April is just around the corner and one of the most beautiful months in our gardens. It also happens to be when plant growth really starts taking off. Learn how I made the most of my April gardening work.
April showers bring more flowers right? Well, they can, as long as one is on top of the weeding and has actually planted flowers, otherwise it could just be one big mess. I love April because the weather is still relatively cool, days are longer, but it’s also before all the weeds and grass has taken off to a degree I can’t manage and completely overrun my gardening beds. This is a fabulous time to invest in your landscape and do some April gardening work!
So what’s the focus for April?
Priorities in the Garden in April
Keep an Eye on Plants as They Grow
There are many reasons to do this aside from oogling your success. I like to do a regular patrol of my yard and garden to see how things are changing on a day to day basis. It takes about 10-15 mins to do my walk about, and also gives me a few minutes to decompress before I tackle more than just my Outlook inbox.
Regularly surveying my garden allows me to monitor for signs of disease, nutrient deficiencies, pest infestations, and also gain a better understanding of what types of plants are in the garden. Some of the plants are only just now starting to come up robustly enough that I can actually attempt to identify them.
So what types of things am I looking for that could indicate an issue? Things like holes in foliage, or lack of foliage, and yellowing or complete death of a section of a plant can all be signs of issues that could be related to a pest or disease problem. The last couple years, I’ve also noticed more of this because of our extreme weather and have been strategizing ways to minimize or mitigate the damage moving forward. I’m setting aside time to prune out dead or diseased plant material and also thin where too much foliage is growing in and could create an air circulation problem.
I also keep an eye on the temperatures and how the weather conditions impact the growing season. This last year for example, we saw a lot cooler temps in late winter and experienced a hard freeze which can be really stressful to plants. Then on top of that, April was much colder than I anticipated it would be, and so plants that were ready and needed to be transplanted out could not be planted out without cover of some kind. It really threw off my whole planting plan for the season.
What am I seeing so far this year?
- This last April was much warmer and wetter than it had been the previous year, so landscape plants finally started coming to life and catching up from the cold of March.
- The trillium in the front yard is coming back in larger amounts which is exciting as it’s a native plant.
- The alternative lawn mix that I seeded last year and failed to grow seems to have returned and filled in quickly. There is a large variety of wildflowers now opening in the front yard.
- Most of the bulbs I planted in the fall have been coming up. I am not seeing many tulips though, which leads me to believe the squirrels and other rodents got to them over the winter.
- A few of my garlic plants have started to yellow prematurely. After seeing this I dug up one of the affected plants to see if there was any rot happening along the plant or if there were any insect marks on it. Since none of these issues were present, I checked for garlic or onion thrips, found none, and decided the issue was then likely due to a lack of available nitrogen in the soil
Start the many rounds of weeding
If you are start weeding now, you will greatly benefit your plants. Weeding will allow more light and air to be accessible to the plants. It also allows more nutrients to be available to the plants and not stolen by the weeds. Going after the weeds now will help to minimize future numbers by preventing weeds from reaching their seeding stage.
In the Pacific Northwest, we have several weed varieties that are most common to our area. Some examples of weeds we frequently are trying to manage are plants like dandelions (and their relatives), chickweed, dock, stinky Bob or Herb Robert, creeping buttercup, and of course, Himalayan Blackberry. I highly recommend that you look at the official list of plant species considered invasive in King County here along with the additional information on weeds and management of them they provide. I frequently refer to their site while working to control weeds in my own yard.
Washington state also has the Noxious Weed Control Board whose website has lots of photos and information for identifying if your plant is one of the listed weeds.
Last year my focus was on pulling nipple wort which had seeded itself everywhere the year before. These plants can regrow after they die back year after year, so you need to pull the entire plant and not just mow them or cut them back. There was also tons of bittercress or shotweed everywhere which would continuously pop up after I weeded. So far this April, I’ve focused the majority of my effort chasing these down as I see them pop up. Last year I thought I had done a good job of pulling enough of the bittercress before it went to seed that it wouldn’t be a big deal this spring, but I still had a fair amount come up. I am also seeming a lot more red dead nettle and dock growing in. There was significantly less nipple wort around the property so far since I removed so many plants last year.
