April is Green Thumb Time

Our wonderful winter wonderland in early 2010 has given us a great foundation for beautiful lawns and bountiful gardens this year.  Take advantage of April's early warm weather to get your hands dirty and prep your outdoor landscape for summer.

This is a great checklist for some weekend green thumb activity.

1. Cut remainder of perennials back except those with winter interest such as sedums,grasses,and black-eyed susans. Wait til the spring bulbs reappear to cut these back.
2. Finish cleaning out perennials and beds Cut back liriope and ornamental grassesbefore new growth begins. Remove all dead or dying foliage and add to compost.
3. Add a little granular fertilizer to your compost and turn as often as possible -once a week to once a month.
4. Pull any early green weeds before they set seed.
5. Start edging beds with a flat edging spade. Throw soil in bed, and remove grass to add to compost. It is a good time to top-dress beds with compost if it has not been added in a few years.
6. Plant those pots still sitting above ground or heal them in with soils or mulch.
7. It is time to fertilize with an organic greensand or 5-10-5. As the weather allows, use a foliar spray, fish emulsion or a sea weed concentrated foliar spray to cut down on fertilizer runoff and become organically “Green”. Or apply with thebucket method. Continue to water newly planted material as needed, if March is dry.
8. After the 25th of March, fertilize roses with compost tea or organic fertilizer. Prune back stems, except for ramblers,to about 15”.
9. Fertilize and add Bone meal can still be added to bulbs.
10. For existing beds, check mulch depth and if it exceeds two inches, turn or rake offexcess mulch and re-apply to a maximum of 1” -2” of shredded hardwood or compost.
11. Rake last of leaves off grass areas and beds and add to compost.
12. Do a soil test for PH and add lime as needed for lawn areas. Lime takes 6 months to activate in the soil, take advantage of the down time and winter precipitation.
13. You can procure a PH test at your local home store.
14. Turn compost. Rake up any leftover leaves and debris from beds. Prune down winter grasses and chop to add to compost.
15. Now is the time to start dividing your perennials if you want to create more plants to fill out beds or create new planting beds. Perennials do not have to be divided unless you want to create more plants or your plants have become weak and need to be rejuvenated.
16. Plant early vegetables such as onion sets, rhubarb, asparagus, lettuce, spinach, kaleand potatoes.
17.  Plant pansies and other cool season annuals, such as violas and primroses, for earlyspring color in the landscape.
18. Start caladiums in pots indoors for deck and patio color after danger of frost is over.
19. It’s time to start seeds indoors for summer annuals and vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers, impatiens, zinnias, etc.
20. Check plants such as broadleaf evergreens, fruit trees and euonymus for insect scale.Treat if needed with a natural dormant oil spray.
21. Prune winter grazed plants, fertilize and spray with repellant. Spray deer delectable with Liquid Fence or Plant Skydd. Netting provides a back-up solution.

Happy Spring and we are available to answer your landscaping questions anytime!