wise use of your garden space, and have a leafy green crop at the ready to cover the bare spots left by deadheaded spring flowers.

Prune forsythias as soon as the flowers fade. Cut the oldest stems to within a foot of the ground, but be sure to let the plant keep its arching form; don't turn it into a gumdrop or cannonball.

Feed your trees. As soon as the frost goes out of the ground, give them a well-balanced slow-release fertilizer. Scatter about six good handfuls per each 10x10-foot area. Store leftover fertilizer in a small plastic trash can or a covered plastic container, and label it.

Rake your lawn to remove all leaves, dead grass, and small twigs. Sow seed for a new lawn, or fill in bare patches by first covering the area with compost or other organic matter. Roll the lawn if the ground isn't soggy.

If you receive mail-order nursery plants before your soil is dry enough for planting, make a trench and heel them into the ground in a protected area.

Don't fertilize strawberries in the spring. This is when the leaves are developing, and you'll get lush growth and meager, soft berries. Wait until blossoms appear and use a light hand.

Don't set tomato plants out in the garden too soon. They hate cold soil and cold nights (under 55 degrees F).

Don't forget to vent your cold frame. April days may feel chilly, but the temperature under the glass can get over 100 degrees F on a sunny day. Salad greens are unhappy over 65 degrees F, and most other plants will perish over 85 degrees F.

Apply organic matter, compost, and manure to soil.

Seed cool-season vegetables outside, such as beets, peas, lettuce, collards, turnips, carrots, broccoli, Brussels sprout, Swiss Chart, kale, kohlrabi, onions, parsley, parsnips, radishes, and spinach. (See our Best Dates to Plant chart on Almanac.com/Gardening.)

Cover tender plants if late frost is in the forecast.

Start tomato seeds indoors.

Plant broccoli plants and early cabbage outdoors.

Sow your cool-season vegetables in succession so you can have a steady harvest throughout the growing season.

Plants started indoors should be hardened off outdoors in cold frames.

Sow seeds of hardy annual flowers (larkspur, California poppy, sweet pea).

Plant pansies.

Begin fertilizing houseplants again.

Clean up your garden. Rake up any leaves, remove winter mulch, remove any dead plants, and mix in compost in your garden soil.

Fertilize the lawn.

Fertilize roses, raspberries, and woody plants.

Plant potatoes.

Mow your groundcovers to remove any winter damage. Fertilize and water the groundcovers to encourage growth.

Cut back flower stalks on your spring-flowering bulbs as the flowers begin to fade.

Finish pruning fruit trees, roses, raspberries, grapevines.

Start looking for tent caterpillar nests in fruit trees and remove.

Plant new trees for Earth Day.

Apply horticultural oil to trees and shrubs that had insect issues last year.

Prune spring-blooming shrubs, such as forsythia, after they have finished flowering.

Divide perennials that are overcrowded.

Thin out crowded seedlings of cool-season vegetables, such as beets, carrots, and lettuce.

Begin setting out transplants of tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants.

Remove any winter-damaged branches or plants that have not begun to grow yet. You can prune spring-flowering plants when they finish blooming.

Transplant citrus trees, ideally two to five-year-old trees.

Thin fruit to 6-inch spacing for better fruit size. Also, remember to provide adequate soil moisture for your fruit trees during April and May for good fruit size.

Continue fertilizing established roses.

Warm-season lawns can be established in late April from sprigs, plugs, or sod. Start mowing established lawns.

Begin fertilizing Bermuda and warm-season grasses this month.

Annual flowers can be seeded now. You can sow the seeds directly in the flower beds, but remember to keep the soil moist until the seeds germinate.

Thin out flower seedlings so that the plants have enough space to grow. You can transplant the extra seedlings to another area.

Prune winter damage on your herb plants. Look for new growth developing on the lower part of the herbs, and cut the plant back by 1/3-1/2 to the healthy new shoots.

Remember to water your plants more frequently as the weather warms up and the days lengthen.

Continue planting vegetables, such as beans, carrots, cucumbers, melons, peppers, squashes, and sunflowers.

Plant okra towards the end of the month, as it does better with warmer soil.

Plant vegetables in successive plantings so that you can have a continuous harvest throughout the growing season.

Remember to thin out your vegetable plants so that they have enough room to grow. If they are too crowded, the plants will become weak.

Beware of insects and other pests in your garden. Keep an eye on your garden for aphids, spider mites, etc., and take action when necessary to eliminate the pests.