Gardening This Weekend: April 16, 2026
As we head out into our gardens and landscapes, here are the main things we’ll want to be accomplishing over the next several days.
PLANT
• Trees and shrubs. Nurseries still have great supplies. Choose plants that are perfectly suited to your spaces and needs. Buy from independent retail garden centers where Texas Certified Nursery Professionals can give you expert advice.
• Groundcover beds to give plants time to grow before hot summer weather arrives and slows them down.
• Pentas, zinnias, fanflowers, begonias, marigolds, coleus, impatiens and other colorful plants of the season. Wait to plant vinca, caladiums, lantanas, and other hot-weather types.
• New lawns or fill bare spots in existing lawns with sod or plugs. Wait a couple more weeks to seed bermudagrass to allow soils to warm a bit more (probably OK in South Texas).
Warning: Before you plant sod or plugs where grass has failed in prior years be sure there is ample sunlight. If trees have grown larger you may have excessive shade and you may need to switch over to a shade-tolerant groundcover.
Note: Beware of “miracle grasses” from seed, sod, or plugs that carry lavish promises to succeed where others have failed. There are new and old “rip-offs” along those lines every spring. The ad that stole my money 70 years ago is still running today!
PRUNE
• Mow your lawn at recommended height to encourage low and dense growth and discourage development of weeds.
• Spring-blooming shrubs and vines to reshape them following flowering. It’s best to avoid cubes and globes when pruning these plants. Opt for natural growth forms.
• Houseplants that have grown lanky indoors over the winter. Repot them as needed into the next larger pot size. If you’re putting them outdoors for summer rehab, avoid all direct sunlight. Put them beneath patio covers or large shade trees. Those spaces may seem dark to your eyes, but compared to where they’ve been indoors, they’ll be getting much more light.
FERTILIZE
• All landscape, garden plants, flowers and vegetables. Unless a reliable soil test tells you otherwise, stick with a high-nitrogen or, in most cases, an all-nitrogen fertilizer with 30 to 40 percent of the N in slow-release form.
• Patio pots and hanging baskets with water-soluble, high-nitrogen food with each watering. Timed-release fertilizer is also a good idea as a supplement.
ON THE LOOKOUT
• Aphids clustering on new growth. They will be small (BB-sized) and always pear-shaped). You can usually wash them off with a hard stream of water, but most general-purpose organic or inorganic insecticides will eliminate them.
• Cabbage loopers will chew holes in leaves of cabbage, broccoli and other Cole crops. Control with Bacillus thuringiensis organic insecticide.
• Snails, slugs, pillbugs feed on tender new growth. Apply Sevin dust or bait or sink a pie tin filled with beer. They are attracted to the smell of fermenting fluid.
• Broadleafed weeds (those that are not grasses such as clover, dandelions, oxalis, poison ivy, dichondra, dollar weed, and others) with a weedkiller spray containing 2,4-D. Read and follow label directions carefully to avoid damage to trees, shrubs, flowers, and vegetables nearby.