Monthly Gardener Calendar

Suggestions and ideas to help you enjoy gardening! 🌹

April
Planting

• Set out most shrubs and trees.
• Divide violets, Shasta daisies, liriope, ajuga, mums, and other perennials.
• Plant okra, melons, peas, corn, beans, eggplant, cucumbers, and tomatoes.
• Set out summer annuals if danger of frost has past: ageratum, alyssum, begonias, geraniums, dianthus, celosia, marigolds, moss roses, petunias, impatiens, coleus.
• Plant summer/fall blooming bulbs: callas, cannas, dahlias, gladiolus, and gloriosa lilies.

Fertilizing

• Fertilize vegetables at planting according to recommendations.
• Fertilize shrubs if not done in March.

Pruning

• Prune azaleas and other spring-flowering shrubs after blooming.
• Disbud roses and peonies for specimen flowers.
• Lightly shape any formal hedges to remove new growth.

Miscellaneous

• Paint and repair garden furniture and other hardscapes (bird baths, bird houses, mailbox, deck).
• Buy azaleas in bloom to be sure of color.
• Always mulch new plantings to help ensure success.

Blooming

• Encore azaleas, blueberries, fringe trees, blackberries, pyracanthas, hawthorns, pittosporums, Japanese snowballs, pieris, cliftonia, ginkgos, deutzia, sweetshrubs, sweetspires, cotoneasters, oakleaf hydrangeas, roses, spiraea, rhododendrons, and ninebarks.
• Ajuga, alyssum, bleeding-hearts, candytufts, columbines, daffodils, daisies, daylilies, forget-me-nots, grass pinks, irises, Jacob’s ladder, lilies-of-the-valley, pansies, phlox, primroses, ranunculus, shooting stars, sweet Williams, thrifts, tulips, vincas, violets.

Fruiting

• Maples, leatherleaf mahonias, chinese hollies, nandinas, (blueberries in South Mississippi).