April Garden Tips

What to do in your garden this month:

The beds are ready, the soil has been amended, the tools are cleaned and organized, the irrigation system has all been given the “once-over” for leaks or to see if any parts need replacing. Seeds have been started indoors for my favorite vegetables and flowers. The garlic that I planted a few months back is really starting to take off. I started to do some serious pruning of my citrus trees now that the bulk of my citrus fruit has been harvested. I’ll finish off my citrus pruning and feed with a good citrus fertilizer. I still need to exercise some caution and some restraint. For this is the time of year where you see flower and veggie starts everywhere at your farmers markets, local grocery and local nurseries and I am usually overcome by temptation to buy, buy, buy! But beware, there is still a risk of the dreaded frost that lingers for just a few more weeks.

Fortunately or unfortunately for me, my husband has instituted a “same day planting” rule in our house that I must abide by. You buy it, you plant it… 24 hours or into the compost heap it goes. (Can you imagine??? What a dreadful thought and I think he might actually be serious!)

What to plant?

In April, beets, carrots, chard, kale, lettuce, potatoes, celery and turnips can all be directly sown into your garden.

You can start seeds indoors for lettuce, chard, cucumbers, melons, zucchini, summer squash, pumpkins.

This month you can take your lettuce, leeks, onions, brassicas, chard and kale that you started last month outdoors to transplant.

Brighten up your yard and home by directly sowing cold sensitive flowers such as Morning Glory, Nasturtiums, Alyssum, etc. You can also directly sow dill and cilantro. Indoors, you can start basil and parsley from seed.

Final thoughts…

So last month, I nagged you about the rain bringing weeds! Unfortunately as the weather warms, those weeds will go from pesky, little, ugly green things to pesky, large, still ugly green things but soon they will have flowers and they’ll be ready to spread their seed in the millions all over your garden area. The larger your weeds get, the more inhabitants they will attract such as damaging insects and critters like voles. Prevention is still the best measure, so be sure to stretch your limbs in the garden and continue to take a few minutes each morning or evening to pull up a few new weeds. It may look daunting but the more you pull early, the easier it will be on you in the long run.

For year round tips on what to plant, click Greater Hopland Planting Guide (Peter Huff and Kate Frey's Monthly Planting Calendar for Inland Mendocino, also found at the "How to - Grow Food" page on The Garden's Project Website).

As always if you have a question about what to do in your garden, there is a tremendous body of knowledge about gardening in California, provided by University of California Cooperative Extension. This site, geared toward the home gardener can be found at http://cagardenweb.ucdavis.edu/.

Happy Mendo Gardening!!