Begin warm weather crops indoors
Beginning warm weather crops indoors allows me to get a head start on the growing season while the weather outside warms up enough that it can support these plants through maturity. I am starting cucumber, two types of musk melons, peppers, tomatoes, squash, pumpkin, lettuces, and herbs like basil and cilantro. I’m also starting some calendula and catnip to disperse through other parts of the garden. I started similar types of warm weather crops last year, filling my indoor growing racks.
This year I’m opting to start less veg at one time overall, so it’s just a lot less than I would have done the year before. I’m also specifically not trying to grow any zucchini this year as last year I just had way too many.
Water like crazy
I know I started this post with “April Shower” but that doesn’t mean we will necessarily get enough water just from rainfall. Young seedlings and transplants need to stay moist at all times. This is an especially vulnerable time where sudden changes in available water or temperature influxes could have a negative affect on their growth. Be sure to consider the watering that will be required as you plan your garden and schedule your April gardening work.
Most vegetables will require about 1-2” of water per week. That means that for every square foot of garden you have planted, you should provide 1-2” of water per week. If you convert one square foot by 1” of water to cubic inches and then to gallons of water, you would get .623-1.246 gallons of water per square foot of garden to meet the 1-2” of water requirements per week. That’s a surprising amount of water.
To make sure I was sufficiently watering between rain showers, I decided to calculate how much water my garden sprayer could provide. To do this, I was able to look up how many cubic inches of water was in a gallon, and by timing how long it took to fill my 2 gallon watering can with my spray wand and hose, I was able to determine how long it took to dispense a gallon of water on my garden bed.
When Using a Soaker Hose System
After hand watering the garden a couple times during early heat waves, I’ve realized hand watering was not going to be sustainable as the weather continued to get warmer. I researched a few different irrigation systems and decided to just keep it simple for now and set up a soaker hose system for my vegetable bed and major planting areas. This would allow me to connect a hose to each bed as they need a little extra moisture and let the water ooze into the ground slowly over time. Since soaker hose rates are hard to estimate and I don’t want to be just endlessly watering, I usually set a timer for the hose to be on for 30-60 mins per 50’ length of hose. Supposedly a 25 foot length is supposed to dispense 1 gallon of water per foot per hour…who knows. There are a number of kits available online, I just happened to go to Lowe’s and they had a number of them on sale in order to set up mine.
Other April Gardening Work Activities
Volunteering at Soos Creek Botanical Garden’s Plant Sale
What is Soos Creek Botanical Garden? Soos Creek Botanical Garden is a public garden located on land that was once part of the original farm settlement from the early 1900s. The gardens were created by the son of the second owners of the land and slowly grown to their full 23 acre site they cover now.
It is located in northeast Auburn, along 132nd Ave SE.
Last year, I am volunteered at my first plant clinic event with the King County Master Gardeners. During these events, myself and other Master Gardeners answer plant questions brought to us by the community. I enjoyed myself so much I signed up to do it again this year. If you are interested in coming by, I will be there on Saturday afternoon, though the sale runs the Friday before as well. Mark you calendars for April 26th and 27th if you want to pick up some plants and see an amazing garden.
During my time volunteering last year, I did take a break to wander the gardens and explore the different areas and pathways. I was extremely impressed by the amount of more formal or traditionally landscaped areas as they are quite expansive.
Many of the questions I have received during my volunteer time are based on the plants that were at the sale, but there were some that had nothing to do with any of those plants and were related to things I actually knew nothing about. Fortunately, other Master Gardeners that I was with knew the answers or had experience with similar issues and were able to help and I also got to learn something new at the same time. There is always plenty of support at the Master Gardener booths, we are all there to help everyone with their April gardening work questions.
Things to Plan for Next Month
- Pest Control
- Regular Slug Patrol
- Treating for Spider Mites and Grubs
- Treating for fungal diseases: Peach Leaf Curl & Black Spot
- Weeding around the erosion border
- Transplanting warm weather starts to larger/deeper containers
- Starting to harvest vegetables and garlic scapes
Bunny Update
For everyone who cares more about the bunny in my yard than my gardening, here’s a snap of the bunny one morning. Perhaps they are here to help me with all my April gardening work?
