Mid-April Garden Chores
By Jos Van Hage
Saturday, April 19, 2008 03:45 AM
This is the time to puttogether your "To Do" list for the garden:
- Unwrap any of the trees that you had protected with burlap over the winter. The warming temperatures and moist air could cause mildew in the tree. Also untie any cedars that you would have wrapped to protect them from snow damage.
- Remove any extra mulch that you would have placed on your perennials last fall, and also clean them up, removing any old foliage, stems and debris. If you want to divide or move perennials you can do this as soon as you can get the shovel in the ground.
- Strawberry plants can be gently raked with a bamboo rake, removing any of the old foliage
- When lawns are dry enough to walk on they can be raked, aerated, and thatched.
- This is also a good time to apply lime to your soil if it needs it. Do a simple pH test first before you apply.
- It is still a little too early to apply fertilizer. You need to wait until plants are growing before fertilizing so that they are able to take it in. To fertilize now, would be a waste as the fertilizer would break down before it can do any good.
- Now is the time to prune many of the deciduous trees and shrubs with the exception of Birch, Maple and Walnut trees and the early blooming shrubs.
- Apply “lime sulfur and dormant oil” to all deciduous trees and shrubs before they break into leaf. This is important as it kills many of the over wintering insects and disease that could harm the plants health later in the summer.
- Although the ground is wet in most places, it may not be moist under the overhangs of buildings or near the building foundations. If there are any plants including bulbs planted in these areas you may need to water them if the soil is dry.
- Generally this is the time of year to clean up. If you have sand or gravel on the lawn from over winter snow removal this should be raked off. In the case of using salt that may have gotten into the lawn or flowerbeds you should leach out the soil with clear water so that it does not later burn the plants roots.
- In the vegetable garden if the soil is dry, you can start to till or dig it up. Remove any of last year’s debris and any weeds that may already be coming up. It is still too early to plant seeds outside but you could start some of your vegetable seeds inside and then later transplant them out in mid May so that you get a head start on the season.
-Jos
Jos Van Hage owns two Art Knapp Garden centres in the Prince george area
- Highway16 West at Kimball Road
- Highway 97 north at Northwood Pulpmill Road
Previous Story - Next Story
Email
Print
Facebook
Twitter
Digg
Del.icio.usReturn to Home
