Gardening This Weekend: April 13, 2023
It looks like we might get a break from those Thursday fronts of the past several weeks. For many of us, the rain they brought with them put us behind in our springtime activities. To help you catch up, here are this weekend’s most critical tasks.
PLANT
• Warm-season annual color.
• Perennials while nurseries still have their best selections.
• Trees and shrubs, again while nurseries have their widest assortments.
• Finish planting bush green beans, corn, cucumbers, squash, peppers, tomatoes (small and mid-sized only).
• New sod as needed to cover bare ground. Be sure that excessive shade isn’t the reason for the lack of turf. Adding sod won’t cure that problem. You may need to shift to a shade-tolerant groundcover.
PRUNE
• Watch trees for dead or damaged branches that could crack or break in strong spring winds. There still is damage showing up two years after the record cold of February 2021. Have a certified arborist do the pruning if there is any chance of someone being hurt if you do it yourself.
• Mow lawn regularly and at recommended height to eliminate most weeds and get turf off to a good start.
• Spring-blooming shrubs and vines immediately now that they’ve finished flowering to restore their natural forms.
• Houseplants you’re bringing back onto the patio to restore good shape. Repot as needed.
FERTILIZE
• New flower and vegetable transplants, also patio pots and hanging baskets with water-soluble, high-nitrogen fertilizer each time you water them.
• All landscape plants with all-nitrogen food containing as much as half that nitrogen in slow-release form.
• Turfgrass with that same all-nitrogen lawn food.
• Even flowers, vegetables with the same all-N fertilizer unless a soil test suggests otherwise.
ON THE LOOKOUT
• Broadleafed weeds in lawns and vacant areas can be controlled with broadleafed weedkillers containing 2,4-D. Read and follow label directions carefully for best results.
• Snails, slugs and pillbugs devouring foliage, stems of tender new growth. Use Sevin dust or baits or sink pan of beer flush with soil surface to lure the pests to its fermenting smell. They will fall in and drown.
• Aphids clustering on tender new growth of many types of plants. They are pear-shaped and pinhead-sized, coming in a variety of colors. You can probably wash them off with a hard stream of water. Organic and inorganic insecticides also control them effectively.