To-Do-List for April

Each month, we'll post a reminder list for your garden. Here's April's!
April:
  • Plant your choices of the following "warm-season" or "frost-tender" crops: beans (snap, pole and lima), cantaloupe, corn (sweet), cucumbers, eggplant, okra, field peas, peppers, squash, tomatoes and watermelon. Is your mouth watering yet? Mine is.
  • Make sure you plant the corn far away from the tomato plants as the hornworm for one loves the other.
  • Order your fruit bushes like raspberry and blackberry.
  • Order your miniature fruit trees like apple, pear and multi-fruit (grafted).
  • Plant tall-growing crops such as okra, pole beans and corn on the north side of other vegetables to avoid shading. Plant corn in at least four rows x 12 in each row for better pollination.
  • Make a second planting within two to three weeks of the first planting of snap beans, corn and squash. That way you won't be trying to harvest everything at the same time.
  • Within three to four weeks of the first planting, plant more lima beans and corn. Remember: for better pollination, plant at least two or more rows.
  • Be sure to plant enough vegetables for canning and freezing. But be sure to spread out the sowing so that you don't have to harvest all at once (like carrots).
  • Cultivate to control weeds and grass, to break crusty soil and to provide aeration.
  • Maintain mulch between rows. Get those weeds early.
  • For the crops planted earlier, side-dress as described above.
  • Plant tender herbs.
  • Remember: Do not work in your garden when the foliage is wet to avoid spreading diseases from one plant to another.

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