April Gardening Tips

The weather is great and everyone is out doing what they can to make their gardens the envy of the neighborhood. Now that we are moving into the prime gardening period in Central Texas, here's a few tips for the month of April:

Spread plenty of compost over your flower beds and around your plants followed by a one-inch layer of mulch to preserve moisture. Cover drip irrigation tape and hoses with mulch.

Plant caladiums and all perennials including fall bloomers, such as copper canyon daisy now.

When first squash blossoms appear, treat the base of the plant with sevin dust or pyrethrum powder to discourage squash vine borers. Do not allow any insecticide to get on the blossoms where bees may have contact with the poison. Repeat once a week. Follow directions carefully.

Use insecticidal soap or neem oil to kill aphids on vegetable and flowering plants.

Contact your county extension agent for a spraying schedule and list of approved pesticides for fruit and nut trees. Do not spray pesticides while bees are working around blossoms. See bottom of page for links to your county extension office.

Continue to fertilize tomatoes during fruit production. Tomatoes need nitrogen during the fruiting phase. Although it's not 100% organic, my favorite tomato fertilizer is Tomato-Tone by Espoma. Use all fertilizers as directed on the label. Too much can do more harm than good.

Don't mow down any wildflowers that finished blooming until the seed heads are fully developed and dried out. This ensures a good crop for next year.

Don't forget to celebrate Earth Day on April 22! Happy Gardening!

More gardening info and plant, seed, and book sources at: http://www.biglump.com