April Garden To Do

• Finish up any tasks not completed last month
• Divide summer and fall blooming perennials
• Remove mulch from beds and shrubs.  Apply mulch where needed
• Add amendments and fertilizer as needed
• For succession plans, continue sowing seeds indoors or in cold frame
• Harden off and transplant cool season vegetables and flowers
• Plant and transplant trees, shrubs, ground covers and perennials
• Start sweet potatoes for slips
• Pot summer bulbs for transplanting in May
• Dig and divide Sprig bulbs if necessary as foliage dies back
• Sow seeds of those plants needing four weeks to transplant size

Intensive Planting:   Rather than sow seed as directed on the seed packet, seeds are sown according to their ultimate spacing.  If the packet says thin seedlings to stand six inches apart, sow the seeds six inches apart in all directions.  This eliminates thinning and will inhibit weed growth due to the close spacing.

Interplanting:  This is the practice of growing two crops in the space of one.  Select a main crop, such as tomatoes.  Plant them the proper distance apart, then plant a quick growing crop, such as leaf lettuce or radishes in the surrounding space.  The lettuce or radishes will be harvested before the tomatoes need the space.

Companion planting:  this is the practice of growing two or more mutually beneficial plants in close proximity.  For example, grow corn and pole beans in the same area.  The corn benefits from the nitrogen fixing aspects of the beans and the corn provides a pole for the beans to climb on.  Another reason for companion plants is to protect crops from insects.  Many insects find the scent of marigolds offensive, so planting marigolds here and there throughout the garden will offer some protection from insect attacks.