What to Do This Week in the Garden
-
- April
- 25
Just in time for weekend chores, here’s the latest Do It Now column from Susan Henry:
Perennials
When tulips and daffodils fade, snap off the tops to prevent seed pod formation. Leave the foliage until it is yellow or brown. Next year’s bulb and flower development depend on food produced by the leaves. Do not braid or wrap the leaves to make them look neat. Continue dividing overgrown plants.
Flowers
Get out planters and other containers, wash thoroughly and fill with fresh potting soil for annual displays. Pansies do well in the cool weather.
Vegetables and fruits: Start seeds of melons, pumpkins and summer squash in peat pots to go directly into hills in late May after hardening off. Plant sales are ubiquitous during the first two weeks of May. Even if tender plants need protection until later in the month, it is a good time to buy choice and reasonable offerings. Continue planting onions, carrots, beets, broccoli, potatoes and lettuce in the garden.
Trees and shrubs
After bloom, prune forsythia by two-thirds for shapely natural looking growth. Continue planting new trees and shrubs. When choosing conifers for the landscape consider the full-grown size, the shape of the mature tree, texture and color of the needles. A mixed conifer planting can be stunning.
Lawns
Control crabgrass with pre-emergent herbicides. Set the mower high for the first mowings and save the grass clippings for the compost or just leave them on the lawn. Two blue/purple weeds are blooming and spreading in the lawn now: veronica officianalis (common speedwell) and nepeta hederacea (ground ivy). They are often confused and require different treatments for eradication.
Houseplants
Repot house ferns that are making new growth now with rich compost.
General
Earth Day was this week. Think about earth-friendly practices for your garden and lawn: reduce pesticide and herbicide use, save water and improve the soil with compost.
Susan Henry, master gardener
This entry was posted
on Friday, April 25th, 2008 at 5:48 am by Bill Cary.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Share and Enjoy: 
| 
Print
| 
Email
Bill Cary grew up in Louisville, Ky. His gardening was limited to growing parsley and impatiens on the windowsill of Manhattan walkups until the mid-1990s when he bought a rundown old chicken farm on 8 acres in the Hudson Valley. Now he spends his weekends chasing deer, hacking away at invasive shrubs and vines and wondering why he doesn`t have more meadow and less lawn.
